The Island Chumash

by Kennett, Douglas J.

• ISBN13: 9780520243026
• ISBN10: 0520243021
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Douglas J. Kennett is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1. The Island Chumash	1	(9)
Study Area	4	(2)
Climate Change and Emergent Cultural Complexity	6	(4)
2. Human Behavioral Ecology and Maritime Societies	10	(31)
Maritime Foraging Strategies	14	(2)
Diet Choice in Maritime Settings	16	(4)
Return Rates for Marine Resources	20	(9)
Central Place Foraging and Maritime Foragers	29	(3)
Intensification and the Ideal Free Distribution	32	(4)
Competition and the Formation of Social Hierarchies in Coastal Settings	36	(3)
Summary	39	(2)
3. Environmental Context	41	(31)
General Physiography	42	(1)
Geology	42	(4)
Climate	46	(2)
Hydrology	48	(1)
Terrestrial Resources: Spatial Distribution	49	(5)
Marine Resources: Spatial Distribution	54	(4)
Seasonal Variability	58	(2)
Short-Term Climatic Variability	60	(1)
Paleoenvironment	61	(1)
Sea Level	62	(2)
Marine Climate History	64	(5)
Terrestrial Climate History	69	(2)
Summary	71	(1)
4. Cultural Context	72	(19)
The Ethnohistoric Record	72	(8)
The Prehistoric Record	80	(10)
Summary	90	(1)
5. Historic Island Communities	91	(21)
Historic Island Villages	93	(1)
Santa Cruz Island	93	(4)
Santa Rosa Island	97	(7)
San Miguel Island	104	(1)
Geographic Analysis	104	(1)
Viewshed Analysis	105	(3)
Rank-Size Analysis	108	(3)
Summary	111	(1)
6. Terminal Pleistocene to Middle Holocene Records	112	(42)
Terminal Pleistocene Record	113	(9)
Early Holocene Record	122	(6)
Middle Holocene Record	128	(26)
7. Late Holocene Record	154	(63)
Population Growth and Demographic Expansion	155	(25)
Territoriality and Warfare	180	(7)
Economic Intensificaton	187	(11)
Increases in Trade and Exchange	198	(11)
Emergent Sociopolitical Complexity	209	(8)
8. Synthesis	217	(22)
Diet Breadth	217	(7)
Central Place Foraging	224	(5)
Intensification and the Ideal Free Distribution	229	(4)
Competition and the Formation of Social Hierarchies	233	(3)
Human Behavioral Ecology and Maritime Societies	236	(3)
References	239	(52)
Index	291