Interactions and Interiors of the Coastal Chumash

Abstract

Incorporating landscape archaeology and Chumash ethnohistory, we consider some lesser known facets of inter-village interaction in the northern California Bight. Utilizing the concepts of taskscapes, places, routes, and viewsheds, we evaluate archaeological data sets from Santa Cruz Island and the Oxnard Plain on the adjacent mainland. In particular, we discuss how travel routes and the distribution of resources, of both land and sea, were facilitated and/or controlled through site placement, intermarriage, and ceremonial integration. Although emphasis is placed on the Late Period (A.D. 1300-1782), it is also necessary to situate these interpretations within the broader context of middle (4500-1500 B.C.) and late Holocene settlement (1500 B.C.-present). In the end, we argue that the interior places, land-based travel routes, and terrestrial resources of these coastal regions, as well as the demand for products from the mainland interior, were important and changing parts of Chumash exchange and interaction.