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The Watercraft of Isla Cedros, Baja California: Variability and Capabilities of Indigenous Seafaring Technology along the Pacific Coast of North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew R. Des Lauriers
Matthew R. Des Lauriers*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521
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Abstract

Many of the discussions addressing the issue of the capabilities and significance of early watercraft forms or a regionally specific evolutionary sequence for craft such as the Southern California plank canoe have limited their range of analogies to those forms present among the ethnohistorically documented groups of Southern California. However, this article attempts to demonstrate the existence of at least one additional form of watercraft present on the Pacific coast of Baja California, as well as call attention to the greatly underrepresented capabilities of some long-recognized forms of watercraft. Inference, historic documents, contemporary environmental conditions, and archaeological data are used in an attempt to reconstruct a meaningful picture of Isla Cedros watercraft and their place within the repertoire of indigenous maritime culture and society. It is suggested that modern political boundaries have resulted in the exclusion of Baja California from discussions of North American archaeology. This discussion attempts to be a contribution to concepts of indigenous watercraft along the Pacific coast of North America and a vehicle to expand the research horizons of North American archaeology to include the underinvestigated regions of Baja California and northwestern Mexico.

Résumé

Résumé

Muchas discusiones que han tocado los temas de las capacidades y significados en las formas de barcos antiguos Californianos y sus secuencias evolutivas específicas han limitado el rango de analogías a formas existentes entre los grupos indígenas en Alta California durante los periodos protóhistorico o colonial. Esta obra trata de demostrar la existencia de por lo menos una forma más en los barcos de la Costa Pacífica de Baja California, que es capaz de cruzar los canales entre islas y tierra firme. Además de llamar la atención sobre las capacidades mal representadas de formas ya reconocidas por muchos años. Se utiliza la inferencia, documentos históricos, condiciones ambientales actuates, y datos arqueológicos para reconstruir una imagen significativa de los barcos de Isla Cedros y su lugar en la cultura marítima y la sociedad indígena. Se espera que este trabajo no solamente servirá como contribución al conocimiento de barcos indígenas a lo largo de la Costa Pacifica de las Américas, sino también para ampliar los horizontes de investigación para la arqueología de Norte América, e incluir regiones poco investigadas del noroeste de México y Baja California.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 342 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2005

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