Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

The surface elevation of Lake Tahoe has in the past stood considerably lower than its present level for long periods of time. To support this statement, existing paleoenvironmental evidence and historical documentation of lower lake levels is reviewed. The magnitude of drops in the level of Lake Tahoe is presented in light of new evidence involving (1) a series of radiocarbon dates on tree stumps drowned by the rising waters of Lake Tahoe; and (2) submerged archaeological features in the lake. The implications of the mid-Holocene lowstands of Lake Tahoe are discussed in terms of local and regional paleoclimatic and archaeological trends.

The territory occupied by the Chumash and their prehistoric predecessors encompassed the northern Channel Islands and a large mainland area extending from modern San Luis Obispo to Malibu and inland to the western margin of the San Joaquin Valley. The region is characterized by significant physiographic, biotic, and geological diversity. Each of these dimensions of variability has implications for the forms of human adaptation that developed during the course of several millennia of prehistory. A changing biotic milieu may require significant strategic responses from human populations (Arnold 1990a), but human response to stationary physiographic and geological features generally is assumed to reflect the relatively static nature of such features. Through time, then, changes in human exploitation of fixed geological resources, such as quarry outcrops, may be evaluated in terms of evolving cultural strategies regarding their use. In short, diachronic patterns of extraction of undepleted nonorganic resources in a given place are a consequence of human decision-making changes, rather than a function of change in the resources themselves. I consider here a case in the Channel Islands region, where important stone resources indeed were not depleted.

Many examples of vigesimal counting systems are given and ably discussed in Menninger's Number Words and Number Symbols (1969) and so, in terms of a world-wide overview, I will not try to improve upon this excellent and comprehensive study. Rather it is my intention to turn to a specific area, namely the rich linguistic province of California.

Basic information about Tataviam linguistics and geography obtained from Fustero and other Kitanemuk speakers has been discussed in previous publications (Kroeber 1915, 1925; Harrington 1935; Bright 1975; King and Blackburn 1978; Hudson 1982). What is not so well known is that Harrington continued his Tataviam investigations among Indians of Yokuts, Tübatulabal, and Serrano descent, who had been associated with Tataviam speakers during the nineteenth century. More information about Tataviam history, territory, and language therefore is available than has previously been summarized. This justifies a new presentation and evaluation of existing evidence. We begin with a review of Tataviam ethnogeographic data.

In this paper I attempt to show how a particular sociolinguistic method applied to ethnographic research can be valuable to the fieldworker and scholar alike. It aids the fieldworker to see the interpersonal systematics at work within a culture. It aids the scholar by giving ethnography a single, uniform method of analysis that can easily be used in cross-cultural comparisons. It also aids both to see the functions of ceremony not only from the outsider's perspective, but also from the insider's point of view. In the sections that follow, I will introduce the reader to the Western Mono, review other descriptions of the ceremony among both the Mono and surrounding tribes, describe the contemporary version of the ceremony which I experienced, and then apply a sociolinguistic method to the event for both description and analysis.

This paper presents a synopsis of our field studies along with results of technological, lithic source, and obsidian hydration analyses applied to the site and offsite assemblages.

The majority of the ethnographic references to greasewood gum or creosote gum probably refer to the resin of the creosote lac scale. This conclusion is based on the fairly consistent color (red) of the reported material, that the creosote bush itself does not produce usable (i.e., flowing) sap, and the lack of evidence that a creosote plant product (sap) was ever used. Examples in the archaeological record are rare, but it is possible that many such examples remain unrecognized. The identification of such resin and information on its distribution would be of great value in the delineation of trade patterns and technology (cf. Euler and Jones 1956).

The objective of this study is to test a number of Cook's conclusions on mission demography that previously had been questioned by scholars with little or no expertise in historical demography. The conclusions presented here contribute to a growing body of literature on the demographic collapse of the native peoples of the Americas after 1492, and on the specific subject of the Alta California missions and the fate of the Indian groups congregated into the missions.

Preliminary Investigations in Stillwater Marsh: Human Prehistory and Geoarchaeology. Christopher Raven and Robert G. Elston, eds. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 1, Cultural Resource Series No. 1 (2 vols.), 1988, xxiii + 479 pp., 80 figs., 69 tables, 8 appendices, no charge (paper).

Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, Volume 1. Susan M. Hector, Lynne E. Christenson, G. Timothy Gross, and Martin D. Rosen, eds. San Diego: Society for California Archaeology, 1988, 415 pp., $15.00 (paper). Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, Volume 2. Susan M. Hector, Martin D. Rosen, Lynne E. Christenson, and G. Timothy Gross, eds. San Diego: Society for California Archaeology, 1989, 226 pp., $15.00 (paper). Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, Volume 3. Martin D. Rosen, Lynne E. Christenson, and G. Timothy Gross, eds. San Diego: Society for California Archaeology, 1990, 386 pp., $15.00 (paper).

Special Issue: The California Indians Robert A. Black and Terry P. Wilson, eds., Jack Norton, guest ed. American Indian Quarterly, 13(4). Berkeley: Native American Studies Program, University of California, 1989, x + 221 pp., 9 figs, $20.00 (paper).

Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Investigations at CA-NEV-194, Near Rough and Ready, Nevada County, California. A. G. Pastron, M. R. Walsh, and C. W. Clewlow, Jr. Coyote Press Archives of California Prehistory No. 31, 1990, vi + 104 pp., 15 figs., 1 map, $7.40 (paper).

Wetland Adaptations in the Great Basin. Joel C. Janetski and David B. Madsen, eds. Provo: Brigham Young University Museum of Peoples and Cultures Occasional Papers No. 1, 1990, v + 285 pp., $17.00 (paper).