"Missionization among the Coastal Chumash of Central California: A Study of Risk Minimization Strategies" (Larson, senior author, with Joel Michaelsen, and John Johnson). American Anthropologist 96(2): 263-299, 1994.

Abstract. Anthropologists have long been interested in missionization, acculturation, and political subjugation of traditional peoples. In recent years scholars have generated voluminous amounts of data on Spanish Colonialism and its effects on the native population of the Americas. This paper specifically examines the missionization of the Chumash who occupied the coastal region of central California. Although the abandonment of Chumash villages occurred over a 40 year period, the vast majority, over 60%, migrated to the missions between 1798 and 1802. We suggest that the decision to move to the missions may have been based on a desire to minimize risk and was considered an acceptable alternative under the pressures of several interrelated catastrophic events. The period between 1780 and 1830 was characterized by high climatic variability, several years of droughts, and significantly elevated sea-surface temperatures. This was a particularly difficult period of high subsistence risk and the traditional Chumash buffers of trade and political alliances failed under intense pressures of missionization. Compounding these conditions were European diseases which decimated the Chumash people. Primary sources used for this research include mission documents and registers produced by Franciscan missionaries between 1786 and 1834. Information on paleo-environmental conditions is derived from high resolution dendrochronological and marine sedimentary records.

Perhaps social systems are not simply the result of tightly organized interactions among a few variables of kinship and marriage: instead, they may be components in a larger system incorporating many variables that must be taken into account before any clear pattern can be discovered (Spaulding 1988).

The Columbian Quincentenary has brought about a renewed interest in Spanish Colonial research among social scientists. The organization of symposia at professional meetings of diverse disciplines and recent publication of many articles and books are reflections of this (Milanich and Milbrath 1989; Thomas 1989, 1990, 1991; Viola and Margolis 1991; Ubelaker and Verano 1992). The primary objective of many of these scholars is to explicate the causal factors behind the effectiveness of the Spanish to Christianize and colonialize Native Americans. Over a span of 65 years, 1769 to 1834, virtually all central and southern California native coastal populations became incorporated into 21 dispersed Spanish mission communities. This major event has been attributed to a wide variety of economic, social, and political factors (Cook 1976a; Coombs and Plog 1977; Webb 1982; Johnson 1989; Sandos 1991). Despite many years of research, missionization processes are not well understood.

This paper specifically examines the missionization of the Chumash who occupied the coastal region of central California (Figure 1). The principle argument of this paper is that as Chumash population levels increased there was a greater dependence on exchange of food from one settlement to the next. This reciprocity allowed groups to meet their provisioning needs when there were shortfalls within a village's catchment. As populations continued to grow, subsistence strategies expanded and intensified and settlements became increasingly interdependent and mutual trade became critical to subsistence success. Tied to the mutual trading relationship was a hierarchical political system involving chiefs who acted as brokers in the exchange relationships. They were also responsible for the scheduling of feasts, ceremonies, and celebrations which were essential to inter-village social interaction and conflict resolution. This political organization was the cement that held the economic system together in the face of environmental perturbations and the threat of competition from mutual enemies. This system, however, was particularly sensitive to the effects of missionization and collapsed with the declining population, the abandonment of villages, political decentralization, and resultant food provisioning failure. The period between 1780 to 1830 was characterized by high climatic variability, several years of droughts, and significantly elevated sea-surface temperatures. This was a particularly difficult period of high subsistence risk and the traditional buffers of trade and political alliances failed. Compounding these conditions were several epidemics that decimated the Chumash people. We suggest that the decision to move to the missions may have been based on a desire to minimize risk and was considered an acceptable alternative under the interrelated catastrophic events.