Ethnography of Salinan Rock Art

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Salinan Tribe occupied territory extending from the California’s Salinas Valley across the Santa Lucia/Central Coast Ranges to the Pacific coast. Although poorly known, they created a small but important corpus of rock paintings. Even less well-known is the ethnographic record on these pictographs. This includes a comment by Junipero Serra written in 1773, representing the earliest Euro-American mention of Native Californian rock art. Additional ethnographic sources suggest parallels in origin and meaning with the better-described Yokuts rock art located in the Sierra Nevada to the east. Oral history suggests that one rock art site, CA-MNT-316, was used for boys’ puberty initiations as late as 1916, again suggesting similarities with Yokuts ethnography. A possible written inscription at this site may support this use for religious purposes. The inclusion of the Salinan ethnographic information amplifies our understanding of the origin and meaning of Native Californian rock art, and the extent of the South-Central California rock art tradition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32179