The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands
Jeanne E. Arnold, editor
University of Utah Press
(May 2001)
 

From The University of Utah Press:

The fascinating story of the emergence of politically and economically complex societies without agriculture is told from the North American Pacific Coast, where a number of unusual hunting-gathering-fishing societies thrived during the last 1,000-2,000 years. The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom focuses on the origins and development of complexity among the Channel Islands Chumash of southern California, who had large settled villages, sophisticated oceangoing boats, many goods produced by specialists, and an extensive shell bead exchange system. Volume authors interweave theoretical concerns about production, distribution, labor organization, and the political economy with detailed primary data presentations (ethnohistory, shellworking, lithic production, faunal exploitation, tool production, paleobotany, etc.) and compare processes of cultural evolution in the Chumash area and other regions of California with those in the Northwest Coast and Florida.
When Europeans first visited California, they encountered one of the most culturally diverse regions of the New World. The coasts and ecologically richest areas were dotted with small polities, several of which resembled the rather populous, exchange-oriented societies of Melanesia in political organization. These societies were supported not by horticulture but exclusively by hunting, fishing, and gathering, placing them, like the Northwest Coast groups, among the more complex hunting-gathering peoples in the world.
 
The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom explores the final 1,200 years of coastal Chumash culture, culminating in the complex society witnessed by the earliest Spanish explorers. Archaeological sites in the Island Chumash area are exceptionally well preserved, permitting precise interpretations of both subtle and major changes in technologies, subsistence, and specialized shell and lithic industries. The data and interpretations presented here are the result of fifteen years of intensive investigation on the Channel Islands. Primary research questions consider the roles of environmental change, technological innovation, labor organization, and exchange in the emergence and development of a complex polity.
 
Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Chumash in World and Regional Perspectives. Jeanne E. Arnold

Chapter 2. The Channel Islands Project: History, Objectives, and Methods. Jeanne E. Arnold

Chapter 3. Ethnohistoric Reflections of Cruzeno Chumash Society. John R. Johnson

Chapter 4. The Evolution of Specialized Shellworking among the Island Chumash. Jeanne E. Arnold and Anthony P. Graesch

Chapter 5. Flaked Stone Craft Production and Exchange in Island Chumash Territory. Jeanne E. Arnold, Aimee M. Preziosi, and Paul Shattuck

Chapter 6. Bifaces and the Institutionalization of Exchange Relationships in the Chumash Sphere. Scott Pletka

Chapter 7. Standardization and Specialization: The Island Chumash Microdrill Industry. Aimee M. Preziosi

Chapter 8. Groundstone Tools as Indicators of Changing Subsistence and Exchange Patterns in the Coastal Chumash Region. Colleen Delaney-Rivera

Chapter 9. Bone Tool Technology on Santa Cruz Island and Implications for Exchange. Thomas A. Wake

Chapter 10. Ecological and Economic Analysis of Faunal Remains from Santa Cruz Island. Roger H. Colten

Chapter 11. The Economics of Island Chumash Fishing Practices. Scott Pletka

Chapter 12. Paleoethnobotanical Investigations of Archaeological Sites on Santa Cruz Island Steve L. Martin and Virginia S. Popper

Chapter 13. Culture Contact on the Channel Islands: Historic-Era Production and Exchange Systems. Anthony P. Graesch

Chapter 14. Social Evolution and the Political Economy in the Northern Channel Islands. Jeanne E. Arnold

 
Contributor Affiliations
  • Jeanne E. Arnold, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Roger H. Colten, Anthropology Division Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University
  • Colleen Delaney-Rivera, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Anthony P. Graesch, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • John R. Johnson, Department of Anthropology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
  • Steve L. Martin, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Scott Pletka, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Virginia S. Popper, Paleoethnobotany Laboratory, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Aimee M. Preziosi, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Paul O. Shattuck, Los Angeles
  • Thomas A. Wake, Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles