Ethnographic and Linguistic Evidence for the Origins of Human Trophy Taking in California

Abstract

“Scalps were taken in the greater part of California, brought home in triumph, and celebrated over, usually by a dance around a pole” (Kroeber 1976:843); thus concluded the great California ethnographer Alfred Kroeber on the human trophy taking in his lengthy treatise, Handbook of the Indians of California. At the time of his study of the cultural elements of California’s indigenous peoples, California was or had recently been occupied by over 50 tribal groups (Figure 4.1) representing six major language stocks/families and numerous languages and dialects (Dixon and Kroeber 1919; Heizer 1978: ix; Kroeber 1976; Moratto 1984; Shipley 1978). It was then, as now, an ethnically and linguistically diverse landscape. For this reason, the indigenous landscape of California provides an ideal backdrop for examining the processes by which cultural traits such as human trophy taking are developed, introduced, adopted, modified, rejected, or eliminated as they move across social boundaries. The purpose of this chapter is: to document human trophy-taking behavior in indigenous societies of California and to examine the relationship between historic patterns of trophy taking and the geographic distribution of the six major language groups, with an eye on elucidating the origins and antiquity of the practice.