And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Dead: Detecting Signatures of Sublethal Warfare Through Healed Cranial Fractures in Baja California Hunter-Gatherers BY Copyright 2013 Jessica L. Raab Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ________________________________ Chairperson: Jack L. Hofman, PhD ________________________________ James Mielke, PhD ________________________________ Alan Redd, PhD Date Defended: May 23, 2013 The Thesis Committee for Jessica L. Raab certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Dead: Detecting Signatures of Sublethal Warfare through Healed Cranial Fractures in Baja California Hunter-Gatherers __________________________ Chairperson Jack L. Hofman, PhD Date approved: April 18, 2015 ii ABSTRACT Warfare results where environmental change confronts social complexity in hunter-gatherer groups. Lethal outcomes as a result of extragroup violence result. In this thesis, the links between warfare and environment are examined. Hunter-gatherer groups living under environmentally deprived conditions are more likely to engage in violent conflict as the result of competition between groups for resources. The use of violence within groups also adapts to environmental conditions by offering non-lethal outcomes. Where warfare is systemic and environmentally motivated, groups may turn to a regulated means of violent internal conflict resolution mitigating population destabilization. The Santa Barbara Chumash and the Las Palmas culture both reflect an opportunity for regulated conspecific violence to mitigate lethal outcomes through evidence of survived cranial trauma. This comparative study highlights similarities between Phillip Walker's previous study of the Santa Barbara Chumash in contrast with the Las Palmas culture of Baja California Sur. Both groups subsisted under marginal environmental regimes and encountered perennial warfare and violence as a result of perceived changes in their environment. Changes to their environment also acted as the impetus for culture change in both groups. A spectrum of violence that includes non-lethal outcomes can result through cultural perceptions of environmental deprivation. Sub-lethal outcomes improve group survival chances when posed with ongoing extragroup predation and unpredictable environmental changes. iii Acknowledgements Briefly, I would like to thank the following person for their support, critical feedback, and patience advice that comes as part of sheparding a master’s thesis through the writing process and unto its defense and completion. These people were necessary and unwavering stewards in my educational growth and critical and professional maturity in the disciplines of archaeology and bioloarchaeolgy and for this, I am immensely grateful. Foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Jack Hofman, my advisor and thesis chair, along with the rest of my committee, Dr. Jim Mielke and Dr. Alan Redd for their infinite patience and thorough support of this undertaking. My father, Dr. L. Mark Raab, for inspiring me to take on “the family business” as well as my mother, Suzanne Raab, and my step-mother, Dr. Ann M. Raab for their love and advocacy in completing this leg of my education. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. Harumi Fujita, Dr. Alfonso Rosales López and Dr. Fermín Reygada Dahl for their professional assistance in the completion of this project. I am indebted to these individuals. Also, I wish to acknowledge Dr. Eric Bartelink, Dr. Antoinette Ramirez, Dr. Frank Bayham, Dr. Frederic Sellet, Dr. Georgia Fox, and Dr. Brian Lagotte with their thoughtful advice and critical feedback about the process and progress of completing this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: The Las Palmas Culture ......................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Environmental Setting And Constraints ............................................................................. 15 Environmental Influences for Group Isolation ....................................................................................... 15 Linguistic Evidence for Group Isolation ................................................................................................. 18 Environmental Influences on Warfare .................................................................................................... 23 The Santa Barbara Chumash ................................................................................................................... 24 The Las Palmas Natural Environment .................................................................................................... 30 Isotopic Data ........................................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3: The Las Palmas Sample ........................................................................................................ 38 Other Las Palmas Samples ...................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 4: Sub-Lethal Cranial Trauma ................................................................................................. 48 The Walker Study ................................................................................................................................... 49 Resource Competition and Sub-Lethal Violence .................................................................................... 57 Chapter 5: Warfare .................................................................................................................................. 62 Warfare in the Las Palmas ...................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 6: Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 73 Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 73 Accidental and Self-Inflicted Injury ....................................................................................................... 76 Environmental Impacts and Influences ................................................................................................... 79 Warfare Signatures .................................................................................................................................. 86 Lethal Violence and Warfare in North America ..................................................................................... 89 Environmental Influence on Behavior .................................................................................................... 91 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 94 Appendix A: A Review of Baja California Sur Archaeology ................................................................ 97 The Late 19th/Early 20th Century ............................................................................................................. 97 Mid-Century Research .......................................................................................................................... 102 v Archaeological Work in Recent Decades ............................................................................................. 108 References Cited ...................................................................................................................................... 114 vi Baja California History Timeline 10,000 – 8,000 BP • Occupation of Cape Region Begins (Fujita 2006) Medieval Climatic Anomaly • A.D. 850 – 1300 A.D. 1000 • Subsistence Shift To Coastal Areas • High Marine Exploitation (Porcasi and Fujita 2000) A.D. 1733 • Las Palmas Revolt Against Mission System A.D. 1734 • Las Palmas Revolt Put Down Mid-18th Century • Las Palmas Cultural Termination Late 19th Century/ Early 20th Century • ten Kate Excavation 1883 • Diguet Excavation 1906 1940’s & 1950’s • William Massey - Las Palmas Burial Complex (1955) 1980’s & 1990’s • El Grupo de Pericú (Reygadas and Velázquez 1984) • Salvage Projects vii Introduction The geographic and cultural focus of this thesis is on the Las Palmas culture of Baja California Sur and the archaeology that has been conducted in this cultural area (Figure 1). Previous archaeological efforts in this area of Baja California Sur span almost 200 years and reflect the evolution of archaeological practice in method and theory from cultural historical approaches, the emergence of New Archaeology, and the current hypo-deductive methods of processualism. Through the use of processual research efforts and current cultural resource management initiatives, information about Las Palmas lifeways, including information about their material culture, subsistence, linguistic boundaries, and migration emerged. The result of these efforts allows archaeology to view the birth and terminus of an Aridoamerican prehistoric culture area, which encompasses