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Evaluating Cross-Channel Exchange in the Santa Barbara Region: Experimental Data on Acorn Processing and Transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mikael Fauvelle
Mikael Fauvelle*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (mfauvell@ucsd.edu)
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Abstract

An important consideration in evaluating the efficiency of subsistence resource exchange in the Santa Barbara channel region concerns the form in which acorns might have been traded from the mainland to the islands. A lack of archaeological evidence for acorn processing or consumption on the islands has led a number of researchers to suggest that acorns may have been traded to the islands as pre-pounded flour, rather than as whole acorns. Using new experimentally determined mass and weight measurements for acorns and acorn flour, this paper argues that pre-transport pounding would not have increased the efficiency of acorn exchange.

Resumen

Resumen

Una consideración importante a la hora de evaluar la eficiencia de intercambio de recursos de subsistencia en el canal de Santa Bárbara es la forma en que las bellotas podrίan haber sido intercambiadas desde el continente a las islas. La falta de evidencias arqueológicas de procesamiento o consumo de bellotas en las islas ha llevado a numerosos investigadores a sugerir que las bellotas pueden haber sido transportadas a las islas como harina de bellota, en lugar de bellotas enteras. Utilizando nuevas mediciones de masa y peso de bellotas y de harina de bellota determinadas experimentalmente, esta ponencia argumenta que el transporte de la harina no habrίa incrementado la eficiencia de intercambio de bellotas.

Information

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 790 - 798
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014 

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References

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