The Chumash: How
do migratory
patterns in SW
California reflect
centralised control?
ROBBIE LUXFORD
The Chumash: How do migratory patterns in SW California reflect centralised control?
Robbie Luxford s2410699
MA Thesis Archaeology 4ARX-0910ARCH Supervisor: Dr. L. S. Borck
MA World Archaeology
University of Leiden Faculty of Archaeology Leiden, 15 June 2019
Preface/Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family for supporting me throughout my journey as an archaeologist, from the lows of failing my initial exams in high school to the highs of being accepted for both an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree. Thank you to the tutors that have enabled me to push myself to my limits and helped me realise my potential. Thank you to my first supervisors during my undergraduate that helped me achieve a first in my dissertation and my colleagues and tutors in Canada that gave me the knowledge base to pursue studies involving indigenous people. Thank you to all my tutors and colleagues at Leiden who have introduced me back into academia after a prolonged gap, stimulating my academic mind once more. Lastly, thank you to my colleagues and friends at Border Archaeology who taught me most of what I know in terms of practical exercises.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 6
1.1 Introduction 6
1.2 Literature Review 7
1.2.1 Archaeological studies of migration 7
1.2.2 Archaeological studies of social complexity 8
1.2.3 A range of studies on the Chumash 10
1.3 The Chumash 13
Chapter 2 Methodology 21
2.1 GIS 22
2.2 The Shell-bead industry 23
2.3 Ceremonial events on the Chumash mainland 25
2.4 Missionisation 27
2.5 Pre and Post-contact comparison 28
Chapter 3 Results 30
3.1 The Shell-Bead Industry 30
3.2 Ceremonial Events 36 3.3 Missionisation 39 Chapter 4 Discussion 44 4.1 Shell-Bead Industry 44 4.2 Ceremonial Events 53 4.3 Missionisation 60
4.4 Pre and Post Contact Migration Comparison 66
Chapter 5 Conclusion 69
5.2 Concluding remarks 70
Abstract 73
Bibliography 75
Figures
Figure 1: Established Chumash language groups by the Historic/Mission Period 19
Figure 2: Shell-bead Industry Key 23
Figure 3: Ceremonial event key 25
Figure 4: Missionisation key 27
Figure 5: Area of Santa Ynez Valley/Mountains and suspected migratory patterns 30 Figure 6: East Santa Ynez mountain area including routes 31
Figure 7: West Santa Ynez mountain area including routes 32 Figure 8: Channel Islands including case study sites 33 Figure 9: Santa Cruz Island including case study sites 34 Figure 10: East Santa Cruz Island including distances and projected routes 35 Figure 11: Map of Ventureno region including migratory patterns and villages/ceremonial
sites 36
Figure 12: Ventureno region and projected routes which were taken 37 Figure 13: Map of Ventureno region and case study sites 39 Figure 14: Missionisation case study sites and their projected routes 40 Figure 15: Projected route of Channel Island migration patterns during Missionisation
42 Figure 16: Table of bead types at Santa Cruz Island 50 Figure 17: Microblade assemblage at Lu’upsh village dated at the Historic Period 51
Figure 19: Lake Manor site 56
Figure 20: Chatsworth painted site 57
Figure 21: Baptism record based on Mission Register Data 61
Tables
Table 1: Dates for Chumash regional chronology, modified from L. Gamble 2008 and D.
Kennett 2005 13
Table 2: Calculated distance and times for East Santa Ynez Mountains 31 Table 3: Calculated distance and times of West Santa Ynez Mountains 32 Table 4: Calculated distance and times in the Ventureno region 37 Table 5: Calculated distance and times in the Ventureno region during Missionisation
40
Appendices 91
Archaeological Sites 91
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
“As long as you look on migration as a problem, as something to solve, you’re not going to get anywhere. You have to look at it as a human reality that’s as old as humankind. It’s mankind’s oldest poverty reduction strategy. As citizens, we have to find a way to manage it.” – IOM DG William Lacy Swing 2017.
Migration is woven into the fabric of human behaviour. The words spoken by William Lacy Swing touch upon the thoughts of present-day migration, but the background of migration through prehistory is much more than just a poverty reduction strategy, it is one of subsistence and resistance to harm. The ancestors of the Chumash people arrived in what is now SW California around 13000BP, relating them genetically to the Clovis people as the site of Daisy Cave in the Channel Islands can be dated to around the Clovis/Folsom periods (Kennett 2005, 121). Over millennia, they eventually formed a social identity recognized as Chumash to the present day. As with all groups through human history, social identity and cultural practices are constantly in flux and the same is true for the Chumash. The largest, most abrupt shift for them likely occurred due to Spanish missionisation. Prior to the Spanish invasion of the region, the ancestors of the Chumash (descending from the Clovis people) were a highly mobile hunter-gatherer group who spread quickly throughout the region after arriving on Californian soil. Eventually, around 8000 BP, they began to settle into permanent villages and the Chumash identity that was present when the first Europeans arrived (Gamble 2008) emerged in this new ecological and social environment.
Migration is rarely random, rather, it is a process which has fixed conditions and during the latter stages of Chumash socio-political organisation it can be shown to be a result of centralised control. Through the analysis of three case studies, I will demonstrate how these migratory patterns reflect centralised control and the management of migration by this process. In the conclusion, I will discuss how the Chumash and the later colonizers did not see migration as a problem but as something with positive social benefits.
1.2 Literature Review
In order to create a clear dialogue that represents the research question, three avenues of literature were required: 1) archaeological studies of migration 2) archaeological studies of social complexity and 3) a range of studies on the Chumash. By doing this each element of the question can be appropriately answered and a concise evaluation can be made.
1.2.1 Archaeological studies of migration
Orderly Anarchy by Robert Bettinger (2015) analyses the socio-political organisation within California during the periods in which the Chumash were present, giving an insight into how they were structured and how other groups within California functioned during this time. In order to decipher how communities may have migrated or for what reason, it is crucial to understand how they operated and to what end. As he notes however, it is easy to place the peoples of California in a broad evolutionary perspective; they are hunter-gatherers (2015, 15). This common trait is shared by the groups in California yet they eventually separated to follow different subsistence strategies. In Chapter 4 of this thesis, it will show how the Chumash and other groups came together for certain events as well as the territorial tension which is regularly documented.
In the past year J.J. Clark et al. studied migration in the pre-contact US South West, but it is highly relevant to the migration study of Chumash which is presented in this thesis. The study examines the migrations out of Mesa Verde and the Kayenta region and discusses attributes which need to be assessed when migration occurs such as scale, socio-economic context prior to migration in area moved from, organisation and distance travelled and the socio-economic context in area that people moved to (Clark et al. 2019, 263). These attributes can also be related to two sub-brackets of migration when evaluating the Chumash; forced and voluntary migration (Piguet 2018), whereby forced implies that a centralised power controlled where people moved and/or why and voluntary implies that the people had elements of control over their movements. These two forms of movement can be interwoven which is seen in the post-contact period with missionisation. Additional elements that Clark et al. note are that the Kayenta held on to some past traditions whereas the Mesa
Verde people moved in order to break from their past (2019, 279). Both these elements are again displayed by the Chumash, differentiating in the pre and post-contact periods.
These additional elements are exemplified in a study by Borck and Mills in 2017. This study looks at the model of diffusion, being the movement of ideas rather than people and how communities may have resisted these ideas or embraced them as manners of rejection or acceptance of centralised control. This is apparent in the Chumash society when looking at the shell bead industry. It is apparent that certain inland villages were beginning to experiment with crafting their own beads rather than just obtaining them – the main regions for this craft were on the Californian Channel Islands and coastal sites. The study also argues for the use of network analysis, as through this it can be shown that changing patterns of consumption are driven by the diffusion of goods and their associated ideas (Borck and Mills 2017, 32). This is important to the research question as not only can we view how in the pre-contact period the Chumash moved to areas where they could create the tools for the shell-bead industry but also how further into the period just prior to post-contact their ideas were widely spread.
A 2000 paper by Burmeister highlights the issue of migration in terms of archaeological research and concludes that by “identifying aspects relevant to migration, the necessary background is established for the development of archaeological research” (2000, 552). During early migration studies it was not precisely clear what the signs of migration were. The development of a model for migration is crucial in being able to separate migration from diffusion and trade.
1.2.2 Archaeological studies of social complexity
Conversations regarding what is or is not social complexity have plagued archaeological research. During the beginning of archaeological practice in North America, indigenous people were not considered to be complex socially, but rather that their impressive feats “were of a superior race wiped out by Indians” (Kelly and Thomas 2010, 30). However, as evidence and archaeology developed, so did the theories on the indigenous past and we are now presented with a very different dialogue to what was initially thought. Despite this, there are still
conflicts between archaeologists of what constitutes a complex society and what is complex at all? Due to this disconnect it would be apt to consider different viewpoints in order to be able to apply these criteria, if any, to the Chumash. The evolution of simple society by S. Fowles challenges the notion that the concepts of simplicity and complexity are separate entities that are superior in format to each other. A poignant turn in his conclusion describes the two as “each other’s wellspring” (Fowles 2018 11); they are interwoven with each other and are needed by each other in order to succeed. We are able to view simplicity as an ethos that is constant, where the tensions of those who oppose forms of complexity such as hierarchical organisation or otherwise develop over time and persistently fight it, successfully or otherwise. Alternatively, do we need to determine if a society is complex or simple? From an outsider’s perspective a society may be complex but to those that were integrated within it may have been simple and the reversal of this concept can also be true – for example, initial observations of indigenous groups were that they were simple compared to complex Western European people.
Egalitarian Behavior and Reverse Dominance Hierarchy by C. Boehm theorises the notion of reverse dominance hierarchy, in which he tries to determine if “any intentional behavior that decisively suppressed hierarchical relations” (Boehm 1993, 228) was present within the society. This pattern of behaviour in the Chumash would potentially be signalled in regard to conflict in certain territories and would signal the inequalities that were present in Chumash society that people were eager to change. It is not thought that prior to the Mission period that the Chumash were egalitarian but post-contact it could be said that the elites and those below now shared a common trait which was their oppression by the Europeans. Their collective ideal to continue traditions that they held prior to European contact bonded them, yet their Spanish counterparts and the disease which eventually decimated them were too strong and potential egalitarian behaviour may have been stopped.
Feinman and Nicholas’ paper Framing the Rise and Variability of Past Complex Societies shows the important relationship between leadership and the general population. The cooperative arrangements that leadership and populace have differ: “collective forms of leadership - power depend more directly on local
populace and autocratic rule - leaders rely less on local populace” (Feinman and Nicholas 2016, 283). The former is present in Chumash society as the capital villages depended on the outlying villages in order for the Chumash’s social interaction sphere to work. Although the elite individuals were in charge of the specific industries such as the shell-beads or the revered ‘tomol’ – Chumash canoe – they required the general population to adopt them.
Lastly, Angelbeck and Grier (2012) gives an insight into how a Californian society combated centralised control through the concept of anarchy. Contrary to popular opinion, anarchy in the true sense of the word relates to collectivism in individuals and local groups that self-govern. Their indicators for anarchism include “individual and local autonomy and expression, voluntary association, mutual aid, network organization, communal decision making, justified authorities, and decentralization” (2012, 551). Elements of anarchy can be said to be displayed in Chumash society and thus the question of Chumash people under centralised control is inherently more complex than a simple were they or were they not. As alluded to above, the shell-bead industry was controlled by elites, but it required mutual co-operation and a collective of chiefs inland, coastal and on the islands in order to organise smaller villages into prosperous networks. Actions such as those in the Santa Ynez mountains may have been displaying patterns of decentralisation and local autonomy and expression by beginning to create their own shell-beads.
1.2.3 A range of studies on the Chumash
Perhaps the greatest overview for the Chumash is Lynn Gambles 2008 book. Though the overall context of the book concerns the Chumash at European contact it provides a wealth of knowledge for socio-political organisation, their ceremonial relationships, their relationship with the coast and its resources, economy, periods of conflict and an in-depth analysis of complex hunter-gatherers. Gambles’ personal relationship with Chumash archaeology began in the late 70s, and she has authored several articles some of which have attempted to explain the complex nature of Chumash chiefdoms in 2002 and the effects which climate may have had in terms of socio-political change/migratory movements during the Middle/Late Period in a paper published in 2005. Within her 2011 book Chapter 4 and 5 are of particular relevance. The table which
provides information of how many baptisms were performed at each village is excellent in providing sample sizes compared to population statistics during the Mission period and thus an analysis of ‘forced migration’ can be made post European contact.
Aside from general Chumash literature, a difference between pre and post-contact resources needs to be noted. Archaeological sites are given clear Reference IDs by the Californian state and in some instances, they can be attributed to historic villages due to their locations. Historic villages are assigned their Chumash name and also the name which the Europeans gave post-contact and they are used interchangeably in the literature.
A majority of archaeological sites were excavated during the early-mid 1900s and have been documented by both the federal registers and the National Park Service (NPS). Unfortunately, due to some restrictions which the US has in place, it is difficult to access some information from the Netherlands which concerns the Chumash and the sites, both to protect sites that are in danger of destruction/robbery and due to European/US confidentiality laws. However, some NPS reports and Federal Registers are available and were used to construct an overview of Chumash archaeological sites. For example, the 2010 report on Channel Islands National Park by the NPS gives a substantial timeline of the Chumash on the Islands, dating from 13000BP up until and including the post-contact period.
