Independent or Attached Specialization: The Organization of Shell Bead Production in California

Regional Interactions between California and the Southwest: The Western Edge of the North American Continental System

“…In the Southwest, this period saw considerable population increases, the expansion of sedentary villages, and increased social stratification. In response to these changes, one could imagine how newly empowered actors in the Southwest might have then sought greater quantities of California shell to cement their status, fueling the intensification of specialization in the Channel Islands observable in the archaeological record (Arnold and Munns ). Several centuries later, the largest expansion of the Chumash bead industry began with the start of the Transitional Period, around C.E.…”

“…Over the following five centuries, several million such beads are estimated to have been produced, mainly on Santa Cruz Island, and exported to the adjacent mainland, the Great Basin, and the Southwest (Bennyhoff and Hughes ). The production and export of Olivella shell beads was conducted largely through the control of commoner labor by island Chumash elites (Arnold and Munns ), who traded beads for asphaltum and other important items from the mainland (Fauvelle ; King ). These beads have been interpreted as a form of trade currency, driving the formation of what several scholars see as a burgeoning “market economy” in the Santa Barbara Channel region (Gamble ; King ).…”

Emerging economies

“…The primary focus of specialists was not only the production of utilitarian objects, but for items specifically associated with the pleasure and aggrandizement of the elite. These ideas have persisted in our understanding of ancient political economies, and directly lead to contemporary political models of specialization in prehistoric societies (Earle 1987(Earle , 1997Costin 1991;Arnold and Munns 1994;Wright et al 2008). Childe cited the invention of 'intelligent metallurgy' (which referred to the smelting and casting of raw metal ores) as a prime example of precapitalist economic specialization: metallurgists, withdrawn from food production, grew increasingly dependent upon the elite, who alone could afford their services, and support them (Childe 1942(Childe , 1950(Childe , 1951Sherratt 1989:179-182).…”

“…Anthropological theory regarding specialization has a complex lineage (Marx 1978(Marx [1844 [1844], [1877], Engels 1968Engels [1878 [1872] , Malinowski 1922;Durkheim 1984Durkheim [1933, Boas 1982Boas [1940, Steward 1955, White 1959, see Clark and Parry 1990 and more recently has been greatly refined and applied to a wider variety of contexts than before (Evans 1978;Rice 1981;Brumfiel and Earle 1987;Gosden 1989;Clark and Parry 1990;Costin 1991Costin , 1993Costin , 2005Peregrine 1991;Blackman et al 1993;Charlton et al 1993;Cobb 1993;Cross 1993;Helms 1993;Arnold and Munns 1994;Clark 1995;Costin and Hagstrum 1995;Hayden 1995;Mills and Crown 1995;Childe and Wailes 1996;Earle 1997;Earle 2002;Brumfiel 1998;Clark and Houston 1998;Lass 1998;Sassaman 1998;Spielmann 1998;Bayman 1999;Arnold 2000;Trubitt 2000;…”

“…North American archaeologists have addressed this by focusing on the presence of parttime or 'casual' specialists found in middle-range societies that are stratified but not-state level (Clark and Parry 1990;Cobb 1993;Cross 1993;Arnold and Munns 1994;Clark 1995;Hayden 1995;Mills and Crown 1995;Lass 1998;Sassaman 1998;Spielmann 1998;Bayman 1999;Trubitt 2000;Bayman and Nakamura 2001;Clark and Blake 2004;Schortman and Urban 2004). Some European archaeologists have also started to examine Neolithic specialization, and challenge earlier ideas about the level of social complexity required for certain types of specialization (Perlès 1992, Perlès 2001Perlès and Vitelli 2000;Souvatzi 2008).…”