Inter-Island Material Conveyance and Exchange on California’s Channel Islands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Complex Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of North America" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Most discussions of exchange relating to California’s eight Channel Islands have been framed in terms of island-mainland interactions, of which the Chumash people of the four northern islands have been the primary focus. Less consideration has been given to the Tongva of the four southern islands as well as inter-island and intra-island networks throughout the archipelago. Inter-island and intra-island studies of material conveyance allow us to evaluate this topic more holistically, by being inclusive of both the Chumash and Tongva as well as the roles that smaller islands, such as Santa Barbara Island, and more marginal environments have played in supporting permanent populations on the larger islands. We consider the inter-island distribution of major lithic materials and artifact types throughout the Channel Islands because of their durability, desirability through time, and sourcing possibilities, with emphasis placed on evidence of material conveyance between the southern islands. The distribution and type of non-local objects, which includes ceremonial ones such as stone effigies and pipes, also allows for a fuller consideration of ritual and value-added items as facilitators, products, and archaeological evidence of inter-island and intra-island interaction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Complex Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24499