A paper by Brandoff and Reeves (2014) explores the Chumash who settled in the Santa Ynez mountains and their sustained occupation there, but also the avenue they took in terms of the shell-bead industry. Evidence in this paper attempts to address the question: “Was bead production occurring at interior Chumash villages?” (2014, 43). It explores the nature of diffusion and migration and questions the reader as to if it was either or a mix of the two. By exploring this area in this research question, the authors approach the idea of migration in both small and large quantities; small, as different villages were occupied at different times (Potentially due to material being present in different areas) and large - as people may have migrated from the Channel Islands to coastal sites and then further inland to the mountainous region.
Albert Knight of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has written several papers (Rock Art at Momonga (CA-LAN-357) in 2018; The Burro Flats Burro Pictograph Site (56-001772) in 2017; and a joint paper in 2014 with Eva Larsen of the NPS titled Revisiting the Treasure House (CA-VEN-195) which look at rock-shelter sites in California and the significance which they had to the Chumash during the Late - Historic Period. Their importance is tied to their function. Although in many pictograph sites the artefacts display that they were most likely used as temporary hunting/butchering sites, the images which they display tend to reflect activities that would indicate ceremonial or ritual practices. Since precolonial Chumash society had shamans (Whitley 1992), these sites could have dual functions and also displayed the temporary migratory patterns of the Chumash.
In Chapter 5 of Ethnographic Overview of the Los Padres National Forest, Chester King details the Chumash inhabitation of this area and his own publication Overview of the History of American Indians in the Santa Monica Mountains in 2011 gives a comprehensive view of not only Chumash occupation and artefacts but mineral and vegetation in the area, providing possible reasons for people to move and take advantage of what the region had to offer. Chapter 9 in his 2011 paper is most relevant to this thesis as King examines varying attributes that are important to track migration and possible reasons for doing so, along with evidence for potential centralised control. These attributes include the distribution of settlements (e.g., which villages were larger and capitals that were a central place for other villages in the network to thrive off), site sizes and situation (e.g., which areas change in population compared to their earlier or later occupation) and the types of sites (e.g., which sites were permanent forms of occupation and which were used either seasonally or during certain events) (King 2011, xii).
Lastly, Kennett’s 2005 book The Island Chumash: Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society provides adequate material in relation to the Historic period Chumash villages on the Channel Islands off the coast of California in Chapter 5. The Chapter examines each village separately with thorough data analysis using excavation and ethnographic reports and includes enough data for the Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands to determine migratory patterns and a social network pattern. A table included in the book shows the number of chiefs which
were present at each village which further allows specification of which were capitals, and which were not i.e. presenting centralised control or not.
1.3 The Chumash
For the purpose of this study a brief overview of the Chumash people is needed, including the information that is relevant for the research question and as such any information which is omitted is due to its irrelevancy to the research. Archaeologists have continuously revised the dates of each Chumash period but for this study I will use the chronology outlined in Table 1.
Table 1: Dates for Chumash regional chronology, modified from L. Gamble 2008 and D. Kennett 2005. Period Date Early Holocene 13000-8000BP Early 8000-2500BP Middle 2500BP-800BP Middle-Late transition 800-600BP Late 600-200BP Historic/Mission Period 200BP -
The Chumash - translated as “bead-maker” or “seashell people”, occupied the southwestern region of California, including the Channel Islands. Although this area is thought to have been occupied by people ~10-13kya due to the discovery of Arlington Springs Man (see Orr 1962) on Santa Rosa Island, it was not until many thousands of years later which they formed an expansive trade network incorporating shell-bead production that enabled an efficient and cohesive Chumash lifestyle.
Evidence from the Early Holocene determines that despite being a highly mobile group of hunter-gatherers, people began to settle in areas which gave them access to certain resources. The sites which are found to date the earliest in
what would become Chumash territory are on the Channel Islands. This strengthens the theory that the people first moved into this area through coastal migration. Though the people were competent in their gathering of plants and hunting land animals, a particular focus began to be made on marine life; at Daisy Cave (Channel Islands), fish constituted 50% of the meat diet and at mainland sites fish constituted less than 15% but most mainland and some island sites show shellfish was at least 80% of the diet (Arnold et al. 2004, 10) showing their adaptability. The Daisy Cave site is important in the analysis of early human occupation in the Channel Islands as it determines evidence for several aspects of permanent residency in and around this site. Archaeologists discovered a thick shell midden at the rock-shelter (large deposits of midden hint to long term occupancy as they accumulate from domestic refuse) that contained an abundance of marine life which dated from 10000-700BP but also evidence for the earliest known baskets in the region, some 5000 years earlier than previously thought. The basketry which was found at the site is made by the z-twist method which is similar to the Hokan Chumash that developed a long-term material culture based upon the very same craftmanship (Connolly et al 1995, 316). Though there were several other sites during the Early Holocene which contained shell midden and projectiles/lithics that were discovered at Daisy Cave, no other sites dated to 9000BP when the basketry has been dated to, contained baskets. From this we can suggest that the other sites may have been sites that were temporary and frequently moved between compared to Daisy Cave which was used in a more permanent capacity and built from a long-standing material culture.
During the Early Period many sites are known to portray attributes which show the Millingstone culture was present in this area of California. The Millingstone culture is one which contained large numbers of lithic artefacts including handstones, flake tools, projectiles, milling slabs and cobble-core tools (Jones and Klar 2007, 135). A site which exhibits tools of this nature is CA-VEN-1 (Little Sycamore) on the Santa Monica coastline. Dating to around 8000-7000BP, it contains around 15 groundstone artefacts as well as 6 Olivella shell beads (Dallas Jr 2004, 160-162). The discovery of shell-beads at the site provides archaeologists with some of the earliest indication of the shell-bead industry. Was this a demonstration of migration from the Channel Islands? Or was its
diffusion/trade which led to the beads finding their way to the site? What we do know is that at CA-VEN-1 the people were using various subsistence methods including fishing, hunting and gathering so they were a group which retained some sense of mobility. As Dallas Jr highlights however the high level of marine material found at the site suggests that they “aimed at maximizing their diet and yet making the most of the local resources without having to forage far away” (2004, 166). It is known that people began to become more conscious of energy levels and the temporary migratory patterns that they had exhibited previously may have been a poor use of energy output, compared to the pattern that they decided to exhibit by settling in coastal regions. It is also not inconceivable that the Chumash who had operated in the Channel Islands had reached the coastal mainland and began a long-term interaction of trade.
