Volume 37, March 2015, Pages 48–66
Feeding family and ancestors: Persistence of traditional Native American lifeways during the Mission Period in coastal Southern California
Highlights
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- Native American lifeways during the Spanish Mission Period.
- •
- Persistence of traditional subsistence practices in southern California.
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- Prominence of wild plant remains in mortuary, mourning, and feasting ceremonies.
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- Minor selective addition of domesticates into ritual events.
Abstract
This
study examines the role of plant foods in domestic and ceremonial
contexts at a Native American Gabrieliño/Tongva village occupied during
the Spanish Mission Period in coastal southern California and highlights
the remarkable persistence of traditional practices. Prior perspectives
of the Mission Period have stressed that Native lifeways were quickly
and profoundly disrupted in areas near newly established Spanish
missions in California. This study reveals that despite the
unprecedented changes associated with Spanish colonization, Native
Americans within the Los Angeles Basin continued to emphasize native
plant foods during mortuary events, mourning ceremonies, and feasting.
Food, especially during ritual events, is a medium that cements the
community together and reinforces social networks. By continuing the
traditional emphasis on local wild plants, along with selective use of
new introduced domesticated plants, food remained an important agency of
cultural identity that helped the Gabrieliño/Tongva to maintain and
reinforce social relationships during a period of dramatic culture
change.
Keywords
- Food;
- Ritual;
- Colonial;
- Mission;
- Mortuary;
- Mourning;
- Feasting;
- Grasses;
- Domesticated plants
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