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

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

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42 Cahuilla myth in which rabbits were driven from brush by fire. Bean (1972:65) reported fire was generally used among the Cahuilla to flush game. Castetter and Bell (1951:217) noted that the Cocopa and Mohave fired tule areas to flush rabbits, and the Cocopa set fire to rats’ nests. The Yumans built circles of brush fire to concentrate prey, especially rabbits (Castetter and Bell 1951:214-15). Brush along river sloughs was fired by the Kamia in rabbit hunts (Gifford 1931:26). Spier (1923:337) reported that the Southern Dieguefio used fire to drive rabbits from brush. Among more northerly groups in the southern part of the state not covered in Lewis’s (1973) paper on burning, Steward (1933:253, 254; 1934: 434; 1934:39, 184) listed rabbit drives with fire by the Mono Lake Paiute, use of fire in deer drives by the Owens Valley Paiute, and use of fire in communal antelope and rabbit drives by the Ash Valley Paiute. THE PREFORMATIVE STAGE IN CALIFORNIA Heizer (1958:23) urged that the nature of the economy and density and stability of population achieved in late prehistoric times in Central California and \ thern California was such that these areas should be classified as Preformative in the historical development classification of archaeological cultures developed by Willey and Phillips (1955). The Preformative Stage, which follows the Archaic, is signalized by the introduction of agriculture, which is dependent upon marked population increase and large stable villages. Heizer defined Preformative as "semiagricultural" and argued that this status had been achieved in California through an abundant and assured food supply primarily provided by the acorn. In attempting to verify Heizer’s contention that gathering in California was fully equivalent to the manner of life of other aboriginal peoples who practiced primitive forms of farming, Ziegler (1968) employed the term "quasi-agricultural" as descriptive of the acorn-salmon economies of north-central California. He concluded that these quasi-agricultural economies were reasonably equivalent to protoor semi-agricultural societies elsewhere. Such economies allowed manifestations of leisure time and diversity of labor not only in "non-vital" occupations, but also in an apparent over-claboration of assignments even in "vital" professions (Ziegler 1968:64). Quasi-agriculture seems to us an appropriate term to apply to the acorn-salmon industry, but not to the over-all pattern of native economies 43 in California. Here, for reasons we shall indicate in our discussion later, Heizer’s term "semi-agricultural" seems most satisfactory for an allencompassing term for the native California economy. California’s native economy, we suggest, should be viewed holistically rather than by tribelet or cultural region to be seen in broad ecological perspective. To distinguish some regions as "semi agricultural" only on the basis of greater food abundance or superior gathering management is to fail to recognize that quasi-agricultural or semi-agricultural processes overlap into every cultural region in California. Indeed, California’s native economy was far more complex in terms of energy extraction processes than can be apprehended by a primary focus upon such features as the acorn-salmon industries with the assumption that all other hunting and collecting activities were supplementary. Without challenging the idea that the acorn economy, where wild oaks were harvested like horticultural tree crops, was indeed a "quasiagricultural" gathering activity, we should like to emphasize that it was not the only feature of native plant gathering which suggests that California was in a pre-agricultural stage. Lewis’s (1973) paper, as we shall see, provides new insight into another possibly equally important aspect of the hunting and gathering economy. Even for the marginal-subsistence environment of the Great Basin, Downs (1966b:41) demonstrated that variations on the primary hunting and gathering theme and environmental manipulations had considerable significance. They were probably even a more significant part of gathering activities in California, because there was a far greater range of plant resources to be exploited, requiring a continuum of plant knowledge which had to be applied in the context of a rich variety of specific plant associations. Without denying the importance of the acorn as a primary staple, we question the over-emphasis on the acorn economy in the literature, which has tended to make researchers neglect other features of the gathering pattern deserving scrutiny. The "quasi-agricultural" pattern postulated by Ziegler for the acorn harvest also may be said to be applicable to methods of harvesting mesquite, pine-nut, and agave. In addition, one also finds present among some California groups--possibly most of them if sufficient information were available--evidence for both incipient agriculture and proto-agricultural manipulations. In support of the latter statement, we shall briefly summarize some of the available data on proto-agriculture in California. Wild tobacco was planted and grown by the Dieguefo (Luomala unpublished), Cahuilla (Bean and Saubel 1972:92), Wintu, Maidu, Miwok,