Paradigm Shifts, Rock Art Studies, and the “Coso Sheep Cult” of Eastern California

Abstract

One of the more spectacular expressions of prehistoric rock art in all of North America is the petroglyph concentration in the Coso Range of eastern California. These glyphs have played a prominent role in attempts to understand forager religious iconography. Four decades ago, Heizer and Baumhoff (1962) concluded that Great Basin petroglyphs were associated with hunting large game and were intended to supernaturally increase success in the hunt. Similarly, in their seminal work Grant et al. (1968) concluded that the mountain sheep drawings of the Coso region bolstered the "hunting magic" hypothesis. However, this hypothesis has become increasingly marginalized by a prevailing view that considers most rock art as an expression of individual shamanistic endeavor (cf. Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1988; Whitley, 1994; Whitley and Loendorf, 1994). This article explores comparative ethnologic and archaeological evidence supporting the hunting magic hypothesis. I place this explanatory framework in a larger context based on a contemporary understanding of comparative religion and the complexity of forager symbolism. The article argues that the preponderance of Coso images are conventionalized iconography associated with a sheep cult ceremonial complex. This is inconsistent with models interpreting the Coso drawings as metaphoric images correlated with individual shamanic vision quests.

Bighorn hunting, resource depression, and rock art in the Coso Range, eastern California: a computer simulation model

“…A synthesis of regional archaeofaunal data for southeastern California has been formally reported in several publications (Garfinkel, 2006;Gilreath and Hildebrandt, 2008;Hildebrandt and McGuire, 2002;McGuire et al, 2007). These data derive from over 75 prehistoric sites in the general Coso region.…”

“…If game were scarce, it was not due to overexploitation but a consequence of the displeasure of deities. Events in the natural world such as declining resources or unsuccessful hunts arose from offenses to supernatural animal masters and ritual violations (Garfinkel, 2006(Garfinkel, , 2007Harrod, 2000:122).…”

“…They also provide persuasive evidence that petroglyph sites are directly associated with 1 Evidence has been presented elsewhere to support the notion that a population replacement may have occurred in the Coso Region ca. A.D. 1000-1300 that would have been associated with a series of radical shifts in adaptive strategies, exchange patterns, and ideological systems (Garfinkel 2006(Garfinkel , 2007. Alternately, no such ethnolinguistic discontinuity may exist, and changes in subsistence-settlement, socio-political, and ceremonial organization may have been a function of indigenous, autochthonous culture change and loss (cf.…”

“…By counting and approximately dating the rock images, we can gain a quantitative measure of human activity in the period 1500 B.C.-A.D. 1300. The ubiquity of bighorn images has stimulated the hypothesis that the Prenumic rock image makers were performing ''hunting magic'' (increase rites) characteristic of forager hunting rituals to increase the sheep that they targeted for food (Garfinkel, 2006(Garfinkel, , 2007Garfinkel et al, 2007;Gilreath and Hildebrandt, 2008;Grant et al 1968;Guenther, 1988:194;Heizer and Baumhoff, 1962;Hildebrandt and McGuire, 2002;McGuire and Hildebrandt, 2005).…”

“…Prehistoric animal images were part of a bighorn sheep cult. These images figured in increase rites designed to ensure the return of game animals, human, plant, and animal fecundity, and the health and well-being of the Coso people and their way of life (Garfinkel, 2006;Grant et al, 1968;Hildebrandt and McGuire, 2002;Heizer and Baumhoff, 1962).…”