Prehistoric Cultural Adaptations and Climatic Regions in the Sierras De San Francisco and Guadalupe, Baja California Sur

Between Mountains, Plains, and Sea: Prehistoric Cultural Adaptations and Climatic Regions in the Sierras de San Francisco and Guadalupe, Baja California Sur María de la Luz Gutiérrez Martínez Abstract Yuman; Cochimí, closely related to Yuman; Guaycura; Archaeological research conducted for more than three decades in and Pericú (Laylander 1987:237, 2016). the Sierras de San Francisco and Guadalupe has produced important information about the social processes and cultural adaptations that mobile hunter-gatherer groups successfully developed over Cochimi speakers occupied the entire central portion of millennia. These groups traveled between the Gulf of California, the the peninsula, from near the 26th to the 31st parallel. mountains, and the Pacific Ocean in search of food, raw materials, Jesuit missionaries referring to the indigenous people and water. The availability of fresh water for long periods led to longer stays around ideal dwelling places, as well as the possibility who spoke this language identified them as Cochimí that certain lineages might meet periodically to exchange goods of (Aschmann 1959). However, Massey (1949:288) all kinds, to socialize, and to develop group rituals. points out that Cochimi was originally a tribal term that later became a generic name assigned to the groups Knowledge of both sierras’ archaeology represents an opportunity relevant to the objective of this article, because although there are that spoke Yuman and lived from the 30th parallel to very marked similarities in the material culture and subsistence and north of Loreto.2 This linguistic family was made up of mobility patterns, interesting differences have also been detected. two sister languages: Northern Cochimí and Southern Through climatic, ethnohistoric, archaeological, and symbolic evidence, the latter detected in rock art, an effort will be made here Cochimí. In turn, Northern Cochimí included three to identify the existence of enduring pan-regional cultural elements well-differentiated dialects, Juigrepa, Ignacieño, and that may have been related to the Yumans of the peninsula’s extreme Borjeño, while Cadegomeño and Javiereño belonged to north, as well as evidence of cultural adaptations based on these elements that derived from the conditions imposed by the different the Southern Cochimí language (Laylander 1987:195). climatic regions where these two mountain ranges are located.1 Figure 1 shows the distribution of linguistic groups at the time of European contact. Linguistic Prehistory and Social Identity The relatively small differentiation of dialects that Linguistic data are an important source of evidence manifested itself in this extensive territory has been for inferring the distribution of specific social entities attributed to strategic patterns of intergroup relations and their antiquity in peninsular prehistory. This text that took place in the peninsula’s Central Desert, follows the categorizations and distributions proposed where population densities were low and consequent- by Laylander in 1987 and revised in 2016, which ly mobility was higher than farther north or south state that at the time of contact, languages of at least (Aschmann 1959:56–57). The greatest differentiation four linguistic families were spoken on the peninsula: within Cochimí occurred at its northern and southern Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, Volume 54, Numbers 3 and 4 116 Gutiérrez Figure 1. Distribution of languages on the Baja California peninsula (after Laylander 1987, 2016). borders, suggesting an in situ differentiation of these is the language closest to the Cochimi and shows “an sister languages (Massey 1949:304; Aschmann archaic and stable residence on the peninsula” (Mixco 1959:56). 1978:76). The relationship between Cochimi and the Yuman Without being conclusive, there are multiple implica- family at the time of contact has been widely recog- tions derived from these linguistic data that essentially nized. Massey (1949) referred to Cochimí as Peninsu- relate to the possibility of assigning ethnic affiliations lar Yuman, and Mixco (1978) proposed that at some to the archaeological evidence. However, this is not to point Cochimí and Proto-Yuman may have been a equate languages with isolated geographical regions or single language. Within the Yuman family, Kiliwa, to assume that these regional patterns are in any event whose territory adjoined that of Northern Cochimí, exclusive. PCAS Quarterly, 54(3&4) Prehistoric Cultural Adaptations in the Sierras de San Francisco and Guadalupe, Baja California Sur 117 Several chronological separations based on glottochro- and 27th parallels and the 112th and 113th meridians. nology have been proposed for the Yuman languages Within it are located the Sierras de San Francisco of Baja California (Robles 1965; Ochoa 1982a, 1982b; and Guadalupe, whose canyons and tablelands were Laylander 1987). These suggest that the separation of systematically reconnoitered (Gutiérrez and García Proto-Yuman into its descendant lines probably began 1983b, 1990; García and Gutiérrez 1984; Gutiérrez more than 2,500 years ago. This may indicate that the 1991a, 1991b).However, the investigations were separation of Yuman-Cochimí into Proto-Cochimí and not limited to the mountains. For the Sierra de San Proto-Yuman may have taken place at a period not yet Francisco, some portions of the Vizcaíno Desert, determined but considerably before 2,500 years ago. some intermontane mesas, sections of the Sierra’s eastern foothills, and a strip of the Gulf of California’s In summary, the available evidence suggests that “in coast were investigated (Hyland 1997; Gutiérrez and both Yuman and Cochimí, linguistic archaism is to be Hyland 1998, 2002). For the Sierra de Guadalupe, the found in the peninsula” (Mixco 1978:76). Likewise, archaeological investigations included, in addition to the certainty of greater linguistic differentiation puts its numerous arroyos and tablelands, the Sierra’s east- the place of origin for Proto-Yuman-Cochimí on the ern and western foothills, some portions of the Pacific peninsula and not in the basin of the Colorado River, coastal plains, and the western portion of the Concep- as had commonly been assumed (Mixco 1978:76; Lay- ción peninsula (Gutiérrez 2013). This constitutes a lander 1987:245). It is here that the unusual geography major cultural region, where numerous archaeological of the almost insular nature of Baja California plays and historical localities are present. The systematic a clearly relevant role; in this elongated strip of land, reconnaissance of such a vast region made it possible frequent migrations from the outside were not as pos- to include great topographic and ecological diversity, sible as they were in continental settings. As Massey as well as recording food resources, deposits of raw (1949:304–305) noted, it is “extremely doubtful that it materials, and water sources (Hyland 1997; Gutiérrez can be argued that the Peninsular Yumans [Cochimí] and Hyland 1998, 2002; Gutiérrez 2013) (Figure 2). represent a very late invasion of Baja California.” In the region, a large number of sites with petroglyphs, These linguistic data have multiple implications both abstract and representational, made using diverse for the prehistory of Baja California, particularly in techniques (incised, pecked, scratched), have been iden- discussing the possibility of assigning an ethnic or tified. It is likely that some are very old, because of the cultural affiliation to the archaeological evidence, or patina covering the images and making them difficult to at least trying to do so. In light of the recently de- recognize. Also recorded have been some petroglyphs lineated linguistic patterns and their chronological that are possibly later, including some that show con- implications, the likelihood is high that part of the ventions characteristic of the Great Murals, including Baja California peninsula’s archaeological record, at their large size. In addition, sites have been found with least for the second half of the Holocene, concerns the paintings whose style differs completely from the Great Yuman-Cochimí, Guaycura, and Pericú groups. Murals. It is sufficient to say here that the human and animal figures tend to be schematic and moderate in Constantly Coming and Going: Patterns of Regional size; the analysis of the pictorial styles that differ from Settlement and Mobility the Great Murals is still ongoing (Gutiérrez 2013). The region under discussion occupies an area of The timely recording of the rock art sites was essential approximately 18,000 km2, generally between the 24th for identifying the general and specific contexts within PCAS Quarterly, 54(3&4) 118 Gutiérrez Figure 2. Archaeological sites with pictographs or petroglyphs in the Sierras de San Francisco and Guadalupe. which the production of the Great Mural painting all in the typology of the archaeological sites and their tradition and the other painted and engraved styles distribution, especially in the mountainous area. took place, as well as for making comparisons at the regional level. This aspect has been fundamental for However, it should be pointed out that just as there the recognition and characterization of the indige- are similarities, there are also important differenc- nous trends of representation in rock art imagery and es, largely determined by variables that derive from the definition of its boundaries and transitional areas the physiography and climate that prevail in each (Gutiérrez 2013). mountain

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