Chapter II

EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA

The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far not been discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that ancestral forms preceding modern man did not migrate to the New World in remote times. It is that erroneous idea which has caused some persons to reason that man arrived here only in the final glacial stage. Good evidence has been presented to suggest that the sites he would have been most likely to inhabit might be submerged at present or may have been especially vulnerable to destruction by erosion.

Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America) do no boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very early immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date during the third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years ago instead of the Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000 years ago as some have contended.

At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge of prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five basic early cultures. These are listed below in the order of their apparent appearances in the New World.

The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date is very difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature. Few traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known in North America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding stones. These items were also found lacking in the cultures of some isolated contemporary peoples of both North and South America.

The second oldest culture in North America was that of the Ancient Food Grinders which appears to have been widespread in the rather rainy climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of North America. These people built fireplaces or hearths—beds of collected stones. They used a grinding slab of stone on which a handstone was rubbed to crush hard seeds. This indicates a greater variety of foods than used in the earlier culture. A number of crude pounding tools such as choppers and scrapers were employed as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of interest and significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab disappeared completely from most or all of this area later. The well known metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with this second culture too, such articles being essential as containers for collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the evidence in the field show also that these peoples were sedentary to the extent of developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact that this culture is not found in Europe or in Asia indicates that it developed in the Western Hemisphere.

About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed. It was one in which hunting was of major importance. These hunters were not nomads, however, for the building of hearths, accumulations of artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding stones, all indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is characterized by the presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention of European origin. This indicates more recent migrations from the Old World. These darts were stone tipped and propelled with a spear thrower or atlatl, making hunting of animal food much more effective than in the case of earlier cultures.

The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma. In these people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for this was primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not sedentary, but moved around.

Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late comers from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas. These people used the bow and arrow with its small and finely worked stone point. Fish hooks were used and many stone implements were well polished. This too is the first culture of the New World with which the dog was associated.

In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the Southwest, are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized prehistoric living sites. These reveal a succession of more recent cultures and changes within cultures, as well as movement of early peoples. In contrast there are relatively few recognized prehistoric sites in California which tell much about early customs and material culture of aboriginal man. Some productive areas which have been found are notably the following: The Farmington Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more than 4,000 years old—possibly much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa Barbara area, and the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There are also a few shell mounds in the Los Angeles—Ventura area and more numerous and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the latter shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:

NORTHWESTERN CALIF. NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA CENTRAL CALIFORNIA SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PLATEAU AREA PLAINS AREA CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA SOUTHWEST AREA LOWER COLORADO

“... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars, pestles, obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question occur at the bottom, middle, and top of the mounds, and ... they occur with substantially the same frequency. In other words, the natives of the San Francisco region traded the same materials from the same localities one, two, or three thousand years ago as when they were discovered at the end of the eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the same proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant in higher levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner, and sewed skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to their recent descendants. Even their religion was conservative, since the identical charms seem to have been regarded potent. In a word, the basis of culture remained identical during the whole of the shell-mound period.

“When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this period (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that we are here confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary importance. It means that at the time when Troy was besieged and Solomon was building the temple, at a period when even Greek civilization had not yet taken on the traits that we regard as characteristic, when only a few scattering foundations of specific modern culture were being laid and our own northern ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the native Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization, such as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.

“... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of far more than local interest. It is a fact of significance in the history of civilization.”

Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of the resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave rise to many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects, there were about 750 different North American Indian languages.