Cultural Keystone Places and the Chumash Landscapes of Kumqaq’, Point Conception, California

Abstract

The places in which people live and spend time are steeped in history, memory, and meaning from the intersection of daily life, environmental interactions, cultural practices, and ritual. Geologic features, plants, animals, and ecosystems merge with these cultural histories, forming critical parts of the landscape and areas of “high cultural salience,” or “cultural keystone places” (CKPs). We identify Kumqaq’ (Point Conception) and the surrounding area in California as a Chumash CKP. Ethnohistoric accounts and contemporary Chumash community members have long demonstrated the importance of Point Conception in Chumash worldview and identity, whereas biologists, ecologists, and conservationists reference the area's rich biodiversity and significance as a biogeographical boundary. Recent archaeological survey of the coastline surrounding Kumqaq’ highlights these connections, identifying over 50 archaeological sites—including shell middens, villages, lithic scatters, and rock art—with at least 9,000 years of occupation. Ongoing collaborations among archaeologists, the Nature Conservancy, and Chumash community members help document and understand the long-term linkages between cultural and biological diversity and how integrating these perspectives can help ensure the resilience of this nexus of human and natural history in the Anthropocene future.

Integrating Historical Ecology and Environmental Justice

“…Lepofsky et al (2017) show the importance of integrating HE frameworks for building lateral narratives about CKPs. In a different study, Rick et al (2022) demonstrate how Humqaq (Point Conception) and surrounding area in California is a CKP for Chumash community members where fifty archaeological sites spanning at least 9,000 years are tied to Chumush identity, biological resources, and community wellbeing. In similar fashion, the cultural landscapes in and around Mesa Verde National Park represent a CKP for Pueblo people.…”

Archaeological and stable isotope data reveal patterns of fishing across the food web on California’s Channel Islands

“…We applied a local Santa Barbara Channel reservoir correction of 128 ± 104 (Bronk Ramsey, 2009; Heaton et al, 2020). The reservoir correction was obtained from the 14Chrono database and is based on the Marine20 curve applied to three known-age samples from Ingram and Southon (1996) that were used to calculate an updated ΔR value for a previous value that was long used in the Santa Barbara Channel region (225 ± 35; Rick et al, 2022). Newly calibrated dates are consistent with those originally reported by Braje et al (2014), although the new dates have a larger standard deviation because of the larger standard deviation of the updated reservoir correction.…”

The Constructed Desert: A Sacred Cultural Landscape at Har Tzuriaz, Negev, Israel

“…In rugged and barren desert terrain, perhaps even more than in fertile lands, people assign meaning to and impose structure on landscape features, both natural and built by them or by previous cultures. Functionally, landscape features and structures mark boundaries and territories, reflect exploitation zones and generally structure activities; ideologically or symbolically, mythologies and cosmologies are attached to landscape features, these too structuring cultural behaviours (Barker & Gilbertson 2000;Rick et al 2022;A. Rosen 2007;Wilkinson 2003).…”

“…Within this framework, new concepts are introduced; for example, the concept of cultural keystone places, borrowed from cultural keystone species, has been recently developed in order to document and preserve for future generations important indigenous landscapes that are under severe threats of current development (e.g. Cuerrier et al 2015; Rick et al 2022). Sacred landscapes are interpreted as specific examples of how people perceived the many components of their physical surroundings (e.g.…”

“…In rugged and barren desert terrain, perhaps even more than in fertile lands, people assign meaning to and impose structure on landscape features, both natural and built by them or by previous cultures. Functionally, landscape features and structures mark boundaries and territories, reflect exploitation zones and generally structure activities; ideologically or symbolically, mythologies and cosmologies are attached to landscape features, these too structuring cultural behaviours (Barker & Gilbertson 2000; Rick et al 2022; A. Rosen 2007; Wilkinson 2003). Although archaeologists recognize long-term continuities inherent in cultural landscapes, these continuities are only partial, a backdrop to the re-use and reinterpretation of landscape over time, reflecting the new ideological frameworks of each succeeding cultural presence.…”