Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Some Explanations for the Rise of Cultural Complexity Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 15 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 23:26:21 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:52:17 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:52:17

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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30 intervention or spread of agriculture among, the tribes inhabiting these regions. While Spinden’s views on the origin and distribution of agriculture in the Americas were immenscly influential in their time, his hypothesis concerning California remained almost forgotten until it was revived independently by other rescarchers in the 1950's. As early as 1908, A.L. Kroeber explained the presence of a gourd ‘rattle obtained from the Desert Cahuilla as a trade item from the Colorado River. Kroeber (1908b:62) asserted: "If the Cahuilla of aboriginal times used such rattles they must have obtained them by trade, as they did not practice agriculture or raise gourds." Two decades later, Kroeber formulated the first major hypothesis to receive any considerable attention for the lack of agriculture in California. His hypothesis was primarily cultural, and considerably more sophisticated than the cultural explanations of carlier historians. Kroeber (1925:41) wrote as follows: Agriculture had touched only the periphery of the state, the Colorado River bottom, although the seed-using and fairly sedentary habits of virtually all the other tribes would have made possible the taking over of the art with relatively little change of mode of life. Evidently, planting is a more fundamental innovation to people used to depending on nature than it seems to those who have once acquired the habit. Moreover, in most of California, the food supply, largely through its variety, was reasonably adequate, in spite of a rather heavy population--probably not far from one person to the square mile on the average. In most parts of the State there was little mention of famine. Six years later, admittedly influenced by the views of his colleague, Carl Sauer, the cultural geographer, Kroeber abandoned his cultural explanation for an environmental onc, which he sct forth in his book Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America. Although first 1931, this work was not published until cight years later, but on of the problem. At the always open to new ideas, written in presumably represented Kroeber’s final evaluati same time, it must be noted that Kroeber was and he is known to have entertained other explanations in his classrooms. 31 oo (1958:25) recalled Kroeber discussin e icient acorn economy was a chief barrier to in his classrooms. 2 the possibility that the agriculture as early as 1935 Kroeber’s (1939:211) envi ; ber’s (1939: ‘ironmental hypothesis asserted that nati reat failed to develop in California, "because of its dry ridden: 0 lar as maize was concerned no amount of winter precipitation Lack of contact with agricultural peoples can hardl account for the absence of agriculture on the Pacific Cais of the United States. The Indians of southern California iss in communication with agricultural peoples along the a ida It is not likely that California Indians refrained om experimenting with the crops grown on the Colorado River. The resistance to the westward diffusion of agriculture was probably environmental rather than cultural. The crops which were available had littl prospect of success in winter-rain lands. Maize and squz h especially were ruled out by the rain regime bu th conditions also are predominantly unfavorable for beara’ The Pacific Coast of the United States as a land a Mediterranean climate, had to wait on the introduction of crops from the European Mediterranean. ° A rv i iencetete . pe has stated that since 1946 he has at the acorn economy of Californi i : a ! y alifornia constituted th ceed oo to te ke of agriculture, the environmental oositite roeber and Sauer has dominated h i tan lage much of the literature on \ past two decades. Driver (1961:5 climatic-environmental position in his . sooo position in his textbook, Indians of N i , , ort where he noted that rainfall west of the Colorado Riv Pe halal few inches annually, nett cee ai and that where there is sufficient quantity of rainfall "it comes at the wrong scaso ize." os g on for maize." More recently, Underhill eet of the Colorado the Desert continues with plenty of seed grasses and berrics and with small game; but there iS no summer rain for corn growing.. Among these