Terry L. Jones - Contemporary Issues in California Archaeology

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN CALIFORNIA ARCHAEOLOGY

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN CALIFORNIA ARCHAEOLOGY

Terry L. Jones
Jennifer E. Perry
Editors

First published 2012 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright 2012 Taylor & Francis.

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ISBN 978-1-61132-091-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-61132-092-3 paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Society for American Archaeology. Meeting (76th : 2011 : Sacramento, Calif.)
Contemporary issues in California archaeology / edited by Terry L. Jones and
Jennifer E. Perry.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-61132-091-6 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61132-092-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61132-093-0 (institutional eBook) ISBN 978-1-61132-463-1 (consumer eBook)
1. Indians of North AmericaCaliforniaAntiquities. 2. California
Antiquities. I. Jones, Terry L. II. Perry, Jennifer E. III. Title.
E78.C15S65 2011
979.401dc23

2011049560

Cover: Map of California as an Island, by Pieter Goos, 1666. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.

In 2011, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) held its 76th Annual Meeting in Sacramento, the first time in 17 years that the meetings were in California. The 1994 meetings were held at Disneyland, which gave the nations archaeologists opportunities to enjoy southern Californias preeminent family entertainment center, but the venue did not lend itself to serious consideration of California archaeology. This was unfortunate, because the 1990s were the beginning of a major resurgence in California archaeological research and publication. Much of this research was summarized in a reader on California prehistory published relatively recently (Raab and Jones 2004; see also Arnold and Walsh 2010; Fagan 2003; Jones and Klar 2007), but advances in California archaeology have continued to come at a rapid pace, so the 2011 SAA meetings seemed to offer an opportunity to once again summarize the latest thinking on Californias material past in a venue where other interested scholars from around the world could attend and listen. With this in mind, we contacted most of the states leading practitioners in 2010 to gauge their interest in participating in a session devoted to summarizing the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in California archaeology.

We also posed to each scholar a tentative topic related to their recent publications and/or a current scholarly debate. A number of fairly high-profile debates has arisen in recent years in California involving such topics as coastal colonization of the New World, the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact, the effects of medieval droughts, subsistence versus prestige-based foraging, Polynesian contact, alternative interpretations of rock art, and the role of Native Californians in the archaeological research process. As the list of topics and participants grew, it became apparent that more than one session would be necessary. The two parts of the current book reflect approximately the two sessions that were held in Sacramento on March 31, 2011, with topics related to environment, ecology, and origins presented in the morning, and papers touching on more social aspects of California prehistory in the afternoon. The 21 chapters in the current volume represent most of those papers; they also offer a good sampling of the best of California archaeology, including contact-era and post-contact historical studies and a wide range of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. We appreciate the interest and efforts of Mitch Allen and the staff at Left Coast Press, Inc. to bring this collection of important papers to press.

TLJ and JEP, September 2011

Arnold, J. E., and M. R. Walsh 2010 Californias Ancient Past: From the Pacific to the Range of Light. Society for American Archaeology, The SAA Press, Washington D.C.

Fagan, B. M. 2003 Before California. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.

Jones, T. L., and K. A. Klar (eds.) 2007 California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.

Raab, L. M., and T. L. Jones 2004 Prehistoric California: Archaeology and the Myth of Paradise. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.