Encounters at Tamál-Húye: an Archaeology of Intercultural Engagement in Sixteenth-Century Northern California
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Encounters at tamál-húye: An Archaeology of Intercultural Engagement in Sixteenth-Century Northern California By Matthew Alan Russell A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kent G. Lightfoot, Chair Professor Patrick V. Kirch Professor Kerwin Lee Klein Spring 2011 Encounters at tamál-húye: An Archaeology of Intercultural Engagement in Sixteenth-Century Northern California ©2011 by Matthew Alan Russell Abstract Encounters at tamál-húye: An Archaeology of Intercultural Engagement in Sixteenth-Century Northern California by Matthew Alan Russell Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Kent G. Lightfoot, Chair This dissertation explores an intercultural engagement and its material aftermath, as well as larger processes of culture change and continuity in sixteenth-century northern California. The starting points for the research are cross-cultural encounters between Tamal hunter-gatherers and English voyagers under Sir Francis Drake in 1579 and the Spanish crew from the shipwrecked Manila galleon San Agustín in 1595, which occurred in tamál-húye, the Coast Miwok-language name for present-day Drakes Bay, California. Archaeological evidence from extensive excavations around tamál-húye during the 1940s-1970s indicates that Tamal villagers took advantage of the body of introduced material culture from the San Agustín shipwreck by salvaging objects and incorporating them into their cultural practices. I utilize this body of existing archaeological data, and a historical anthropological approach incorporating multiple lines of evidence, to address two primary questions about the cross-cultural encounters at tamál- húye that have not been addressed in detail by previous researchers. First, I evaluate how the Tamal people incorporated material culture from the shipwreck into their cultural practices by analyzing museum collections, archival excavation records and original field notes, and published reports from the earlier investigations, and by incorporating additional data from ethnography, historical documents, and native oral traditions. I recreate the excavations in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze intra-site artifact and feature patterning, and I examine the correlation between distributions of sixteenth-century introduced objects and indigenously-manufactured items. Second, using a framework based on an “event- oriented” archaeology, I assess whether this short-term, pre-colonial event, and the material culture introduced as a result, was a source of long-term Tamal culture change. I investigate whether Tamal salvage and reuse of the ship’s cargo, and incorporation of the introduced material culture into their daily lives, resulted in transformations to Tamal cultural practices. My results suggest the Tamal people incorporated material culture from the San Agustin shipwreck in complex ways. Some porcelain fragments were modified into traditional artifacts such as bead blanks, pendants, bifaces, and other objects, while the large quantity of unmodified porcelain fragments may represent discarded by-products from the production of these and other objects. Overall, the ways in which the Tamal recontextualized sixteenth-century introduced objects were a complex combination of utilitarian and symbolic reuse. 1 For Kathy and Monty i TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………… ii List of Figures …………………………………………………………………… iv List of Tables …………………………………………………………………… xiv Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………………… xv Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………………………………… 1 Chapter Two: An Event-Oriented Archaeology………………………………… 21 Chapter Three: Written and Oral Accounts of the Encounters at tamál-húye …… 39 Chapter Four: A History of Archaeological Research of the Encounters at tamál-húye …………………………………………………… 71 Chapter Five: Artifact Assemblage and Feature Analysis from Previous Archaeological Investigations…………………………………… 106 Chapter Six: Previous Excavation Methodologies and Geographic Information System (GIS) Reconstruction ……………………… 162 Chapter Seven: Geographic Information System (GIS) Analysis of Previous Archaeological Excavations …………………………………… 194 Chapter Eight: Sixteenth-Century Introduced Artifact Analysis………………… 265 Chapter Nine: Conclusions……………………………………………………… 304 References Cited …………………………………………………………………… 321 Appendix A: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-232…………………………………………………… 357 Appendix B: Faunal Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-242…………………………………………………… 363 ii Appendix C: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-271…………………………………………………… 369 Appendix D: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-307…………………………………………………… 375 Appendix E: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-216…………………………………………………… 381 Appendix