The Dolphin Hunters: A Specialized Prehistoric Maritime Adaptation in the Southern California Channel Islands and Baja California

Abstract

Synthesis of faunal collections from several archaeological sites on the three southernmost California Channel Islands and one in the Cape Region of Baja California reveals a distinctive maritime adaptation more heavily reliant on the capture of pelagic dolphins than on near-shore pinnipeds. Previous reports from other Southern California coastal sites suggest that dolphin hunting may have occurred there but to a lesser extent. While these findings may represent localized adaptations to special conditions on these islands and the Cape Region, they call for reassessment of the conventionally held concept that pinnipeds were invariably the primary mammalian food resource for coastal peoples. Evidence of the intensive use of small cetaceans is antithetical to the accepted models of maritime optimal foraging which assume that shore-based or near-shore marine mammals (i.e., pinnipeds) would be the highest-ranked prey because they were readily encountered and captured. While methods of dolphin hunting remain archaeologically invisible, several island cultures in which dolphin were intensively exploited by people using primitive watercraft and little or no weaponry are presented as possible analogs to a prehistoric Southern California dolphin-hunting technique. These findings also indicate that dolphin hunting was probably a cooperative endeavor among various members of the prehistoric community.

An Unusual Case? Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to an Island Environment: A Case Study from Okinawa, Japan

“…Hunter-gatherers successfully occupied islands including the Aleutians (Yesner 1981), the California Channel Islands (Erlandson 1994;Erlandson et al 2004;Kennett and Clifford 2004;Porcasi and Fujita 2000), Great Britain (Darvill 1987), and Japan (Habu 2004; see also Crawford 2006). These exceptions suggest that island environments can be successfully occupied by hunter-gatherers under certain conditions.…”

Evolutionary Foraging Models in Zooarchaeological Analysis: Recent Applications and Future Challenges

“…Material evidence that purportedly reflects the rise of prestige hunting includes increased abundances of large prey, a rise in biface production, and increases in the production of symbolic manifestations of hunting such as in split-twig figurines, trophy caches, and rock art. The procurement of large high-value and high-risk fish such as swordfish, marlin, tuna, and dolphin with ocean-going plank canoes also is viewed as manifestations of prestige hunting (e.g., Porcasi and Fujita 2000).…”

Exploitation of dolphins (Cetacea: Delphinidae) at a 6000 yr old Preceramic site in the Pearl Island archipelago, Panama

“…The ethnographic analogue most frequently applied as supporting evidence for prehistoric dolphin drives derives from communities in the presentday Solomon Islands. Following Takekawa (1996:67-72), Porcasi and Fujita (2000) summarise the Solomon Island strategy thus: "an armada of dugouts locates and surrounds an incoming dolphin herd. The hunters then knock together, underwater, 15-cm cobbles.…”