From Source to Disposition: Olivella Shell Bead Economics within Missions Santa Cruz and Santa Clara.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Chronicles of Colonialism: Unraveling Temporal Variability in Indigenous Experiences of Colonization in California Missions", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Shell beads made from Olivella biplicata have been important to ancestral Native Americans of the southern San Francisco Bay for nearly 10,000 years. Variations in types and assemblages are temporally diagnostic and well documented; however, continued use during Spanish and Mexican colonial periods attests to the perseverance of tribal economies. Olivella from an adobe at Rancho Año Nuevo (San Mateo County coast), and evidence of shell reduction and bead manufacture at Missions Santa Cruz and Santa Clara suggest a related link from source to final consumption. The Quiroste Tribe controlled distributions of these shells within their coastal territory for several millennia, and continued doing so after relocating among all three institutions where neophyte populations maintained traditional values for these beads. Furthermore, H-series iron needle drilled Olivella bead subtypes found at many central California Missions are not temporally discrete forms (as has been proposed), but are instead a contemporaneous manufacturing trajectory.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Chronicles of Colonialism: Unraveling Temporal Variability in Indigenous Experiences of Colonization in California Missions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow