[This is Part 1 of 2 of this message] Hi folks, Having read several books by Brian Fagan, I can recommend this before having actually read it. Fagan is one of those interdisciplinarians who use history, climatology, archaeology, geology, and whatever other discipline is necessary to bring his subject matter into clear focus. Fagan has covered a large variety of subject matter in his books, as you can tell by perusing this list <http://www.allbookstores.com/browse/Author/Fagan,%20Brian>. I don't endorse the bookseller, as I know nothing about it, but do yourselves a big favor if you're interested in California before the white man came, and buy this book. [No, I also have no financial interest in the sales of Fagan's books. <grin>] Enjoy, and Happy Holidays, Carol in Tucson >X-Sent-Via: DakotaCom.NET >Delivered-To: [email protected] >X-Sender: [email protected] >Approved-By: Reviews account <[email protected]> >Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 01:39:19 -0500 >Reply-To: H-Net Review Project Distribution List <[email protected]> >Sender: H-Net Review Project Distribution List <[email protected]> >From: H-Net Reviews <[email protected]> >Subject: Castaneda on Fagan, _Before California_ >To: [email protected] >X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.4 required=5.0 > tests=APPROVED_BY,AWL,USER_AGENT_PINE > version=2.55 >X-Spam-Level: >X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) > >H-NET BOOK REVIEW >Published by [email protected] (October 2003) > >Brian Fagan. _Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our >Earliest Inhabitants_. Lanham and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, >2003. xvi + 400 pp. Tables, illustrations, maps, notes, references, >index. $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-7425-2794-8. > >Reviewed for H-California by Terri Castaneda, Department of >Anthropology, California State University, Sacramento > >In Uncharted Waters: Fagan Pens a Popular Account of Prehistoric >California > >_Before California_ is a narrative account of aboriginal California >prior to the arrival of Spanish explorers. Chronicling more than >13,000 years of human adaptation to the diverse and changing >landscape, this book offers an introduction to both the prehistory >of California and the history of California archaeology, from the >early-twentieth-century excavation of Emeryville and Cosumnes River >Valley shell mounds to the twenty-first-century dominance of the >field by Cultural Resource Management (CRM). Written at the >introductory level, it is the first comprehensive guide to >California archaeology and prehistory designed for a general >audience. > >The story of prehistoric California is not an easy one to tell. >Given the enormous breadth of cultural and linguistic diversity >present in California at the time of European contact, and the huge >body of highly specialized research addressing our still fragmentary >understanding of these cultures, it is no wonder that few writers >have undertaken such a monumental book project as this. But author >Brian Fagan brings considerable experience to this effort. Trained >at Cambridge in Old World and African archaeology, for more than a >quarter century he has been doing the difficult and >under-appreciated work of translating often turgid and inaccessible >scholarship into highly readable books that recruit undergraduate >majors to the discipline in droves and bolster public support for >archaeological research and preservation. He has also been at this >business long enough to know that while praise for popular >archaeological writing is rare, criticism is absolutely >inescapable--whether it arises out of professional jealousy or a >legitimate concern with the sort of surface skimming and scholarly >distillation that broad, synthetic works require. A significant >portion of this book's preface and opening chapter address the >commentary Fagan expects to receive from scholars of California >archaeology and prehistory. He wants his readership to know that >the Executive Board of the Society for California Archaeology (SCA) >invited him to write this text; their endorsement is prominently >displayed on the back cover of the book jacket. Although he is not a >California archaeologist, Fagan clearly nurtures an abiding interest >in the aboriginal peoples who settled the area of California he >calls home. For three decades, he has been navigating the coastal >waters that fringe the western edge of UC Santa Barbara, where he is >professor emeritus of anthropology. This nautical pastime and >fascination with maritime culture permeates _Before California_ from >beginning to end, such that it often reads more like a literary >tribute to the ancient seafaring people in whose wake he now sails >than a comprehensive prehistory of the vast area that was to become >California. > >Fagan unfolds his story in the style of an epic drama that begins in >the centuries prior to 11,000 B.C., as humans are making their first >appearance on the continent, and closes ominously in 1542, with the >fateful anchoring of Spanish ships along the California coastline. >Organized in four parts, the text follows a basic chronological >format, with regional adaptations and common cultural themes built >out from this temporal scaffolding. Part 1 is entitled "The >Archaeologist's Tale." Its sole chapter, "A Stream of Time," >sketches this long and complicated trajectory, offering readers a >helpful outline of what is to follow in much greater detail. This >first chapter also serves another important purpose; here, Fagan >introduces basic archaeological principles and techniques, reviews >earlier comprehensive works on California prehistory, and presents >important ethnohistorical data, including maps of contemporary >tribal territories, linguistic divisions, and demographic >distributions at the time of European contact.[1] This critical >ethnographic data underpins virtually all of the scholarship on >Native California, although Fagan makes only passing reference to it >in the pages that follow, either because it falls outside the scope >of his narrative or because he deems it too confusing for a lay >readership. Nonetheless, more serious students of Native California >will find themselves needing to refer back to this material in order >to follow the logic behind various analyses and interpretations >discussed in later chapters. Part 1 also identifies "three >underlying currents" that run throughout the entire text, tying >together the broad chronological periods and diverse adaptations >expressed in ancient California society: a cultural continuity >grounded in constant mobility, a web of social and economic exchange >or "interconnectedness," and a complex system of spiritual beliefs >in which supernatural beings and practices occupied a center stage >that archaeological science can never fully reconstruct. With these >preliminary matters behind him, Fagan turns to "Beginnings." > >The four chapters in part 2 bring the story of primordial California >forward to approximately 2500 B.C. Conservative interpretations of >the archaeological record indicate that humans began entering the >continent at least 15,000 years ago, as part of a long migratory >process lasting thousands of years.[2] This was facilitated by a now >submerged expanse of territory called Beringia, which formed a land >bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the Late Ice Age, when sea >levels were lower. Although we have come to recognize the >widespread presence of Paleo-Indians across the North American >landscape based upon a diagnostic set of artifacts--fluted stone >projectile points--Fagan is careful to dispel popular stereotypes of >these people as primitive "big game hunters." While Pleistocene >mega-fauna clearly formed a part of their diet, these >hunter-gatherer populations were expert at exploiting seasonal plant >and smaller animal resources in a wide variety of environmental >contexts, including those of prehistoric California. By at least >11,000 B.C., this part of the continent had been peopled, as part of >a slow migration by multiple bands, over many generations, moving >out of Beringia and Alaska, onto the Great Plains, and then westward >across the Great Basin and into California. The archaeological >record currently offers scant evidence in support of alternative >hypotheses that point to possible movement by land and sea, along >the shores of Beringia, the Northwest Coast, and eventually down to >California. Sites that might yield evidence of such a migratory >path are long submerged under the Pacific Ocean, which during the >Late Ice Age extended as much as sixteen miles west of its current >location. Shifting coastlines and rising sea levels takes center >stage in the three remaining chapters of this section, as Fagan >tacks back and forth between coastal, mainland, and offshore >settlements, describing the earliest Californians as we know them >from archaeological sites that date from 11,000 to 6500 B.C. In a >pattern that continues throughout the book, each of these chapters >features an ethnographic vignette that brings fully to life the >everyday world of prehistoric Californians engaged in a host of >subsistence activities: hunting seals and gathering mollusks near >Bodega Bay; using baskets and milling stones to gather and process >grass and other plant seeds in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada >foothills; or hunting seals, sea lions, and dolphins at Eel Point. >Fagan anchors his discussion of these early peoples and adaptations >to a limited set of archaeological sites that, by virtue of >long-term occupation and excellent stratigraphy, help to define and >demonstrate continuity and change in both the social and physical >environment. While his intensive focus upon locales like Elkhorn >Slough, Skyrocket, and the Channel Islands automatically deselects >equally representative sites from the reader's line of vision, >perhaps leaving the false impression that California is lacking in a >much richer corpus of archaeological settings and scholarship, this >strategy is necessary for a general readership. By returning again >and again to the same scientists and field sites, Fagan not only >provides his readers with a better understanding of the >archaeological process itself, he gives them a more coherent and >manageable portrait of the ecological changes, technological >innovations, and social processes that characterized much larger >regional patterns. [End of Part 1] Carol De Priest <mailto:[email protected]> Honest Intellectual Inquiry <http://www.dakotacom.net/~depriest>