Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast

Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast PDF Author: Jon M. Erlandson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475750420
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on detailed excavation data, the author reconstructs the paleography of the Santa Barbara coast ca. 8500 years ago, makes comparisons to other early California sites, and applies his findings to current theories of hunter-gatherers and coastal environments. With an emphasis on paleographic reconstructions, site formation processes, chronological studies, and integrated faunal analyses, the work will be of interest to a wide range of scholars working in shell middens, hunter-gatherer ecology, geoarchaeology, and coatal or aquatic adaptations.

Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast

Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast PDF Author: Jon M. Erlandson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475750420
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on detailed excavation data, the author reconstructs the paleography of the Santa Barbara coast ca. 8500 years ago, makes comparisons to other early California sites, and applies his findings to current theories of hunter-gatherers and coastal environments. With an emphasis on paleographic reconstructions, site formation processes, chronological studies, and integrated faunal analyses, the work will be of interest to a wide range of scholars working in shell middens, hunter-gatherer ecology, geoarchaeology, and coatal or aquatic adaptations.

Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast

Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast PDF Author: Jon Erlandson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781475750430
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description


Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California

Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California PDF Author: Roger H. Colten
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
ISBN: 1938770722
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume is the first to bring together a number of studies on the Early Holocene of the California coast (ca. 10,000 to 6600 BP). Erlandson and Colten haveassembled contributions that may be of interest to a broad spectrum of scholars whose research pertains to any of the following: early sites in the Americas, coastal adaptations, hunter-gatherer adaptations, general Pacific coast prehistory, and the specific history of research on pre-6600 BP occupations of coastal California.

Catalysts to Complexity

Catalysts to Complexity PDF Author: Jon Erlandson
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
ISBN: 1938770676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
When the Spanish colonized it in AD 1769, the California Coast was inhabited by speakers of no fewer than 16 distinct languages and an untold number of small, autonomous Native communities. These societies all survived by foraging, and ethnohistoric records show a wide range of adaptations emphasizing a host of different marine and terrestrial foods. Many groups exhibited signs of cultural complexity including sedentism, high population density, permanent social inequality, and sophisticated maritime technologies. The ethnographic era was preceded by an archaeological past that extends back to the terminal Pleistocene. Essays in this volume explore the last three and one half millennia of this long history, focusing on the archaeological signatures of emergent cultural complexity. Organized geographically, they provide an intricate mosaic of archaeological, historic, and ethnographic findings that illuminate cultural changes over time. To explain these Late Holocene cultural developments, the authors address issues ranging from culture history, paleoenvironments, settlement, subsistence, exchange, ritual, power, and division of labor, and employ both ecological and post-modern perspectives. Complex cultural expressions, most highly developed in the Santa Barbara Channel and the North Coast, are viewed alternatively as fairly recent and abrupt responses to environmental flux or the end-product of gradual progressions that began earlier in the Holocene.

Humans at the End of the Ice Age

Humans at the End of the Ice Age PDF Author: Lawrence Guy Straus
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461311454
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
Humans at the End of the Ice Age chronicles and explores the significance of the variety of cultural responses to the global environmental changes at the last glacial-interglacial boundary. Contributions address the nature and consequences of the global climate changes accompanying the end of the Pleistocene epoch-detailing the nature, speed, and magnitude of the human adaptations that culminated in the development of food production in many parts of the world. The text is aided by vital maps, chronological tables, and charts.

California Indians and Their Environment

California Indians and Their Environment PDF Author: Kent G. Lightfoot
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520244710
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Relevant, timely, and approachable, California Indians and Their Environment is an instant classic that should be invaluable for anyone interested in California's diverse natural and cultural landscapes and the future sustainability of the state."--Torben Rick, author of Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective "California Indians and Their Environment stands respectfully on the shoulders of scholarly giants and demonstrates the cumulative power of cultural, historical, and scientific research. It is a remarkably inclusive and relevant text that is both highly informative of past indigenous life ways and identities and strikingly insightful into current environmental crises that confront us all."--Seth Mallios, author of The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke, and Jamestown "In this highly readable and insightful book, Lightfoot and Parrish show how the natural diversity of California not only influenced the contours of Indian lifeways, but was indeed augmented by burning and other practices, that were used to sustain indigenous economies. The ingenuity and skill with which California Indians managed and used natural resources underscores the need to infuse modern land-use policy with the knowledge of people whose ecological experiences in North America eclipse those of Euroamericans by a factor of forty."--Kenneth E. Sassaman, author of People of the Shoals: Stallings Culture of the Savannah River Valley "This book is a deeply informative and fascinating examination of California Indians' rich and complex relationship with the ecological landscape. Lightfoot and Parrish have thoroughly updated the classic book, The Natural World of the California Indians, with critical analysis of anthropological theory and methods and incorporation of indigenous knowledge and practices. It is a lucid, accessible book that tells an intriguing story for our modern times."--Melissa K. Nelson, San Francisco State University and President of The Cultural Conservancy "At once scholarly and accessible, this book is destined to be a classic. Framed around pressing environmental issues of concern to a broad range of Californians today, Lightfoot and Parrish provide an historical ecology of California's amazingly diverse environments, its biological resources, and the Native peoples who both adapted to and actively managed them."--Jon M. Erlandson, author of Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast "California Indians and Their Environment fills a significant gap in our understanding of the first peoples of California. Lightfoot and Parrish take on the daunting task of synthesizing and expanding on our knowledge of indigenous land-management practices, sustainable economies, and the use of natural resources for food, medicine, and technological needs. This innovative and thought-provoking book is highly recommended to anyone who wants to learn more about the diverse traditions of California Indians."--Lynn Gamble, author of The Chumash World at European Contact "This innovative book moves understanding of the Native Peoples of California from the past to the future. The authors' insight into Native Californians as fire managers is an eye-opener to interpreting the ecological and cultural uniqueness of the region. Lightfoot and Parrish have provided the best introduction to Native California while at the same time advancing the best scholarship with an original synthesis. A rare feat!"--William Simmons, Brown University

The Island Chumash

The Island Chumash PDF Author: Douglas J. Kennett
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520931435
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Colonized as early as 13,500 years ago, the Northern Channel Islands of California offer some of the earliest evidence of human habitation along the west coast of North America. The Chumash people who lived on these islands are considered to be among the most socially and politically complex hunter-gatherers in the world. This book provides a powerful and innovative synthesis of the cultural and environmental history of the chain of islands. Douglas J. Kennett shows that the trends in cultural elaboration were, in part, set into motion by a series of dramatic environmental events that were the catalyst for the unprecedented social and political complexity observed historically.

An Archaeology of Abundance

An Archaeology of Abundance PDF Author: Kristina M. Gill
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813057000
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
The islands of Alta and Baja California changed dramatically in the centuries after Spanish colonists arrived. Native populations were decimated by disease, and their lives were altered through forced assimilation and the cessation of traditional foraging practices. Overgrazing, overfishing, and the introduction of nonnative species depleted natural resources severely. Most scientists have assumed the islands were also relatively marginal for human habitation before European contact, but An Archaeology of Abundance reassesses this long-held belief, analyzing new lines of evidence suggesting that the California islands were rich in resources important to human populations. Contributors examine data from Paleocoastal to historic times that suggest the islands were optimal habitats that provided a variety of foods, fresh water, minerals, and fuels for the people living there. Botanical remains from these sites, together with the modern resurgence of plant communities after the removal of livestock, challenge theories that plant foods had to be imported for survival. Geoarchaeological surveys show that the islands had a variety of materials for making stone tools, and zooarchaeological data show that marine resources were abundant and that the translocation of plants and animals from the mainland further enhanced an already rich resource base. Studies of extensive exchange, underwater forests of edible seaweeds, and high island population densities also support the case for abundance on the islands. Concluding that the California islands were not marginal environments for early humans, the discoveries presented in this volume hold significant implications for reassessing the ancient history of islands around the world that have undergone similar ecological transformations. A volume in the series Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology, edited by Victor D. Thompson

A Canyon Through Time

A Canyon Through Time PDF Author: Jon M Erlandson
Publisher: University of Utah Press
ISBN: 0874808790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
A summary of the deep history of Tecolote Canyon, a beautiful area of California's Santa Barbara coast that has been occupied by humans for at least 9000 years, using data from archaeology, ecology, geology, and geography.

From the Pleistocene to the Holocene

From the Pleistocene to the Holocene PDF Author: C. Britt Bousman
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603447784
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
The end of the Pleistocene era brought dramatic environmental changes to small bands of humans living in North America: changes that affected subsistence, mobility, demography, technology, and social relations. The transition they made from Paleoindian (Pleistocene) to Archaic (Early Holocene) societies represents the first major cultural shift that took place solely in the Americas. This event—which manifested in ways and at times much more varied than often supposed—set the stage for the unique developments of behavioral complexity that distinguish later Native American prehistoric societies. Using localized studies and broad regional syntheses, the contributors to this volume demonstrate the diversity of adaptations to the dynamic and changing environmental and cultural landscapes that occurred between the Pleistocene and early portion of the Holocene. The authors' research areas range from Northern Mexico to Alaska and across the continent to the American Northeast, synthesizing the copious available evidence from well-known and recent excavations.With its methodologically and geographically diverse approach, From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: Human Organization and Cultural Transformations in Prehistoric North America provides an overview of the present state of knowledge regarding this crucial transformative period in Native North America. It offers a large-scale synthesis of human adaptation, reflects the range of ideas and concepts in current archaeological theoretical approaches, and acts as a springboard for future explanations and models of prehistoric change.