As noted previously, the Early Period showed that the Chumash were beginning to settle in areas and the Middle Period marked a great societal upheaval which changed the shape of the socio-political organisation in the region. At several Channel Island sites, it was evident that burials in the Early period had distributions of wealth in a more equal manner compared to the Middle Period which showed that there was an increased control of prestigious material. As King states, ‘maintenance of power was attained by ability or age to a society in which material expressions of political power were acquired through inheritance’ (1990, 95). This may be linked to the increased number of permanent residencies throughout society compared to the highly mobile hunter-gatherer groups that first came to the region. Although sites were kept as seasonal hunting/butchering/ritual places, the period of time during which people were not participating in these activities were spent at their respective permanent small villages or large capitals. It can also be linked to population growth and the specialisation of certain aspects of Chumash society which will now be discussed in relation to elites and centralised control.
In order to reach the mainland, the construction of what was known as the tomol occurred, the Chumash form of canoe. The tomol was a crucial component to Chumash culture, being used for ‘procuring food—fishing, collecting abalones, sea mammal hunting...and conducting trade’ (Hudson 1976, 6). As is clear in respect to other complex societies, persons of considerable
control in order to exude maximum efficiency in production. Members of society who constructed the tomol were considered at an elite level due to its importance to aspects of the Chumash network such as the shell-bead industry, but possibly also because of the early migratory patterns that occurred (Hudson 1976). Those who pioneered movements to new territories would likely be revered by other members of society. As population levels were lower during the early period of sporadic movements, an equal level of society can be considered to be a formality, but as it grew the specialists of Chumash culture came to be through lines of inheritance rather than ability. King believed that it was due to a question of who managed something rather than who had something which became the case in the Early Period. In the Middle Period it appears that trade was almost completely controlled compared to in the Early Period when participation by anyone in the economic subsystem enabled them to attain power (King 1990, 97). This is a crucial element when considering the prospect of centralised control as with this being the case there is a clear shift in power dynamics and could be related to population/culture growth. If we consider a modern example of a business, the initial stages tend to see the owner of the company involved largely in the overall process compared to when the business has grown and they can then begin to delegate tasks to sub-managers who can then deal with daily tasks while they fall into a lesser position of labour yet retain their power. It may be that in Chumash society the elite began to delegate the labour management to sub-leaders while they began to assert their dominance through their wealth/luxury items, leading to them then altering to leadership staying within certain families.
It is not only craft specialists that need to be analysed, we also should review chiefs who we know from ethnographic studies existed during the Historic Period and were present when the Europeans made contact. From the ethnographic research, indicators in the archaeological record are now apparent which demonstrate that they were present during the Middle-Late period. A series of articles which were published by Arnold and Gamble debating the relationship and identity of Chumash chiefdoms seemed to correlate the work of King. During the Middle-Late period, as well as socio-political change, a large variation of shell-beads became more apparent which gave greater insight into trade patterns but also labour patterns. Gamble describes how “smaller, more
refined beads require more effort to make” (2002, 775) so we can therefore think that burials with these smaller beads could be related to chiefs or those of an elite status due to the stratification of society at this time. Rather than before whereby the elites were craft specialists and in charge of making items of value, these positions were subsidised to the larger community who were involved in that process and the chiefs were left to manage this large network. Although the shell-beads became a common commodity and exchange currency there were special variations of it that were controlled by Chumash chiefs. Spielmann notes that “individual skilled specialists create ritually charged objects for individuals or sodalities that commission them” (2002, 201) and this is possibly evident in relation to the smaller beads found in many burials.
Chiefs were the primary elite but there were others who were considered powerful figures within Chumash society, such as shamans. They were the connection of the Chumash people to the spirit world and held special ceremonies which only select individuals were allowed to participate to full capacity. These ceremonial events took place at specific sites to commemorate things such as the summer and winter solstice aside from more general ritualistic performances. Some of these rock-shelters have been dated to the Middle-Late Period but a large quantity of our evidence for shamanistic behaviour is through ethnographic accounts, as the motifs which were painted to the cave walls have been related to other activities aside from ritual. The activity which the shaman engaged in such as “songs, dances and ritual accoutrements were believed to derive ultimately from the supernatural world of spirits” (Whitley 1992, 107) and thus they had a connection to a world which nobody else in society could hold. This aspect of their being meant that they were respected in a separate kind of entity to the chiefs of the Chumash. Although the chiefs heralded an element of centralised control over the overall state, the shamans had an element of control over the chiefs as it were. The engagement in the ceremonial events meant that elements of temporary migration were still evident in aspects of society which had now settled in permanent residencies.
The Middle-Late transition is named as such due to the switch of microblades that were “trapezoidal to the triangular-with-dorsal-retouch” (Glassow 2010, 2.8). Though this may seem irrelevant on the surface, it was crucial in terms of
movement to microblades of this nature correlated with a surge in their creation which “suggest that the production of microliths became more standardized through time” (Kennett 2005, 206). The reason for a transition gap between the Middle and Late is because both microblades were still in function before a widespread use of the triangular microblades is seen across Chumash territory. This could be linked to the theory of diffusion rather than migration, yet the migratory patterns can possibly be seen in terms of the shift to quarries where greater quantities of quality chert could be obtained. These movements would be managed by the capital that would guide its labourers to increase production as demand for shell-beads also substantially increased. The Chumash were not without their conflict though and archaeologists have noticed that during this transitional period there were several instances of it. As there were many different competing chiefs which were attempting to mark their authority and increase their power, conflict between villages as well as trade was inevitable. However, can the instances of conflict be attributed to levelling techniques too? If we think of Angelbeck and Grier’s paper concerning anarchy, they demonstrate that in the Coastal Salish society there was a clear sign that lesser people in the society “challenged the increasing status and control of the hereditary elite in society” (2012, 563). One of the methods that they chose to challenge the elite was through warfare.
Archaeological evidence for the Late Period enables us to be able to view how a Chumash settlement may have looked in real-time, as the layout of homes and respective activities were present at Pitas Point which is a coastal site located in south Ventura. It was excavated by King in the 60s/70s and subsequently discussed by Gamble in her 1983 article where she gives an elaborate summary of the site. The assemblage of artefacts and buildings at the site exemplifies that the village was most likely one of great importance during the Late Period as they associate with activities that were domestic and also related to certain industries. Activities at the village were also separated in terms of within the home and outside of the home, similarly we can see this evident in practice within our own societies today whereby we associate certain actions to our garden space and others inside our homes. At Pitas Point it was clear that the production and maintenance of fishing equipment and flake tools and butchering were limited to outside of the home whereas events such as
stone-tool production, food preparation and basket-making occurred within the home (Gamble 1983, 127). If we consider butchering for example, it was evident in the Middle-Late period that there were rock-shelters and small encampments that were used for this and they can be linked to larger villages and settlements that were near to these butchery sites. It could be said that butchery sites that were very close to villages may be determinable as areas of important permanent residency whereas butchery sites that weren’t close to villages were examples of the temporary mobility that some of the Chumash still held onto.
Figure 1: Established Chumash language groups by the Historic/Mission Period (Wikimedia 2019)
The Historic or Mission Period marks the beginning of European contact with the Chumash and another era in which the socio-political organisation changed dramatically. The map in figure 1 indicates that although the overall material culture of the Chumash was widespread throughout their territory and had prevailed from the Early Period to now, it was made up of different language groups which were regarded as sub territories. Regarding the Historic/Mission Period, it is contentious to discuss, as although the effects on the Chumash were devastating (disease essentially wiped out the 20’000 or so population which is thought to be present pre-contact) the arrival of the Spanish was not necessarily met with complete aggravation. Many of the Chumash were accepting of the newfound materials which the Spanish offered such as glass and metals which meant that the shell-bead industry and the political control which chiefs had
over it was revoked as many people now had access to the materials. As people became indoctrinated under the Spanish regime, they did continue to display aspects of Chumash tradition such as their persistence to “make beads and other trade items and to practice traditional subsistence pursuits” (Rick 2007, 95). Although the colonial system and disease became too much for the Chumash to continually resist, the continuity of aspects of their tradition and material culture may have been the overarching attempt by them to resist the centralised control that the Spanish were seeking to create aside from the cases of revolt and violence. Attempts of violence were made against the Spanish including the most famous which was the revolt in 1824. There are several accounts that record this revolt and describe how the Chumash were wary of the Europeans and their true intentions; they did not believe that they were beneficial to their culture, and they were right not to be. It is said that toward the end of the revolt Captain Noriega of the Spanish said that they would make peace in terms of the Chumash’s favour (Blackburn 1975, 227) but this was most likely an attempt to appease them and stop further conflicts from occurring. During the Historic period it was noted that a number of intermarriages were pursued by the Chumash. This was most likely due to different villages amassing at Missions which the Europeans set up that may not have been in direct contact with each other prior to colonisation. It provides evidence that forced temporary movement by the Spanish in order to be baptised could have side effects that the colonialists did not foresee. As many of the Chumash resided at the Missions or ranches after baptism it meant that the intermarriage during this period was not the same prior to colonial rule where people may have migrated purely due to intermarriage. Ethnographic research indicates that no marriages occurred between individuals from villages that were more than 59 km apart (Johnson, 158). This narrows the distance covered by the Chumash in south coastal areas but makes relative sense when you consider that Missions only covered certain catchment areas – the villages in Johnsons study would relate to Santa Barbara, Santa Ines and San Buenaventura.
Chapter 2
Methodology
As the Chumash area of territory and data is so vast, specific areas in this thesis are studied in order to give detailed analysis while focusing on case studies which are able to acknowledge a sufficient overview of Chumash migratory patterns. These case studies are as follows: 1) the Shell-Bead Industry: 2) ceremonial events on the Chumash mainland and 3) ‘Missionisation’. To provide clarity in these case studies, GIS was used in order to map sites and the movements that people then made during certain periods. By using a map of the historic villages of the Chumash which was prepared by Benjamin Pease in 1975, the locations of various villages and the archaeological sites which have been associated to them are able to be mapped with distinct accuracy.
The aims of the study are to diachronically map the movements of people under the categories of each case study and each section will look at either pre or post-contact examples to determine whether migration patterns reflect centralised control. “The Shell-bead industry” was examined in terms of its effect on migration in pre and post-contact, “ceremonial events” was examined in terms of its effect on migration pre and post-contact and “Missionisation” was examined in terms of its effect on migration post-contact. After analysing each of these effects, a comparative narrative was made to determine similarities or differences between the two timeframes. Though this research paper includes a wealthy sample of archaeological sites, some are omitted as they do not provide substantial data/are inaccessible. Although in the earlier formation of the Chumash people were highly mobile, they reached a stage in their timeline where they began to settle in villages/towns, and it is these archaeological sites which are analysed with more scrutiny. However, sites which contain subsequent amount of data that were used as seasonal or ceremonial sites are also studied to give a clearer view of how the
Chumash relationship with migration was not strictly confined in terms of settlement to settlement and it was rather more complex. At the end of the study present day migration is examined to see how patterns are different to what we may have seen in the archaeological record and if there are elements which we can learn from in order to manage present day crises.
Two different databases were made as part of the methodology. The first database categorised different types of archaeological sites which were relevant to the study and the second database categorised the historic villages which are marked by Pease and King in the 1975 map. The database includes; 1. Site/Historic Village name; 2. Reference ID; 3. Description; 4. Date; and 5. Reference. Site/Historic Village name are used interchangeably in much of the Chumash literature which is accessible which is why a Reference ID is in place so that during the paper if a Site is mentioned that may also be attached to a Historic Village it can be traced to both datasets. Also at times within the literature, the name which remains of a site may not be the traditional Chumash name but the name that was given to the area by the Spanish which is why a Reference ID is needed. The description gives a brief detail of what was found at the site/village and if noted in the literature, its link to migration patterns. Under the ‘Date’ bracket, both specific timespans and also generalised Periods are used due to some sites and the research not containing enough evidence to be able to give a concrete date. Although this is the case, the date given will always include a specific timespan if it is available.
2.1 GIS
The relationship between GIS and archaeology begins in the 1990s but within the past decade it has been used hugely within both the academic and commercial sector to create 2D and 3D models of both sites and artefacts. An increasing use of GIS in academic studies of migration, trade and diffusion is ‘its ability to map, measure distances and tie different kinds of information together’ (Fischer 2004, 391). Using GIS, theories can be presented through imagery and simple maps. GIS in this study allows distances to be determined throughout each of the three case studies of the ‘Shell-Bead Industry’, ‘Ceremonial Events’ and ‘Missionisation’. The scale and the energy expense for each distance may be calculated in terms of time using the GIS measuring tool. By using Naismith’s rule of walking, distance speeds can be generally calculated; 15 minutes per km and 10 minutes per 100m ascent. This can determine whether aspects of migration
may have changed during different periods of time and thus whether it changed due to a centralisation of control.
An open-source GIS application was used called ArcGIS Explorer which has since retired, but versions of it are still available for download and for the purpose for this study it was the best available free resource to perform the aspects that were needed to answer the research questions. As the application is open source it also has a database of pre-made maps which can be used in order to use as the base or layer for the file which you are working on. As it happens, there were a few files which related to the Chumash including a dataset which plotted each Chumash village during the Historic Period and the related Missions. This pre-made map (tmmoc, ArcGIS) was used as a base due to its accuracy and thus could then be manipulated based on the results of the research.
GIS has been used to study the Chumash people in a paper by Robinson and Wienhold in 2016 who followed a similar employment strategy of energy expenditure when looking at ceremonial events in Chumash territory. Their use of GIS and energy expense analysis meant that they were able to determine areas that may have been able to ascert political and social control due to the time expenditure in relation to other sites that were important in the Chumash region. They note for example that the village of Tashlipun was in an area that ‘provided geographic access that presented major economic advantages and secured its role as a strong defensive force’ (2016, 376). By following a similar model in this study, it will show why the Chumash decided to settle in certain areas rather than follow the highly mobile route that preceded the later periods.
2.2 The Shell-bead Industry
Trade and communication between the islands and the mainland were extensive (Rasmussen 2000, 193) as there were several commodities which were unavailable in their respective landscapes, so the Chumash needed to assemble strategies to survive. If we consider the concept of trade, we can divide it into two brackets of short-term exchange - legitimate domain of individual...activity and long-term exchange - concerned with the reproduction of the social and cosmic order (Parry and Bloch 1989, 2). By observing the Chumash and their creation of their shell-bead network, we can place value of its short-term interactions from island to mainland in respect of the long-term social order which it enabled society to govern beneath.
The shell-bead industry required the three raw materials - chert (for the production of drills), shells (the currency) and string (where the shells would be placed). The acquisition and successive creation of drills from island chert meant that like the tomol, people of superior knowledge and skill were elevated to an elite status. The drills were made in 3 stages. Firstly, the chert was obtained, secondly microliths were flaked from the chert, and finally ‘small micro-drills were fashioned from these microliths’ (Kennet 2005, 206). A study by Arnold et al., demonstrated that chert which was of higher quality such as on the Santa Cruz Island, gave ‘tremendous advantage in the production of shell beads as it was possible to drill holes faster and replace drill tips less often’ (Akin et al 2016, 40). The work which went into crafting this mode of currency was of significance; ‘the clam-shell represented almost an hour of production activity and the cupped bead was even more time consuming’ (Gamble 2011, 232).
It is noted that the ‘first appearance of shell-bead currency followed upon other important economic innovations’ (Nigra and Arnold 2013, 3648) such as the tomol as they were the catalyst to each other in developing Chumash trade networks. It could be argued by this that shell-beads were initially an equal commodity between people who first began to use it and it was only with increased time that status began to be associated with certain types of shell-bead. With the construction of the tomol allowing increased contact with the mainland the shell-bead catapulted to the foreground of Chumash culture and demand for them increased. It could be said that by obtaining shell-beads, it gave people of lower classes the feeling of status, rather than having real substantial status, leaving the upper-class in positions of centralised control and the lower class uninterested in resisting.
The shell-bead industry was used as a case study to show the variations in trade patterns and also migratory routes that may have been taken by the Chumash in relation to the procurement of materials in order to craft the shell-beads. We know that the shell-beads were traded throughout the islands and the mainland but were there cases of certain Chumash groups who began to craft their own materials aside from where the supposed centralisation of the industry occurred? If this was the case, then how did they obtain their materials? Was it through trade of microblades and of shells or did they source their own materials as the energy expense was worth the creation of the beads? By looking at the region in the Santa Ynez Mountains that Brandoff and Reeves discussed in more detail these questions are answered and the relationship between Chumash settlements and activity areas (where they obtained materials) can be made. By mapping the movements that these people made and the timeframe of settlements, we are able to see why they chose to settle or move into the areas which they did, contrasting with prior settlement practices. In the GIS maps the settlements are displayed by nodes which are green nodes and activity areas (quarries, tool-making sites, fishing spots etc.) are displayed as red nodes. The directions and distances that people travelled are within the maps and tables respectively.
2.3 Ceremonial events on the Chumash mainland
Figure 3: Ceremonial event key (Luxford 2019)
As was previously mentioned, the Chumash connection to shamans and ritualistic activity can be dated back to the Middle Period and manifested itself into society through different ceremonies which all held their own individual importance. When
Europeans arrived on Chumash soil, they were able to notice that there was an elite group of individuals whom participated in ceremonial events including the chiefs who were called ‘wots’ and a cult which was named the antap (Hudson 1977, 260). The antap group were a mix of religious people such as shamans and leaders within Chumash society that were tasked with activity which related to the world beyond the earth and linking the two together in special events such as the solstice. We know from other archaeological sites around the world that humans have long been able to predict the dates which solstices – the point where the sun reaches its most northernly or southernly distance from the equator – occurred. It is also known that they built tombs, cairns, rock-shelters and various other structures that would allow them to directly or indirectly view the solstice during gatherings of either the whole society or (in the case of the Chumash) certain members. Much of the evidence which we have for the Chumash holding these events is ethnographical but also from rock-paintings that were left at sites and will be shown in Chapter 4 which will discuss the case study sites in more detail. A study by Hudson et al. in 1979 of a few cave sites in Chumash territory discovered that the Chumash used ‘movable objects that were placed in line with the beam of sunlight to increase accuracy’ and that they were not always associated to predicting solstices but purely for the act of the ceremony in question (50). In relation to migratory patterns, the sites which were used to predict or hold these ceremonies were not in the villages or capitals which the elite leaders lived at. This meant that people were required to travel great distances bi-annually to take part in these events. By viewing the movements that these people took and analysing their energy outlays the study can determine how and why people were willing to expend in order to take part. It is thought that many groups besides the Chumash who resided in the SW of California, also took part in events such as this, sometimes using the same sites that the Chumash did. Due to tensions between the different language groups and cultural identities it is interesting to discover that they would potentially meet for gatherings such as this and adds another dimension to the migratory pattern. As part of the methodology it is important to distinguish these ceremonial events from the religious events which took place in post-contact (missionisation) as Chumash culture continued to persist despite the Europeans attempting to uphold total control over Chumash society. The questions which need to be addressed concerning ceremonial events are;
- Why and where were the Chumash holding these events? - Was this movement a display of centralised control?
- Was this a display of voluntary or forced migration?
In the GIS maps, settlements are displayed as orange nodes while the ceremonial event sites (rock-shelters and caves) are displayed as purple nodes. The directions and distances that people travelled are within the maps and tables respectively.
2.4 Missionisation
Figure 4: Missionisation key (Luxford 2019)
The Europeans are documented as observing the Chumash from the early 1500s, but they did not make sustained contact and occupation until the late 1700s which is when the process of missionisation throughout SW California took place. Archaeologists/Historians have found that from AD 1786 and 1803, over 85 percent of documented Chumash conversions took place (Dartt-Newton and Erlandson 2006, 419) i.e. they were baptised at several Missions which were built. The Missions which will be discussed with most scrutiny are those on the SE coastline such as San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara and San Fernando. The latter Mission included people who were from different territories to Chumash and thus occasions of intermarrying between different communities may be seen which would not be seen pre-contact. As discussed previously
in Chapter 1, movements to places are related to the aspects of what you are leaving behind and what you are going to gain from the new area that you move into. Although the people were going to be moving into areas that were traditionally Chumash territory, it was now the backdrop for a new political foreground. By all accounts it appears that the Europeans began teaching the Chumash various techniques which would help them not only build the missions but decorate them within, plus held plans to keep them at the Mission areas past the baptisms. For example, it is seen in plenty of missions that the walls were decorated similarly to the ‘rock art practiced for millennia by some native California groups’ (Kimbro et al. 2009, 131). Though they were entrapped within the grasp of another cultural entity, the Chumash found ways to convey their own traditions in ways that were not violent. Despite some members of Chumash society who were less than happy with following colonial rule, the Spanish managed to limit their revolts and won over the majority of Chumash people, which helped in managing the resistance they were up against.
The Europeans made their way through the valleys on a recruitment drive, rallying as many Chumash as they could to join their cause. While on their travels, they made careful selection of where they would settle and made sure that the areas that Missions would be erected contained a ‘viable water supply and abundant land for fields, orchards and pasturage’ (Haas 2013, 14). As the Chumash had built a society which relied on marine resources and coastal sites, this would be a sharp shift in socio-political organisation if they made the move to join the Europeans, but does this show that the benefits of what they could bring outweighed their current economic climate?
While assessing missionisation the questions that will be addressed are; - Was this a result of forced or voluntary migration?
- What were the energy expenditures involved in the movement to missions? In the GIS maps the missions are displayed by a building node while the villages are displayed as red nodes. The directions and distances that the people travelled are displayed on the maps and within tables respectively.
2.5 Pre and Post-contact comparison
As Smith and Peregrine state “comparative analysis is the only way to identify regularities inhuman behavior, and it is also the only way to identify unique features” (2011, 4). The comparison to be made in migratory patterns relates to types of migration
which may occur in societies whether they are under centralised control or not. By analysing pre and post-contact migration patterns it can be determined whether they were permanent or temporary and forced or voluntary. Comparing the two periods can suggest whether different types of centralised control have similar effects on migratory patterns. The act of forcible migration can be related to patterns which political powers made people do in order for them to gain something from it and the act of voluntary migration can be related to people who had an element of choice in the actions they were taking. These two elements of migration can be mixed as people may voluntarily move to places without understanding the full consequence of their actions or because they are coerced into doing so, an attribute which may be attached to the migration which occurred during the Mission Period. It is important that within this study the periods of migration which display traces of a mix of these elements are clearly exposed in order to reach a fair comparison between the pre and post-contact periods. The comparison can also be used to determine how much control the Chumash still held over their people’s actions during post-contact and whether it is possible to see two factors of internal and external control.
Chapter 3
Results
3.1 The Shell-Bead Industry Mainland
Figure 5: Area of Santa Ynez Valley/Mountains and suspected migratory patterns (Luxford, 2019)
The first case study which reviews migratory patterns relating to the shell-bead industry is the region of the Santa Ynez Valley/Mountains. This area is known for being abundant
in Franciscan chert, different to the chert of the Channel Islands which is documented as being the best quality chert throughout Chumash society. In the map shown in figure 5, 8 sites within the area have been chosen to convey the study. Of the sites, Refuge Bay, Elijman and Snojoso date to the Middle-Late Period, Snihuaj, Xonxonata and Najalayegua date to the Late Period and Soxtonokmu and Syuxtun date to the Late-Historic Period (Brandoff and Reeves 44-46). From this material a rough migratory pattern could be considered to be as the map shows. The routes from Elijman towards Najalayegua are considered due to the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south which were difficult to overcome and there were only specific routes which would allow movement through them. The red nodes in the map indicate areas of chert potential which is suggested as another pathway for the people from Elijman to take towards Xonxonata. They may have also migrated from the coast to the west, but this would be from an area which contained a different language group from this Santa Ynez region -Purisimeno in the west compared to Barbareno and Ineseno of this region. Although it is noted that the southern mountains posed a wall to the sites on the coast and the sites of the interior valley a movement from refuge bay to the south may also be possible through the canyons as people were beginning to populate the area in the Middle Period.
Figure 6: East Santa Ynez mountain area including routes (Luxford 2019)
Table 2: Calculated distance and times for East Santa Ynez Mountains (Luxford 2019)
Elijman - > Snojoso 11.4km 2 hrs 38 mins
Snihuaj -> Najalayegua 19.6km 6 hrs 11 mins
Syuxtum - > Najalayegua 20km 6 hrs 17 mins
The map in figure 6 shows the approximate distances between the sites in this region. The distances and routes were mapped using a GIS base which showed modern roads and trails plus roads that are known to exist prior/during the contact period. The combination of these meant that estimated routes could be gauged and thus using the Naismith rule a calculated time for how long it would take people to walk these distances was made. The Naismith rule requires an average walking speed to be inserted and this is considered to be 4-5km/h. As the Chumash were a mobile hunter-gatherer group initially and they still retained semblances of this mobility although having permanent settlements during these periods, the speed which was used to calculate the times was 4.5km/h as they would most likely have been fit enough to match or exceed this speed in certain situations. If Elijman was in contact with Syuxtun it would unlikely be directly due to the ~14-hour distance which it would take to get there due to the south mountains acting as a barrier. As this portion of the Santa Ynez Valley is not thought to contain an abundance of chert compared to the north western part, the chert or shell-beads which came through most likely came from the coastal sites as it was exported from the Channel Islands. It is likely then that people migrated to the east into the sites of Snihuaj and Najalayegua where they could be in more direct contact with the people of Syuxtun. Due to the village of Najalayegua being closest to Syuxtun it would also be likely that people moved from the south into this north portion and took their ideas of industry with them and thus they would be able to craft their own beads within this interior.
Figure 7: West Santa Ynez mountain area including routes (Luxford 2019)
Site Interaction Distance Calculated Time Chert Potential - > Xonxonata 30km 7 hrs 10 mins
Xonxonata -> Saxtonokmu 14.1km 3 hrs 8 mins
Saxtonokmu - > Chert Potential 4.3km 57 mins to base / 2 hrs 4 mins to peak
The map in figure 7 indicates two areas of chert potential in the north west part of the Santa Ynez Valley and two settlements that the Chumash were known to reside in during the Late and Historic Periods. The area to the west is a 30km distance from Xonxonata so is unlikely to be an area that they exploited due to the 7-hour time it would take to reach there, but the area nearer Saxtonokmu seems more likely. It is slightly less time to both the base and peak of the mountains here. Though 3 hours does not seem to be of significance in comparison to the 7-hour expedition, a round trip would then add up to 6 hours of time if they were directly trading between villages. As the village of Saxtonokmu is known to have been occupied to a later date than Xonxonata it may be suggested that people ended up moving to this area because of the chert that was able to be exploited and the capabilities that were possible in relation to how society became to be structured during this period.
The results of the Santa Ynez valley would indicate that people moved out-with of the central interior such as the village of Elijman as socio-political structure changed. As people began to gain more autonomy over the shell-bead trade and found areas of exploitation by either trade or natural resources, they could move into the necessary areas of occupation in order to utilise them to their maximum efficiency.
Figure 8: Channel Islands including case study sites (Luxford 2019)
The areas of interest in the Channel Islands cover each of the most archaeologically intense islands – the San Miguel Island, the Santa Rosa Island and the Santa Cruz Island. On Santa Miguel Island there are the Early Holocene sites of Daisy Cove and Cardwell Bluffs to the east and the site of SMI-503/504 to the west which is dated to the Early-Middle Period. Santa Rosa Island is home to the Tecolote Point (SRI-3) site which dates to the Early Period. The sites of El Montón and Punta Arena on Santa Cruz Island are both Early Period, whereas Christy Beach is a Middle Period site. Prisoners Harbour is a Transitional-Historic Period site, China Harbour and Scorpions Anchorage date to around the Middle-Historic Period whereas Smugglers Cove dates to the Late-Historic Period. This initial prognosis would indicate that the migratory patterns of the Islands is not particularly regular, as there is no clear pattern of migration, but patterns which seem to be determined by which areas would be the best to exploit dependent on the materials or artefacts that were significant to the designated period.
Figure 9: Santa Cruz Island including case study sites (Luxford 2019)
However, Santa Cruz Island seems to tell a different story. The sites of El Montón and Punta Arena were included to the initial map as they also display patterns of stone assemblage that were related to plant material like in the case of SMI-503 and 504 on San Miguel Island but they are most likely not linked to that of Christy Beach and the sites further east of the Island. The site of Christy Beach is not thought to have been occupied during the transitional period in comparison to those sites on the eastern side of the island. This potentially indicates that the areas here provided material during the
latter periods in Chumash society demonstrating that they wished to settle and exploit here rather than anywhere else. The sites here would also be closer to the mainland than those to the west which meant trade to the mainland would be in better reach.
Figure 10: East Santa Cruz Island including distances and projected routes (Luxford 2019)
As signified in figure 10 a potential movement to the east would be as follows, whereby the transitional details of microblades would gradually filter to the areas of China Harbour, Scorpions Anchorage and Smugglers Cove and due to the best quality chert being available they would then be in the best possible positions to benefit from the shell-bead trade. By the Late-Historic Period there was most likely little movement between villages permanently and it was most likely diffusion and trade that dominated this period, but in places like China Harbour there were little quarry sites that were the sources of chert. In China Harbour’s case the quarry was 1.2km from the settlement – around 16 minutes.
3.2 Ceremonial Events
Figure 11: Map of Ventureno region including migratory patterns and villages/ceremonial sites (Luxford 2019)
The next case study which looks at ceremonial events views the region of Ventureno to the SE of Chumash territory. Three pictograph sites named Burro Flats, Lake Manor and Chatsworth were known to be sites of great ceremonial importance from around the Middle/Late Period until the Historic Period. The villages within the Ventureno region were thought to take part in the ceremonial events, especially the village of Humaliwo which is now Malibu, which was thought to have been one of the biggest and most important capitals. The villages of note all temporarily moved into the central pictograph sites during events such as the solstice. The type of migration which this can relate to is that of circular migration which in the modern day would be akin to people who temporarily circulate through specific regions due to employment. As noted in figure 11, people were also moving toward the area from the east and territories which were not occupied by the Chumash indicating that different groups were mixing while they were at these sites and using them for similar purposes. Though the villages or sites have not
been noted onto the maps due to this being a study which focuses on the Chumash patterns of migration, they will be discussed in Chapter 4 due to the relations to the modern day concerning borders and border control, something which would not have been apparent in the past as the political boundaries were made but not controlled as they would be today.
Figure 12: Ventureno region and projected routes which were taken (Luxford 2019)
Table 4: Calculated distance and times in the Ventureno region (Luxford 2019)
Site Interaction Distance Calculated Time
Simiyi -> Chatsworth 19.6km 4 hrs 33 mins Ta’apu -> Chatsworth 14.4km 3 hrs 24 mins
Huwam -> Burro Flats 3.2km 49 mins
Hipuk -> Burro Flats 16km 3 hrs 39 mins
Ta’lopop -> Burro Flats 10.2km 2 hrs 28 mins Humaliwo -> Burro Flats 20.2km 5 hrs 6 mins Topa’nga -> Burro Flats 15.7km 3 hrs 29 mins Sumo -> Burro Flats 27.7km 6 hrs 37 mins Chatsworth -> Lake Manor 3.5km 47 mins
Lake Manor -> Burro Flats 5.8km 1 hr 17 mins
The map in figure 12 and table 4 highlight the pathways that would potentially have been taken by the Chumash people when taking part in these ceremonies. As with the shell-bead industry the routes were created by using modern roads/trails that were present on the GIS application and Chumash routes/trails that we have some evidence for. It is not clear which villages would have congregated at each site which is why the routes have been determined to the nearest. For a village such as Humaliwo it is highly likely that they would have been present at each of the sites due to their huge importance to the rest of the interaction sphere. Due to this, the distances between the ceremonial sites have also been given so it can be determined how long it would have taken to take from the village of Humaliwo to get to Chatsworth rather than Burro Flats for example or the village of Simiyi to Burro Flats rather than Chatsworth. The greatest journey was determined to be for the village of Sumo at 6-hours 37 mins which translates to over ½ a day for a round trip. If we also factor in that the solstices occurred at specific moments during the day and while the events were on it included dancing, singing and other activities, they may well have spent a few days away from their home villages rather than the village of Huwam for example which was calculated as only being around 49 minutes from the Burro Flats site and known to be the host village for the festival. By extending the distance of Sumo to Chatsworth, it takes the total single journey from 6-hours 37 mins to 8 hours 41 mins which extends the round trip from around ½ day to ¾ of a day. The results not only determine the significant time periods that it would have taken many of the villages to reach the ceremonial sites but also the extent of the climbs/descents that they would endure while hiking. In some instances, the groups that were travelling would climb/descend up to 1000 feet due to the mix of mountain trails and valley floors. This can be exemplified in situations where the distance is quite close together but the calculate time is a bit higher or lower than expected. For example, Simiyi to Chatsworth is 0.6km less than Humaliwo to Burro Flats but takes 34 mins less showing that the hike from Humaliwo was more strenuous than the trip from Simiyi. Examples such as Hipuk and Topa’nga who both would most likely have commuted to Burro Flats show that their respective journeys were of similar strain. The average time to reach the general vicinity of the three sites works out as 3 hours 46 minutes. When calculated into a round trip this works out as a little over ¼ of a day.
