PREHISTORIC MARINE MAMMAL HUNTING ON CALIFORNIA NORTHERN CHANNEL-ISLANDS

Prehistoric marine mammal hunting is of interest to archaeologists wor ldwide because these animals were exploited by a wide range of coastal societies. Sorting out file roles of particular groups of fauna in pr ehistoric economies requires detailed attention to the analysis of the entire faunal assemblage. Although marine mammals typically provided large quantities of fat a,ld protein and were desirable pi ey, they we re not always central to the diets of the groups that exploited them, particularly in temperate zones. To evaluate effectively rite importan ce of marine mammal exploitation, scholars should calculate the relati ve contribution of these animals to the economy, identify changes in h unting techniques, determine the relationship between fauna and other aspects of society, assess changing environmental conditions, and cons ider alternate explanations for those relationships. A large body of r esearch research oil the northern Channel Islands of California demons trates that fishing was relatively more important than marine mammal e xploitation in subsistence and in stimulating sociopolitical and techn ological developments. Recent attempts to credit marine mammal hunting as a driving force in the invention of the plank canoe and the evolut ion of a chiefdom in the Santa Barbara Channel area misunderstand envi ronmental factors and site histories in this region. Rather than assum ing that a pan-Pacific Coast set of traditions existed to exploit thes e taxa, we see evidence of local and regional differences rooted in va riable cultural settings, physiographic and oceanographic conditions, and available technologies. Data fr om the Santa Barbara Channel are u sed to explore the relationships among marine mammal use, sociology ca l change, and environmental change.