B19rkete"Y and LOS ANGELES 1963- Clhief Rejinaldo Pachito of Pauma LUISENO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
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BY' RAYMOND~Cl. WHF 'UNIVERSITY, OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN 'AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EThiNOLOGY Volume 4S NQ. 2, pp. 91-194, 2,fig-ures an text INIVERSVrT,Y OF CALIFORNIA PRESS B19RKEtE"Y AND LOS ANGELES 1963- Clhief Rejinaldo Pachito of Pauma LUISENO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION BY RAYMOND C. WHITE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES 1963 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY EDITORS (LOS ANGELES): R. L. BEALS, J. B. BIRDSELL, HARRY HOIJER Volume 48, No. 2, pp. 91-194, 2 figures in text Approved for publication September 21, 1962 Issued November 22, 1963 Price, $2.50 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY AND Los ANGELES CALIFORNIA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, ENGLAND PREFACE THE PUBLISHED literature concerning the Luiseiao is not voluminous, nor has an integrated view of their pre-mission social organization emerged save for the pre- liminary efforts of Kroeber (1925) and Strong (1929). There is a body of valuable hints, brief sketches, partial analyses, and suggestions, but many important fea- tures of the old life have remained unexplored from the structural point of view. Some of the data, of course, could not be procured in 1900, and are not available today due to the vicissitudes to which the Luisefno have been subjected. Accultura- tion serves to raise difficulties also, but the character of the old Luise-no culture is so distinctive that, given time and thorough familiarity with the people, the native features can usually be extricated from the Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-Ameri- can elements. This applies as much to details of the old social patterns as to ma- terial culture. A major difficulty in acquiring field data arises from metalinguistic considerations. The older people think in the native idiom, and "translations" must always be scrutinized with great care. Concerning social or religious concepts, Luisefno rarely possesses an English equivalent, hence a trait-listing approach is not only useless, but misleading. Since only fragments of the old social organization are to be discovered either from source materials or from the field, analysis of pre-mission social structure must take the form of reconstruction. For the same reasons, there can be no pre- tense of being complete, conclusive, or final. Until more concrete information be- comes available, some features of the reconstruction must stand as mere hy- potheses. For the most part these take the form of interpolations or extrapolations from the patterned data. The lack of completeness in this study, however, is partly offset by the presentation of several analyses, and a model is established whereby additional field work, perhaps by other investigators, can be more fruitful. The major objective, however, is to prepare a limited reconstruction-investigation into the subject of Luiseino social organization as it existed at about the time of Mission contact. For the purpose of emphasizing the structural characteristics of the study, it is not desirable to make the work encyclopedic. The great kindness of my Indian informants who gave freely of both time and patience is especially deserving of gratitude, as is that of the "Anglos" in the vicinity who placed various facilities at my disposal. At least three-fourths of the older Indian population have contributed to this study directly or indirectly, and unfortunately cannot be listed. But Marcus and Genevieve Golsh who assisted with arrangements and information, were exceptionally helpful, as were also Max Kalak and the medicine man Herman Kalak. Without the activities of Henry Rodriguez, who introduced me to the most superior informants in the region, and who gathered extensive information upon a host of subjects such as music, ethno- botany, and material culture, this study could not have succeeded. Among other things he drove many miles at his own expense in the collection of mapping de- tails. Furthermore, his independent musicological studies led me to a much deeper understanding both of Luisefno teaching methods (to which I was subjected) and the subtler aspects of the cosmogony and native metalinguistics. Religious chief Rejinaldo Pachito is responsible for a great range of informa- [iii] 1V Preface tion. Not only did he prepare my understanding of the native religion as if I were to succeed him in office, but he was very active in the collection of older ethnog- raphy from persons in the society who might possess it. In a sense, much of the present study is his own. Yet it should be pointed out that the present effort is by no means a "single-case" study. Although frequent reference is made to the information given me by Chief Pachito, that information does not encompass the entire scope of the investigation. Furthermore, not only did other informants give important bits of data