California Culture Areas
In an effort to describe the great diversity of California Native communities, scholars have divided the state into six geographically distinct "culture areas." The residents of each culture area shared many common traits, such as dress, housing, manufacturing methods, and other routine activities.
The six California culture areas are Southern, Central, Northwestern, Northeastern, Great Basin, and Colorado River.
The Southern Culture Area
Some of the most populous tribes in California were located in the southern culture area. Villages along the southern coast, sustained by the great abundance of sea life, contained as many as two thousand residents each.
Among the many tribes in the southern culture area are the Kumeyaay (Diegueno), Cahuilla, Tongva (Gabrielino), and Chumash.
Like many of their southern California neighbors, the Kumeyaay seasonally exploited various ecological niches. Each village community engaged in an annual migration, following the ripening of major plants within their territory. In the spring, the Kumeyaay gathered budding plants and small game in the canyons and lower foothills. In the early summer they harvested and dried ripening cactus fruits for winter storage. In July and August they moved into the higher elevations to gather ripening seeds, wild plums, and other fruits. They harvested acorns and piņon nuts in the fall before returning to their winter villages.
The Cahuilla occupied a diverse territory of canyons, mountain passes, and windswept deserts that stretched from the Chocolate Mountains in the south to the San Bernardino Mountains in the north.
The Cahuilla supplemented traditional hunting and gathering activities with some limited agriculture. Hunters shot rabbits and other small game with bows and arrows, killed them with throwing sticks, or captured them with nets and snares. Women gathered acorns, mesquite pods, piņon nuts, and the fruit of various species of cacti. When water supplies were sufficient, the Cahuilla planted crops of corn, beans, squash, and melons.
Like other peoples of the American Southwest, the Cahuilla produced both pottery and basketry. They fashioned their pottery by coiling narrow ropes of clay and smoothing the sides with a rounded stone and wooden paddle. The finished product, usually thin and brittle, was painted or incised with geometric designs.
The homeland of the Tongva included all of present-day Los Angeles and much of neighboring Orange County as well as parts of the offshore islands of San Clemente, Santa Catalina, and San Nicolas
Tongva society was divided into distinct social classes. The elite included the families of the headmen and other wealthy individuals. The remainder of the population was divided between a middle class of affluent families and a lower class of families of more modest means.
Marriage among the Tongva was generally between individuals from the same social class. On her wedding day, a Tongva bride was adorned with beads, skins, paint, and flowers. She was carried halfway to her future husband's home by her family and friends who danced and sang along the way. The groom's relatives met the entourage and carried the bride the rest of the way. They placed the bride beside the groom and poured baskets of seeds over their heads to ensure a rich and bountiful life together.
The Chumash occupied an expansive territory along the southern California coast, from Malibu Canyon in the south to Estero Bay in the north, and as far inland as the western San Joaquin Valley. Also included in Chumash territory were the large offshore islands--San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa.
Chumash villages were among the largest in California, some containing as many as two thousands residents. Their homes were made of poles driven into the ground and arched into the center, overlaid with a thatch of interwoven grasses, tules, and ferns. In addition to family homes, the typical Chumash village also included a storehouse, sweathouse, cemetery, ceremonial enclosure, and playing field.
The Chumash were skilled as navigators and fishermen. Their oceangoing canoes, constructed of planks lashed together and caulked with asphaltum, permitted extensive travel between the coast and the numerous offshore islands. From their canoes, the Chumash harpooned seals, sea otters, and porpoises.
The Chumash also produced some of the most colorful and spectacular rock paintings in North America. The extant paintings, found in caves and on rock outcroppings throughout southern California, are almost always abstract in design; even when life forms are depicted they are highly stylized and imaginative.