Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:34:01.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortuary Ambiguity: The Ventureño Chumash Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jeanne E. Arnold  and
Terisa M. Green
Jeanne E. Arnold
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 341 Haines Hall-Box 951553, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1553 (jearnold@ucla.edu)
Terisa M. Green
Affiliation:
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1510
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The later evolution of Chumash polities in various subareas, including the Channel Islands, has attracted considerable scholarly attention. Most investigations on this topic during the past decade have focused on economic and political evolution through the use of residential data (e.g., Arnold 1992a; Arnold, ed. 2001; Kennett 1998). Earlier, and now again with the publication of Gamble et al. (2001), cemetery data are marshaled to examine cultural change. While we applaud this recent effort, the utility of the results is constrained ultimately by factors including the representativeness of the excavated Malibu cemetery data, Mission period disruption of Ventureño Chumash culture, and insufficient attention to the consequences of mourning ceremonies. The authors add to an understanding of later Ventureño mortuary behavior, but their discussion conflates social ranking and political evolution. The results do not, contrary to their expectations, alter extant interpretations of Island Chumash production, specialization, and trade, nor the timing of changes in islanders' labor organization and political integration. The ultimate logical implication of their discussion would be that a single Chumash chiefdom evolved before (within?) the Middle period and operated in lockstep throughout the region—joining the Ventureño and Island Chumash at the political hip, so to speak. We see no evidence to support any part of this proposition for either of the subregions in question.

