Tongva Ritual Practice on San Clemente Island: Reanalysis of Religious Dynamics during the Colonial Period

Summary

Many archaeologists have studied religious identity in Native American populations. Tongva sites such as Lemon Tank and Big Dog Cave on the plateau of San Clemente Island provide a rich source of data on Tongva ritual practices. Collections from these sites include ritual avian and canid burials along with caches of seeds, beads, and ritually "killed" objects. Existing research has focused on connecting the archaeological record to the historical and ethnographic record to identify the rituals that the Tongva practiced at these sites, such as initiation and public mourning ceremonies. At the same time, artifacts such as metal, glass beads, and mission cloth indicate that these sites were occupied during the Spanish colonial period. Therefore these collections, combined with current anthropological theory on religion, provide an opportunity to explore Tongva religious practice in the context of colonialism. This paper reexamines evidence of Tongva ritual on San Clemente Island to explore religious dynamics during the colonial period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage