Abstract
“Scalps were taken in the greater part of California, brought home in triumph, and celebrated over, usually by a dance around a pole” (Kroeber 1976:843); thus concluded the great California ethnographer Alfred Kroeber on the human trophy taking in his lengthy treatise, Handbook of the Indians of California. At the time of his study of the cultural elements of California’s indigenous peoples, California was or had recently been occupied by over 50 tribal groups (Figure 4.1) representing six major language stocks/families and numerous languages and dialects (Dixon and Kroeber 1919; Heizer 1978: ix; Kroeber 1976; Moratto 1984; Shipley 1978). It was then, as now, an ethnically and linguistically diverse landscape. For this reason, the indigenous landscape of California provides an ideal backdrop for examining the processes by which cultural traits such as human trophy taking are developed, introduced, adopted, modified, rejected, or eliminated as they move across social boundaries. The purpose of this chapter is: to document human trophy-taking behavior in indigenous societies of California and to examine the relationship between historic patterns of trophy taking and the geographic distribution of the six major language groups, with an eye on elucidating the origins and antiquity of the practice.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aginsky, B. W. (1943). Culture Element Distributions: XXIV, Central Sierra. University of California Anthropological Records 8:4:393–468, Berkeley.
Andrushko, Valerie A., Kate A. S. Latham, Diane L. Grady, Allen G. Pastron, and Phillip L. Walker. (2005). Bioarchaeological evidence for trophy taking in prehistoric central California. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 127:375–384.
Archaeological Resource Management (A.R.M.). (1990). Archaeological Excavations at CA-SCL-6W, The Lick Mill Boulevard Site: Artifact and Burial Records, Volume I of III. A.R.M., 496 N. Fifth Street, San Jose, CA.
Beals, Ralph L. (1933). Ethnology of the Nisenan. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 31:335–413, Berkeley.
Bean, Lowell J. (1972). Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bean, Lowell J. (1978). Cahuilla. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 575–587. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bean, Lowell J., and Florence Shipek. (1978). Luiseño. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 550–563. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bean, Lowell J., and Charles R. Smith. (1978a). Cupeño. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer, (ed.). Pp. 588–591. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bean, Lowell J., and Charles R. Smith. (1978b). Gabrielino. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 538–549. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bean, Lowell J., and Charles R. Smith. (1978c). Serrano. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 570–574. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bean, Lowell J., and Dorothea Theodoratus. (1978). Western Pomo and Northeastern Pomo. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 289–305. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bell, Maureen. (1991). Karuk: The Upriver People. Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph Publishers.
Bellwood, P. (1997). Prehistoric cultural explanations for widespread linguistic families. In Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspectives, P. McConvell and N. Evans (eds.). Pp. 123–134. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Blackburn, Thomas, and Lowell J. Bean. (1978). Kitanemuck. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 564–569. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bowers, Stephen. (1897). The Santa Barbara Indians. Unpublished manuscript. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum.
Breschini, Gary S., and Trudy Haversat. (2004). The Esselen Indians of the Big Sur Country: The Land and the People. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press.
Bridges, Patricia S., Keith P. Jacobi, and Mary Lucas Powell. (2000). Warfare-related trauma in the late prehistory of Alabama. In Bioarchaeological Studies of Life in the Age of Agriculture: A View from the Southeast, P. M. Lambert (ed.). Pp. 35–62. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Bright, W. (1978). Karok. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 180–189. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Burrus, Ernest J. (1967). Diario del Capitán Comandante Fernando de Rivera y Moncada. Colleción Chimalistac de Libros y Documentos Acerca de la Nueva España, Volumes 24 and 25. Madrid: Ediciones José.
Callaghan, Catherine A. (1978). Lake Miwok. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 264–273. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Conrotto, Eugene L. (1973) Miwok Means People: The Life and Fate of the Native Inhabitants of the California Gold. Rush Country. Fresno, CA: Valley Publishers.
Conrotto, Eugene L. (1973) Rush Country. Fresno, CA: Valley Publishers.
Darlington, H. S. (1939). The meaning of head hunting. Psychoanalytic Review XXVI, No. 1:55–68.
D'Azevedo, Warren L. (1986a). Introduction. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin. W. L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 1–14. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
D'Azevedo, Warren L. (1986b). Washoe. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin., W. L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 446–498. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Davis, James T., and Adan E. Treganza. (1959). The Patterson Mound: A Comparative Analysis of the Archaeology of Ala-328. The University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 47:1–92, Berkeley.
Dixon, R. B., and A. L. Kroeber. (1919). Linguistic families of California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 16:47–118, Berkeley.
Downs, James F. (1966). The Two Worlds of the Washo: An Indian Tribe of California and Nevada. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Driver, Harold E. (1937). Culture Element Distributions: VI, Southern Sierra Nevada. University of California Anthropological Records 1:2:53–154, Berkeley.
Driver, Harold E. (1939). Culture Element Distributions: X, Northwest California. University of California Anthropological Records 1:6:297–433.
Driver, Harold E. (1969). Indians of North America, 2nd Edition, Revised. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Drucker, Philip. (1937). Culture Element Distributions: V, Southern California. University of California Anthropological Records 1:1:1–52, Berkeley.
Driver, Harold E. (1941). Culture Element Distributions: XVII, Yuman–Piman. University of California Anthropological Records 6:3:91–230.
Elsasser, Albert B. (1978a). Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik, and Wailaki. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 190–204. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Elsasser, Albert B. (1978b). Wiyot. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 155–163. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Englehardt, Zephyrin. (1927). San Gabriel Mission and the Beginnings of Los Angeles. San Gabriel, CA: Mission San Gabriel.
Essene, Frank. (1942). Culture Element Distributions: XXI, Round Valley. University of California Anthropological Records 8:1:1–97.
Foster, George M. (1944). A summary of Yuki culture. University of California Anthropological Records 5:155–244, Berkeley.
Fowler, Catherine S. (1983). Lexical clues to Uto-Aztecan prehistory. International Journal of American Linguistics 49:224–257.
Fowler, Catherine S., and Sven Liljeblad. (1986). Northern Paiute. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin, Warren L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 435–465. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Garth, T. R. (1978). Atsugewi. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 236–243. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Geiger, M., and C. Meighan. (1976). As the Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by the Franciscan Missionaries, 1813–1815. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library.
Gerow, Bert A. (1974). Co-Traditions and Convergent Trends in Prehistoric California. San Luis Obispo, CA: San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society Occasional Paper No. 8.
Gifford, Edward W. (1926). Miwok Cults. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 18:391–408, Berkeley.
Gifford, Edward W. (1927). Southern Maidu religious ceremonies. American Anthropologist 29:214–257.
Goldschmidt, Walter. (1978). Nomlaki. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 341–349. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Goldschmidt, Walter, George Foster, and Frank Essene. (1971). War stories from two enemy tribes. In The California Indians: A Source Book, R. F. Heizer and M. A. Whipple (eds.). Pp. 445–458. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gould, R. A. (1978). Tolowa. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 128–136. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Grady, D. L., K. A. Latham, and Valerie A. Andrushko. (2001). Archaeological Investigations at Ca-SCL-674, The Rubino Site, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, Vol. II. Human Skeletal Biology of CA-SCL-674. Archives of California Prehistory 50. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press.
Grant, Campbell. (1978). Interior Chumash. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 530–534. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hale, Kenneth, and David Harris. (1979). Historical linguistics and archaeology. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 9: Southwest, A. Ortiz (ed.). Pp. 170–177. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Harner, Michael J. (1972). The Jívaro. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hassig, Ross. (1992). War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Heizer, Robert F. (ed.). (1978). Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Heizer, Robert F., and M. A. Whipple (eds.). (1971). The California Indians: A Sourcebook, 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hester, Thomas R. (1978a). Esselen. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 496–499. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hester, Thomas R. (1978b). Salinan. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 500–504. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hill, Jane H. (2001). Proto-Uto-Aztecan: A community of cultivators in Central Mexico? American Anthropologist 103:913–934.
Hohenthal, William D., Jr. (2001). Tipai Ethnographic Notes. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 48, Novato, CA.
Holt, Catharine. (1946). Shasta ethnography. University of California Anthropological Records 3:299–349, Berkeley.
Hopkins, N. A. (1965). Great Basin prehistory and Uto-Aztecan. American Antiquity 31:48–60.
Jewell, Donald P. (1987). Indians of the Feather River: Tales and Legends of Concow Maidu of California. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press.
Johnson, Bernice E. (1962). California's Gabrielino Indians. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum.
Johnson, Jerald J. (1978). Yana. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 361–369. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Johnson, John R. (1988). Chumash Social Organization: An Ethnohistoric Perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Johnson, Patti J. (1978). Patwin. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 350–360. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Kelly, Isabel T. (1978). Coast Miwok. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 414–425. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Kelly, Isabel T., and Catherine S. Fowler. (1986). Southern Paiute. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin, Warren L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 368–397. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
King, Chester, and Thomas C. Blackburn. (1978). Tataviam. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 535–537. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
King, Linda B. (1982). The Medea Creek Cemetery: Late Inland Chumash Patterns of Social Organization, Exchange and Warfare. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
Kroeber, Alfred L. (1922). Elements of culture in native California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13:259–328, Berkeley.
Kroeber, Alfred L. (1923). The history of native culture in California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 20:125–142, Berkeley.
Kroeber, Alfred L. (1929). The Valley Nisenan. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 24:253–290, Berkeley.
Kroeber, Alfred L. (1932). The Patwin and their neighbors. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 29:253–423, Berkeley.
Kroeber, Alfred L. (1976). Handbook of the Indians of California. New York: Dover Publications. Previously published in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78 (1925). Washington, DC.
Lambert, Patricia M. (1994). War and Peace on the Western Front: A Study of Violent Conflict and Its Correlates in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Coastal Southern California. Ph.D dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.
Lambert, Patricia M. (2002). The archaeology of war: a North American perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 10:207–241.
Lambert, Patricia M. (2008). The osteological evidence for indigenous warfare in North America. In North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence, Richard Chacon and Ruben Mendoza (eds.). Tucson: University of Arizona Press (in press).
Lapena, Frank R. (1978). Wintu. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 324–340. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Levy, Richard. (1978a). Costanoan. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 485–495. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Levy, Richard. (1978b). Eastern Miwok. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 398–413. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Liljeblad, Sven, and Catherine S. Fowler. (1986). Owens Valley Paiute. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin, Warren L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 412–434. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Lowie, Robert H. (1939). Ethnographic notes on the Washo. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 36:301–352, Berkeley.
Luomala, Katherine. (1978). Tipai-Ipai. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 592–609. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Madsen, David B. and D. Rhode (eds.). (1994). Across the West: Human Population Movement and the Expansion of the Numa. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
McCawley, William. (1996). The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press/Ballena Press Cooperative Publication.
McClellan, C. (1953). Ethnography of the Wappo and Patwin. In The Archaeology of the Napa Region, Robert F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 233–243. University of California Anthropological Records 12:225–358, Berkeley.
McCorkle, Thomas. (1978). Intergroup conflict. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 694–700. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Meyer, Carl. (1971). The Yurok of Trinidad Bay, 1851. In The California Indians: A Source Book, R. F. Heizer and M. A. Whipple (eds.). Pp. 262–271. Berkeley: University of California Press. Originally published in Nach dem Sacramento; Reisebilder der eines Heimgkerten (Varen, 1855:196–236).
Miller, Virginia P. (1978). Yuki, Huchnom, and Coast Yuki. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 249–255. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Miller, Virginia P. (1979). Ukomno'm: The Yuki Indians of Northern California. Socorro, NM: Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 14.
Moratto, Michael J. (1984). California Archaeology. Orlando: Academic Press.
Murphy, Eileen, Ilia Gokhman, Yuri Chistov, and Ludmila Barkova. (2002). Prehistoric Old World scalping: New cases from the cemetery of Aymyrlyg, South Siberia. American Journal of Archaeology 106:1–10.
Myers, James E. (1978). Cahto. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 244–248. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Nelson, Byron, Jr. (1988). Our Home Forever: The Hupa Indians of Northern California. Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers.
Olmsted, D. L., and O. C. Stewart. (1978). Achumawi. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 225–235. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Owsley, Douglas W. (1994). Warfare in Coalescent tradition populations of the northern Plains. In Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains, D. W. Owsley and R. L. Jantz (eds.). Pp. 333–344. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Owsley, Douglas W. and R. L. Jantz (eds.). (1994). Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Pilling, A. R. (1997). Yurok. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer. Pp. 137–154. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Rackerby, Frank. (1967). The Archaeological Salvage of Two San Francisco Bay Shellmounds. San Francisco: San Francisco State College Occasional Papers in Anthropology.
Ray, Verne F. (1963). Primitive Pragmatists: The Modoc Indians of Northern California. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Riddell, Francis A. (1978). Maidu and Konkow. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 370–386. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Sapir, Edward, and Leslie Spier. (1943). Notes on the culture of the Yana. University of California Anthropological Records 3:239–297, Berkeley.
Sawyer, Jesse O. (1978). Wappo. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 256–263. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Schenck, W. Egbert. (1926). The Emeryville Shellmound Final Report. The University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 23:147–282, Berkeley.
Shipley, William F. (1978). Native languages of California. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 80–90. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Silver, Shirley. (1978a). Chimariko. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 205–210. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Silver, Shirley. (1978b). Shastan peoples. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 211–224. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Smith, Charles R. (1978). Tubatulabal. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 437–445. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Spier, Robert F. G. (1978). Monache. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 426–436. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Stewart, Kenneth. (1971). Mohave warfare. In The California Indians: A Source Book, R. F. Heizer and M. A. Whipple (eds.). Pp. 431–444. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Taylor, W. W. (1961). Archaeology and language in western North America. American Antiquity 27:71–81.
Thomas, David H., Lorann S. A. Pendleton, and Stephen C. Cappannari. (1986). Western Shoshone. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin, Warren L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 262–283. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Wallace, William J. (1978a). Hupa, Chilula, and Wilkut. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 164–179. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Wallace, William J. (1978b). Southern Valley Yokuts. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 448–461. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Wheeler-Voegelin, Erminie. (1938). Tübatulabal ethnography. University of California Anthropological Records 2:1–90, Berkeley.
Wiberg, Randy S. (1988). The Santa Rita Village Mortuary Complex (CA-ALA-413): Evidence and Implications of a Meganos Intrusion. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press Archives of California Prehistory, No. 18.
Wiberg, Randy S. (1997). Archaeological Investigations of Site CA-ALA-42, Alameda County, California, Final Report.
Wilson, Norman L., and Arlean H. Towne. (1978). Nisenan. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 8: California, R. F. Heizer (ed.). Pp. 387–397. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Zigmond, Maurice L. (1986). Kawaiisu. In Handbook of North American Indians V. 11: Great Basin, Warren L. D'Azevedo (ed.). Pp. 398–411. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
LAMBERT, P.M. (2007). Ethnographic and Linguistic Evidence for the Origins of Human Trophy Taking in California. In: CHACON, R.J., Dye, D.H. (eds) The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians. INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48303-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48303-0_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-48300-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-48303-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)