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The Archaeological Study of Culture Change And THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF CULTURE CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN MULTIETHNIC COMMUNITIES If K) il. Kent G. Lightfoot Archaeological Research Facility Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 ABSTRACT California is ideally suited to the study of the emergence, growth, and consequences of multiethnic colonial communities. Research on how native peoples responded to Spanish, Mexican, Russian, and Anglo-American exploration and colonialism can provide important insights into the roots of contemporary pluralistic Californian populations. An ongoing study ofthe Russian colony of Fort Ross is examining the cultural landscapes of diverse ethnic groups in a long-term temporal framework. This study questions the growing practice ofsplitting "prehistoric" and "historical" archaeology into separate subfields, shifts the emphasis from artifact analyses to the study of spatial contexts, and employs ethnohistorical and ethnographic data as end sequences oflong-term developments in native societies. INTRODUCTION dating of archaeological deposits. As little as ten years ago, many sites _. especially lithic scatters An important focus of social theory and recorded in swface surveys -- were difficult to studies of cultural change in anthropology today is date. With recent chronological advances, espe­ understanding how indigenous peoples responded cially obsidian hydration research, archaeological to European contact and colonialism, and how the deposits in many regions of California can now be outcomes of these encounters contributed to the dated along an ordinal scale that spans prehistoric, pluralistic populations of contemporary America protohistoric, and historic times. The rich archival (Biersack 1991; Deagan 1990; Ohnuki-Tierney data base and more refmed chronologies provide 1990; Sahlins 1992; Simmons 1988; Wolf 1982). an ideal combination for examining long-tenn Archaeologists in California are ideally situated to developments in the hunter-gatherer societies of make important contributions to the study of long­ California. tenn change by examining how coastal hunter­ gatherers responded to Spanish, Mexican, Rus­ sian, and Anglo-American exploration and settle­ THE FORT ROSS ment (e.g., Hardesty 1993). The state is blessed ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT with a wealth of ethnohistorical sources that date to as early as the sixteenth century, and one of the Since 1988, a collaborative team of scholars largest bodies of ethnographic data collected in has been working with the California Department North America. Recent developments in chro­ of Parks and Recreation in the archaeological nology construction have greatly improved the investigation ofthe Fort Ross State Historic Park Proceedings ofthe SocIety for California Arobaeology. 1994. Vol. 7, pp. 7·12. Copynght () 1994 by the Society for CaliIDmia Arohaeology along the Sonoma County coastline in northern A RECONSIDERATION OF THREE California. The historic Ross community provides ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRACTICES an ideal case study to evaluate native responses to a pluralistic mercantile Russian colony. Fort Ross Research on native responses to early mul­ was administered from 1812 to 1841 by the Rus­ tiethnic colonies, such as Fort Ross, provides sian-American Company. a mercantile monopoly critical insights into the roots ofcontemporary that represented Russia's interests in the lucrative pluralisitic Californian populations. However, the North Pacific fur trade. It served as a staging area study of the emergence, growth, and consequences for sea otter and fur seal hunts in northern Califor­ ofpluralistic colonial communities requires that nia, and as an agricultural base for raising crops we reconsider three common practices of Ameri­ and livestock. Similar to other fur companies, the can archaeology. These include: 1) how we study Russian-American Company recruited peoples long-term change; 2) how we measure cultural from across Europe, North America, and the change in the archaeological record; and 3) how Pacific Rim as part of its multiethnic work force. we employ ethnohistorical and ethnographic data Ethnic Russians made up a relatively small por­ in archaeological research. tion of the Fort Ross community. The majority consisted of native Alaskan workers in which (I) The Study of Long-Term Change. The study Koniag Eskimos dominated, followed by a handful of native and European encounters requires that of Chugach Eskimos, Aleuts, as well as Tanaina we undertake studies of long-term cultural change and Tlingit Indians from the Alaskan mainland. grounded in both prehistory and history. We Other workers included Creoles (people of mixed believe that the common practice of segregating Russian/native ancestry), Yakuts from Siberia, North American archaeology into "prehistoric" native Hawaiians, and at least one African-Ameri­ and "historical" subfields is counterproductive for can. Kashaya Pomo and Coast Miwok people this kind of research (e.g., Kirch 1992:26). from nearby tribelets were also recruited as Prehistorians typically study Native American general-purpose laborers and as mates in the material culture that is viewed as "pristine" or formation of inter-ethnic households (cf Lightfoot "unspoiled" by European contact, while et aI. 1991: 11-26). post-contact times are the domain of historical archaeologists. Acculturation studies are usually We are addressing the degree to which inter­ undertaken by historical archaeologists who do ethnic interactions in a pluralistic mercantile not systematically connect the research directly colony served as sources ofcultural change. Did back to the prehistoric past. However, a strong the close interaction and cohabitation ofethnic grounding in prehistory is essential to define the groups from many different homelands stimulate cultural practices of native peoples prior to the cultural exchange of architectural styles, European contact and colonialism. It is only ~ material goods, foods, technologies, and ceremo­ through a systematic, diachronic analysis of sentcl nial practices? Were new cultural forms generated prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic contexts culu by combining or modifying innovations from that we can evaluate the full magnitude of the diVerT: European. Creole, Siberian, Aleut, Eskimo, and cultural transformations involved. These include, across Indian peoples? What role did Creoles and native among others, changes that may have taken place theDD Alaskans, who lived, worked, and socialized prior to face-to-face contact with Europeans as a practil closely with Kashaya Porno and Coast Miwok consequence of the regional exchange of European mon11 families, serve as cultural mediators between the trade goods (Trigger 1981: II-B); the en­ Russian administrators and local Indian laborers croachment of foreign weeds, insects, and animals It at Fort Ross? (Crosby 1986: 145-216); and the rapid assault of analyr. highly lethal diseases introduced into North span. America by early European explorers (Dobyns long... OfgaDI 8 1983; Dunnell 1991). tures and across the residential community, provides one means of analyzing the material (2) Measures of Cultural Change. Deagan manifestations ofcultural practices in archaeo­ (1988:9) notes that research on native accultur­ logical contexts. The underlying organizational ation has yet to be fully realized in historical structure of households, neighborhoods, and archaeology. She argues that archaeologists have villages may be represented in a variety ofarchae­ the yet to develop "principles of interpretation that ological spatial associations, including the spatial iICCS allow us to recognize 'acculturation' in the archae­ layout of house features; the patterned distribution It ological record, other than a vague idea that the of trash deposits inside and outside house fea­ ;i­ presence of European items on a non-European tures; the kinds of materials associated in different lly site (and vice-versa) reflects 'acculturation.'" A trash deposits; the way in which house locations significant constraint in analyzing materials solely were maintained, abandoned, and reused; and the w from post-contact deposits is that it limits one's spatial relationship ofhouse features and public lta ability to measure change in relation to pre-contact architecture in villages. contexts. A common approach is to calculate artifact ratios ofnativelEuropean materials from The study of culture contact in a multiethnic tty post-contact deposits in Indian residences asso­ colonial environment requires a comparative it ciated with missions, forts, and trade posts. The approach for understanding how different ethnic IIgC greater the presence and quantity of European groups constructed their cultural landscapes. We introduced materials or innovations, it is assumed are currently developing a diachronic sequence of g the greater the degree of overall native accultura­ household and community spatial organizations tion. for prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic native Ifor Californian sites in the greater Fort Ross region. However, acculturation research by cultural This approach demands not only intensive re­ anthropologists indicates that the adoption of gional survey to locate and date sites, but also specific technological traits (metal tools, glass broad-scale, areal excavations of selected ar­ objects) in and of themselves is not a good mea­ chaeological deposits to reveal the organization of sure ofoverall transformations in native cultural features, artifacts, and ecofacts across space. We Ily
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