Résumé

Résumé

La última evolución de las unidades políticas de los Chumash en varias subregiones, incluyendo la de las Channel Islands, ha atraído mucha atención en los círculos académicos. Durante la última década la mayoría de las investigaciones sobre este tema se han concentrado en las evoluciones políticas y económicas a través del uso de datos residenciales (e.g., Arnold 1992, Arnold, ed. 2001; Kennett 1998). Anteriormente y ahora nuevamente con la publicación de Gamble et al. (2001), se reúne la información obtenida en los cementerios para examinar cambios culturales. Mientras aplaudimos este reciente esfuerzo, la utilidad de estos resultados está últimamente constreñida por factores que incluyen la representatividad de los datos obtenidos en la excavación del cementerio de Malibú el período de la cultura Chumash Ventureña interrumpida por las Misiones, y la falta de suficiente atención a las ceremonias fúnebres y sus consecuencias. Los autores aportan al entendimiento de las costumbres fúnebres de los más recientes Ventureños, pero sus discusiones no distinguen evolución política de rangos sociales. Los resultados no alteran, a pesar de sus expectativas, interpretaciones existentes acerca de la producción, especialización, y comercio de los Chumash Isleños, como tampoco el tiempo en que ocurren los cambios en la organización del trabajo y la integración política de los isleños. La implicación lógica de esta discusión es que el cacicazgo se desarrolló antes (ó dentro) del período Medio y funcionó en forma muy precisa, como reloj, a través de toda la región—en otras palabras los Ventureños y los Chumash Isleños se desarrollaron al mismo tiempo. Nosotros no encontramos evidencia que soporte esta proposición en las subregiones en cuestión.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 760 - 771
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ames, K. M. 1995 Chiefly Power and Household Production on the Northwest Coast. In Foundations of Inequality, edited by Price, T. D. and Feinman, G. M., pp. 155-187. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1987 Craft Specialization in the Prehistoric Channel Islands, California. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Raven, P. H. 1992a Complex Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers of Prehistoric California: Chiefs, Specialists, and Maritime Adaptations of the Channel Islands. American Antiquity 57:60-84 Google Scholar
Raven, P. H. 1992b Cultural Disruption and the Political Economy in Channel Islands Prehistory. In Essays on the Prehistory of Maritime California, edited by Jones, T., pp. 129-144. Center for Archaeological Research, Publication No. 10, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1995 Transportation Innovation and Social Complexity among Maritime Hunter-Gatherer Societies. American Anthropologist 97:733-747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raven, P. H. 1996a The Archaeology of Complex Hunter-Gatherers. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 3:77-126.Google Scholar
Raven, P. H. 1996b Organizational Transformations: Power and Labor among Complex Hunter-Gatherers and Other Intermediate Societies. In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 59-73. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Raven, P. H. 2000a Revisiting Power, Labor Rights, and Kinship: Archaeology and Social Theory. In Social Theory in Archaeology, edited by Schiffer, M. B., pp. 14-30. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Raven, P. H. 2000b The Origins of Hierarchy and the Nature of Hierarchical Structures in Prehistoric California. In Hierarchies in Action: Cui Bono?, edited by Diehl, M. W., pp. 221-240. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 27. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 2001 Social Evolution and the Political Economy in the Northern Channel Islands. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 287-296. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. (editor) 2001 The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E., and Graesch, A. P. 2001 The Evolution of Specialized Shellworking among the Island Chumash. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 71-112. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E., and Munns, A. 1994 Independent or Attached Specialization: The Organization of Shell Bead Production in California. Journal of Field Archaeology 21:473-489.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. C, and Randsborg, K. 1981 Approaches to the Archaeology of Death. In The Archaeology of Death, edited by Chapman, R., Kinnes, I., and Randsborg, K., pp. 1-24. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. Google Scholar
Colson, E. 1953 The Makah Indians. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Costo, R., and Costo, J. H. 1987 The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide. The Indian Historian Press for the American Indian Historical Society, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Farnsworth, P. 1987 The Economics of Acculturation in the California Missions: A Historical and Archaeological Study of Mission Nuestra Senora da la Soledad. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Archaeology Program, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Feil, D. K. 1987 The Evolution of Highland Papua New Guinea Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, R. 1936 We, the Tikopia. Allen and Unwin, London. Google Scholar
Gamble, L. H., Walker, P. L., and Russell, G. S. 2001 An Integrative Approach to Mortuary Analysis: Social and Symbolic Dimensions of Chumash Burial Practice. American Antiquity 66:185-212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glassow, M. A. 1993 Changes in Subsistence on Marine Resources through 7,000 Years of Prehistory on Santa Cruz Island. In Archaeology on the Northern Channel Islands of California: Studies of Subsistence, Economics, and Social Organization, edited by Glassow, M. A., pp. 75-94. Coyote Press, Salinas, California.Google Scholar
Green, T. M. 1999 Spanish Missions and Native Religion: Contact, Conflict, and Convergence. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Archaeology Program, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Green, T. M. 2002 Artifact Rarity and Grave Values: Did the Chumash Symbolize Wealth in Mortuary Contexts? Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver.Google Scholar
Haley, B. D., and Wilcoxon, L. R. 1999 Point Conception and the Chumash Land of the Dead: Revisions from Harrington's Notes. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 21:213-235.Google Scholar
Harrington, J. P. 1929 Studying the Mission Indians of California and the Taos of New Mexico. Explorations and Fieldwork, pp. 169-178. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1994 Competition, Labor, and Complex Hunter-Gatherers. In Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, edited by Burch, E. S. Jr., and Ellanna, L. J., pp. 223-239. Berg, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hockings, P. 2001 Mortuary Ritual of the Badagas of Southern India. Fieldiana, New Series No. 32. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hollimon, S. E. 1990 Division of Labor and Gender Roles in Santa Barbara Channel Area Prehistory. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Hudson, T., and Blackburn, T. C. 1987 The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere, Vol. V: Manufacturing Processes, Metrology, and Trade. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 31. Menlo Park, California.Google Scholar
Hudson, T., Timbrook, J., and Rempe, M. (editors) 1978 Tomol: Chumash Watercraft as Described in the Ethnographic Notes of John P. Harrington. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 9. Socorro, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Jackson, R. H., and Castillo, E. 1995 Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. W., and Earle, T. 2000 The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State. 2nd ed. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J. R. 1988 Chumash Social Organization: An Ethnohistoric Perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. R. 2001 Ethnohistoric Reflections of Cruzeño Chumash Society. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 53-70. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Jorgensen, L. 1992 Castel Trosino and Nocera Umbra: A Chronological and Social Analysis of Family Burial Practices in Lombard Italy (6th-8th Cent. A.D.). Acta Archaeologica 62:1-58.Google Scholar
Kennett, D. J. 1998 Behavioral Ecology and the Evolution of Hunter-Gatherer Societies on the Northern Channel Islands, California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
King, C. D. 1990 Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region before A.D. 1804. Garland, New York.Google Scholar
Lambert, P. M. 1994 War and Peace on the Western Front: A Study of Violent Conflict and Its Correlates in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Coastal Southern California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, K. G. and Upham, S. 1989 Complex Societies in the Prehistoric American Southwest: A Consideration of the Controversy. In The Sociopolitical Structure of Prehistoric Southwestern Societies, edited by Upham, S., Lightfoot, K. G., and Jewett, R. A., pp. 3-30. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Little, B. J. 1994 People with History: An Update on Historical Archaeology in the United States. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1:5–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, R. H., and Saitta, D. J. 1996 Although They Have Petty Captains, They Obey Them Badly: The Dialectics of Prehispanic Western Pueblo Social Organization. American Antiquity 61:197-216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macko, M. E. 1984 The Economics of Olivella biplicata Shell Bead Production and Exchange in Southern California. Paper presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Portland, Oregon.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1922 Argonauts of the Western Pacific. E. P. Dutton and Co., New York.Google Scholar
Marquardt, W. H. 1988 Politics and Production among the Calusa of South Florida. In Hunters and Gatherers I: History, Evolution, and Social Change, edited by Ingold, T., Riches, D., and Woodburn, J., pp. 161-188. Berg Oxford.Google Scholar
Martz, P. C. 1984 Social Dimensions of Chumash Mortuary Populations in the Santa Monica Mountains Region. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
O’Shea, J. M. 1996 Villagers of the Maros: A Portrait of an Early Bronze Age Society. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Pletka, S. M. 2001 Bifaces and the Institutionalization of Exchange Relationships. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 133-149. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schulting, R. J. 1995 Mortuary Variability and Status Differentiation on the Columbia-Fraser-Plateau. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.Google Scholar
Shepard, J. F. 1979 The Social Identity of the Individual in Isolated Barrows and Barrow Cemeteries in Anglo-Saxon England. In Space, Hierarchy, and Society: Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Area Analysis, edited by Burnham, B. C. and Kingsbury, J., pp. 47-79. British Archaeological Reports International Series No. 59, Oxford.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1993 Human Agency, Biased Transmission, and the Cultural Evolution of Chiefly Authority. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12:41-74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, P. L., Drayer, F. J., and Siefkin, S. K. 1996 Malibu Human Skeletal Remains: A Bioarchaeological Analysis. Report to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, California.Google Scholar
Wason, P. K. 1994 The Archaeology of Rank. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, E. R. 1999 Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar