Complex Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers of Prehistoric California: Chiefs, Specialists, and Maritime Adaptations of the Channel Islands

Abstract

The Chumash of the Santa Barbara Channel region were among the most economically and politically complex hunter–gatherer cultures of the New World. In recent decades, rich ethnohistorical documents pertaining to Chumash culture were analyzed, thus providing an excellent foundation for understanding the simple chiefdom that was in place as explorers and missionaries arrived in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Current archaeological research on the Channel Islands focuses on the emergence of ranked society in Chumash prehistory, with special emphasis on political developments and environmental stresses that contributed to cultural evolution. A wide range of data acquired from the Channel Islands illuminates a new model of the rise of complexity. This model of chiefdom emergence is based on population-resource imbalances, political opportunism, and the manipulation of labor by rising elites. Diverse lines of evidence must be employed to evaluate the timing, causes, and consequences of increasing complexity.

Intrashell Radiocarbon Variability in Marine Mollusks

“…Bennyhoff and Hughes 1987;King 1990;Rick 2004). Olivella shows the greatest diversity of bead forms, from a nearly whole condition (spire-removed) as early as 10,000 cal BP Fitzgerald et al 2005), as split half-shells after ~1500 cal BP (King 1990), as tiny callus beads after 700 cal BP (Arnold 1992;King 1990), and numerous other forms throughout the Holocene (Bennyhoff and Hughes 1987;King 1990). Depending on the bead type, an archaeologist may not have many sampling options, but usually the growth axis can be identified and an appropriately averaged sample can be taken even from small specimens.…”

Archaeological perspectives on the effects of medieval drought in prehistoric California

“…In a series of highly influential papers, Arnold (1991Arnold ( , 1992aArnold ( , b, 1993Arnold ( , 1995 proposed that the Chumash on the northern Channel Islands of the southern coast were effected by elevated sea surface temperatures and an associated decline in marine productivity between A.D. 200 and 1200. The period of warm seas was based on a preliminary Holocene sea surface temperature chronology developed by Pisias (1978).…”

Origem e evolução da desigualdade material hereditária: uma abordagem dos Sistemas Adaptativos Complexos

“…Entre os pesquisadores que se debruçaram e continuam se debruçando sobre os fatores causais da estratificação social estão, na maior parte dos casos, antropólogos e arqueólogos, conforme a literatura utilizada neste trabalho (AMES, 1994;ARNOLD, 1992;FRANGIPANE, 2007;WRIGHT, 2014), fazendo desse um campo pouco representado pelos cientistas biológicos. Por esta razão, espera-se com o presente trabalho agregar ao debate novos insights advindos da abordagem darwinista, que utiliza o paradigma da evolução segundo a Seleção Natural como base de pesquisa, sendo nesse caso auxiliada pelas ferramentas e mecanismos estudados entre os fenômenos conhecidos como Sistemas Adaptativos Complexos (HOLLAND, 2006;LANSING, 2003).…”

“…Tais processos de transição social e acumulação material teriam sido documentados em diferentes estudos arqueológicos MARCUS, 2012;MARCUS, 2008;SPENCER, 1990;WRIGHT, 2014). Entre os indicadores de desigualdade material hereditária, definida pela diferença no controle e no acúmulo de excedentes ao longo das gerações (ARNOLD, 1992;FRANGIPANE, 2007), estão, por exemplo, a diversidade do tamanho das habitações em um mesmo vilarejo, o formato distinto de algumas casas e os sepultamentos acompanhados de ornamentações e outros tipos de cultura material que indicam status ou elitização, como colares, pulseiras e brincos (MARCUS, 2008).…”

“…A busca por recursos em regiões distantes poderia implicar em altos riscos, o que explicaria a pequena quantidade de pessoas realizando tal atividade; por outro lado, se a busca fosse bem sucedida, talvez pudesse gerar o ganho de um excedente (ARNOLD, 1992;HAYDEN, 1983;SMITH et al, 2010a …”