Kumeyaay Cultural Landscapes of Baja California's Tijuana River
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 28, No. 2 (2008) | pp. 127–151 Kumeyaay Cultural Landscapes of Baja California’s Tijuana River Watershed LYNN H. GAMBLE MICHAEL WILKEN-ROBERTSON Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 The cultural landscape of the Kumeyaay living in the Tijuana River Watershed of Baja California embodies the sacred, symbolic, economic, and mythological views of a people who have lived in the region for centuries. Recent research on this region that integrates ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and (to a lesser degree) archaeological information reveals a landscape that is alive and imbued with power, sustenance, and legend—a dynamic construct that reflects both changing Kumeyaay relationships with the land and the group’s continuity with the past. Sacred sites, peaks, transformed rocks, magic boulders, and other geographic features associated with oral traditions populate the landscape. Ecosystems and areas of historic significance represent direct links with generations of ancestors and are still layered with meaning in the minds of descendants. For us the mountains, the rocks, the trees: all this is something important. As my grandfather used to say, this ground is the floor for your feet, the rocks and hills are your walls, the sky is your roof and the sun your light1 [Josefina López Meza, personal communication 2004]. ultural landscapes are an elusive topic All individuals and communities, not just the C for archaeologists, especially those who work in Kumeyaay, give symbolic meanings to the places they regions of the Californias and the Great Basin where inhabit: monumental architecture is rare or non-existent.
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