Measurement of Population Growth and Decline During California Prehistory

The distribution through time of radiocarbon dates is an important source of information about regional population fluctuation. However, a number of factors affecting distributional patterns must be considered when inferring changes in relative population size. Because these factors often are difficult to control, fluctuation in a date distribution is best considered a source of hypotheses about population growth and decline that should be tested against other sources of data. Three date distributions pertaining to the Santa Barbara Channel mainland coast, the northern Channel Islands, and the Vandenberg region exemplify the potential of this approach. These areas show similarities that may be linked to the impact of environmental events affecting broad geographic areas, as well as to differences that appear to reflect the impact of differing environments on cultural development. Future use of radiocarbon date distributions will be enhanced if archaeologists make every effort to obtain dates for every site investigated, take greater care in selecting samples, and report dating results in a systematic format

Further Comments on Publishing Large Compilations of Archaeological Data

As members of the advisory board of the University of Utah Anthropological Papers, Duncan Metcalfe and James O'Connell point out that the University of Utah Press cannot afford to publish the reams of data that accompany some submissions of monograph-length reports, even though the stated goal of the series is to publish research "in full." Recognizing the value of making data available to interested researchers, they offer two solutions: (1) publish only those data "needed to insure basic comprehension" and encourage authors to make the complete data available for the asking in machine-readable form, or (2) publish the data in a "highly compressed format" with the paper. These two proposals do not limit the possibilities, and I offer here a third

Kennett: The Island Chumash, Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society

The Island Chumash, Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society Douglas J. Keimett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.310 pp., 22 b/w photographs, 23 line illustrations, 15 maps, 20 tables, $60 (cloth)

Kennett: The Island Chumash, Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society

The Island Chumash, Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society Douglas J. Keimett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.310 pp., 22 b/w photographs, 23 line illustrations, 15 maps, 20 tables, $60 (cloth)

The Significance of Small Sites to California Archaeology

These examples of the research potential of small sites in two neighboring regions of coastal California should drive home the point that small sites turn out to have considerable relevance to regional research once the commitment is made to understand their role in regionally based cultural systems. Small sites such as CA-SBA-1582 are significant to regional research because of their unique contents, whereas the small sites in northern Vandenberg Air Force Base are so because of the patterns of variation in their contents and their spatial relationships to one another. In both cases, the testing of behavioral hypotheses accounting for their contents must rely on knowledge of their distribution and abundance and their relationships with large sites

Rick: The Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Late Holocene San Miguel Island

The Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Late Holocene San Miguel Island Torben C. Rick Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2007. [Perspectives in California Archaeology 8.] Xii + 180 pp., 55 figs., 53 tables, references, index, $70 (hard cover),$40 (paper)

An Evaluation of Models of Inezeño Chumash Subsistence and Economics

A hasty conclusion to this evaluation of the models of Inezeño economic organization and the evidence supporting them might be that the models should be set aside and attention devoted to ascertaining archaeological (and environmental) facts before returning to model-building. This is reasonable, but it must be remembered that the facts we look for (e.g., small pieces of salmonid bones) and the techniques used to obtain them (e.g., fine screening) imply that certain kinds of information are necessary to test such models as these. It cannot be denied that the presentation of the models, however flawed they might be, has had the effect of focusing our attention on problems that otherwise probably would not be recognized. So as we set out to seek more facts, we should also be refining our models. The two enterprises go hand-in-hand

Hudson and Blackburn: The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere, Vol. IV: Ceremonial Paraphernalia, Games, and Amusements

The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere, Vol IV: Ceremonial Paraphernalia, Games, and Amusements.Travis Hudson and Thomas C. Blackburn. Los Altos: Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 30 (Ballena Press/Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Cooperative Publication), 1986, 457 pp., 310 figs., 3 tables, 1 map, index, $29.95 (paper),$47.95 (cloth)