The early middle period stone bead interdependence network

The purpose of this thesis is to explore southern California early Middle period gifting and reciprocal exchange networks and the underlying motivations responsible for the creation, maintenance, and possible rejection of social relationships. Geospatial patterns in the distribution of early Middle period stone beads, an important stylistic variant imbued with social meaning, coupled with the uneven distribution of stone beads and other symbolic artifacts in mortuary contexts suggest stone beads communicated important information about social identity. A fine-grained talc-schist chemical sourcing protocol is developed using Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass-Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) that identifies soapstone source locations used in the production of stone beads (Sierra Pelona) and other artifacts (Catalina) while the source(s) of chlorite schist and chlorite talc schist used to craft the majority of early Middle period beads remains unknown. A theoretical model of mutual interdependence, adapted from systems theory approaches to the study of southern California hunter-gatherers and the more recent Interdependence Hypothesis is merged with the power and force model to explain underlying motivations for the creation and maintenance of obligatory gifting and reciprocal exchange relationships that reveals important information regarding social interaction among small-scale groups as well as factors that led to the emergence of large-scale complex hunter-gatherer societies. The model is applied to the ethnographic Cahuilla representing a large scale mutual interdependence network regulated by the institution of ceremonialism and compared to the early Middle period mutual interdependence stone bead obligatory gifting and reciprocal exchange network, a possible remnant of the Early period Olivella Grooved Rectangular Bead (OGR) sphere of influence, that connected the Los Angeles area to the southern Channel Islands, San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, lower Mojave River, and Coachella Valley. By the Late period the stone bead exchange network, which had previously operated parallel to the Santa Barbara Channel shell bead exchange network, was absorbed by it.