F: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-298E ………………………………………………… 387 Appendix G: Nearest Neighbor Statistics and Ripley’s K-function, CA-MRN-298W………………………………………………… 393 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Point Reyes Peninsula and tamál-húye, or Drakes Bay…………………… 2 Figure 4.1 Location of the 15 archaeological sites on the Point Reyes Peninsula where introduced sixteenth-century artifacts from the San Agustín shipwreck have been recovered…………………………………………… 72 Figure 4.2 Location of the six archaeological sites on the Point Reyes Peninsula with excavations reconstructed in a Geographic Information System …… 74 Figure 4.3 University of California excavation map of CA-MRN-232, 1940-1941… 83 Figure 4.4 University of California excavation map of CA-MRN-242, 1940-1941 … 85 Figure 4.5 University of California sketch map of CA-MRN-271, 1941-1945……… 86 Figure 4.6 University of California excavation map of CA-MRN-232, 1949……….. 88 Figure 4.7 University of California excavation map of CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951 … 91 Figure 4.8 San Francisco State College excavation map of CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967 ………………………………………………………………… 96 Figure 4.9 San Francisco State College excavation map of CA-MRN-298, 1958…… 97 Figure 4.10 San Francisco State College and Santa Rosa Junior College excavation map of CA-MRN-298, 1958-1967 ……………………………………… 100 Figure 5.1 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-232 by artifact category, 1940-1941………………………………………………………………… 109 Figure 5.2 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-242 by artifact category, 1940-1941………………………………………………………………… 109 Figure 5.3 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-271 by artifact category, 1941…… 110 Figure 5.4 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-307 by artifact category, 1949-1951………………………………………………………………… 110 Figure 5.5 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-216 by artifact category, 1964-1967………………………………………………………………… 111 Figure 5.6 Total artifacts recovered at CA-MRN-298 by artifact category, 1956-1973………………………………………………………………… 111 iv Figure 5.7 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-232, 1940-1950………… 112 Figure 5.8 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-242, 1940-1941………… 112 Figure 5.9 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-271, 1941 ……………… 113 Figure 5.10 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951………… 113 Figure 5.11 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967………… 114 Figure 5.12 Flaked stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-298, 1956-1973………… 114 Figure 5.13 Flaked stone artifacts from CA-MRN-298E and CA-MRN-298W ……… 119 Figure 5.14 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-232, 1940-1950 ……… 121 Figure 5.15 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-242, 1940-1941……… 121 Figure 5.16 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-271, 1941 …………… 122 Figure 5.17 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951……… 122 Figure 5.18 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967……… 123 Figure 5.19 Ground stone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-298, 1956-1973……… 123 Figure 5.20 Ground stone artifacts from CA-MRN-298E and CA-MRN-298W……… 128 Figure 5.21 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-232, 1940-1950……… 129 Figure 5.22 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-242, 1940-1941……… 129 Figure 5.23 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-271, 1941 …………… 130 Figure 5.24 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951……… 130 Figure 5.25 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967……… 131 Figure 5.26 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-298, 1956-1973……… 131 Figure 5.27 Worked bone artifacts from CA-MRN-298E and CA-MRN-298W……… 134 Figure 5.28 Worked shell artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-232, 1940-1950……… 135 Figure 5.29 Worked shell artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-242, 1940-1941……… 135 v Figure 5.30 Worked shell artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-271, 1941…………… 136 Figure 5.31 Worked shell artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951……… 136 Figure 5.32 Worked bone artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967……… 137 Figure 5.33 Worked shell artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-298, 1956-1973……… 137 Figure 5.34 Worked shell artifacts from CA-MRN-298E and CA-MRN-298W……… 142 Figure 5.35 Historic Period artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-232, 1940-1950…… 147 Figure 5.36 Historic Period artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-271, 1941 ………… 147 Figure 5.37 Historic Period artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-307, 1949-1951…… 148 Figure 5.38 Historic Period artifacts recovered from CA-MRN-216, 1964-1967…… 148 Figure 5.39 Historic Period artifacts