through- out the period of field work, but various techniques were devised to cross-check all information, from whatever source, and organize it into a consistent organic whole. Luisefno words are used as sparingly as possible in the text. Since little is to be gained by cluttering the text with italics and hard-to-read phonetic symbols, only the initial rendition of a native word or an important reference is so indicated. Orthography for these Luise'no words, and a glossary, are in the appendixes at the end of this study. Among colleagues who have done field work in the region and contributed freely of their findings and opinions, Delbert L. True is especially noteworthy. His archaeological findings have many times served as a check upon other informa- tion; his listings of sites in the Valley Center area made a new population estimate possible. I am indebted to Ralph L. Beals for his suggestions, and to C. W. Meighan whose archaeological expeditions to the Luisefno territory have contributed so many in- sights into the problems under investigation. Particular gratitude is due William A. Lessa who has counseled, advised, read manuscripts, and listened to various developments at great length. None of these people is responsible for whatever shortcomings or errors may have crept into the work, however. Effort has been spent to avoid deficiencies, but where they occur the fault is my own. R. C.W. CONTENTS I. Introduction. 91 II. The People and Environment . .104 III. Economy and Warfare. .120 IV. Religion and Its Role. 135 V. Reconstruction of the Social Structure . 158 Appendixes I. Orthography. 185 II. Glossary . .186 Bibliography . * * * * * * * * * * 191 CUPE O Boundaries approximate -----~~Boundaries uncertain 0i-Trlbol boundaries Puerto Cruz is a village site, but its age and provenience are unknown. Caulamai- Paulima N Asumai N. Escondido I / DIEGUENO-O 0 5 miles Fig. 1. Partly Mapped Rancherias of the Luisefio, Palomar Mountain Area. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION THE TWO missions of San Luis Rey de Francia and San Juan Capistrano, like all those of California north of the present Mexican border, were established by the Franciscan Order at the command of King Carlos III of Spain (Webb, 1952:3). The territory of the Indians who take their so-called tribal names from these two missions was situated about a day's travel north of San Diego, and south of Los Angeles (near San Gabriel Mission), in what was then called Alta California. These Indians, the "Luiseino" and "Juaneino," total estimated population of some ten thousand persons, occupied a territory of about fifteen hundred square miles front- ing on the Pacific Ocean. In spite of the mission designations, the two peoples were so much alike culturally, and the territories so similar geographically, that, for the reconstruction of social organization in this study, they will as a rule be treated as a single people under the name Luiseino. Except for dialect varients of the word for "people," ataxulm, the Luiseino have no tribal name for themselves but the vague puyuimkow'tchim, meaning "western people." The Luiseiio have been subjected to intensive European influences for nearly two hundred years, and were exposed to chance contacts during the preceding two centuries. At present their numbers have diminished so that their culture and self- identification will disappear within a very few years, particularly if the few small reservations now occupied are broken up. In 1925 Kroeber (p. 883) estimated their numbers at 500; the 1950 figure given by Tax (1956:map) is 1196. But neither datum gives a clear idea of the situation. Surely the number of those with purely indigenous blood cannot exceed fifty, nearly all of whom are old. The re- mainder are mixed bloods (although mixed bloods with less than one-eighth Luiseiio blood are not counted), people adopted by the tribe, or people of other Indian extraction who have married into reservation families and been included in the population counts. The Luiseino now practice virtual tribal exogamy. The drastic decline of conservative elements in the population has made disap- pearance of their old religion-centered culture core a certainty. The children of mixed marriages in large part adopt the culture of the ambient Anglo-Americans, and most of them leave the reservations permanently. Few learn the language or subscribe to the native religion. These developments have had an important bear- ing on this study in that at last it has become possible to acquire important new materials not hitherto recorded nor integrated into an analysis of Luise-no social organization: Although the culture has declined and there is therefore less infor- mation to gather, resistance has also declined and what information there is, is more readily available. Almost all materials incorporated in this study are original or have been independently checked with informants. Any attempted reconstruction of the Luise-no social organization must take into account that the population of the region has been subject to acculturation, dislocation, decimation, and other vicissitudes.