What’s in the Oven? Specialized Processing, or Mixed Food Preparation in the Chumash Kitchen

Summary

The distinction between generalized hunter-gatherers and economic specialists has long interested archaeologists reliant on faunal and floral remains. Resource-processing features provide another line of evidence to address the topic, though specialized facilities do not necessarily imply patterns of specialized subsistence. Chumash inhabitants of the Santa Monica Mountains provide a case in point. Earth ovens interpreted as specialized resource-processing facilities are commonly excavated, yet a mixed economy based on diverse marine and terrestrial wild plant and animal resources enabled a remarkably complex, sedentary non-agricultural society. Data from earth ovens and middens are employed to show how specialized technologies for resource processing can be coordinated within a broad subsistence base capable of supporting social systems that resemble agricultural societies in many respects.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Bones are Not Enough": Research in Honor of Diane Gifford-Gonzalez   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage