CORRELATING ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA WITH SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES: A CASE STUDY FROM CA-ORA-507 AND THE ALISO CREEK REGION

• Main Author: Stever, Matthew V.
• Format: Others
• Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2017
• Subjects: Spatial Archaeology; Aliso Creek; Juaneno; Chert; Settlement Patterns; Archaeological Anthropology
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/456; https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1513&context=etd

Ethnographers in the early 20th century compiled notes and published reports and books concerning the cultures and life-ways of the California Indians. Among these are the Juaneño (Acjachemen) and Gabrielino (Tongva) peoples. This study aimed to correlate ethnographic data with methods of spatial archaeology and GIS analysis to test if the privately owned resource collecting areas and tribal boundaries described in the ethnographies could be seen archaeologically. Centered on CA-ORA-507 (an ancient chert quarry), the study shows that the boundaries between these resource areas are culturally derived as well as a part of the greater pattern of sites on the landscape and that the pattern of sites on the landscape conform to descriptions of the practices written at the turn of the last century.