A Reconstruction of Ystagua Village

The village of Yguai, also called Iguai, was long known to be located near Cuyamaca Meadow, in the Cuyamaca Mountains of San Diego. This paper describes the field and archival research conducted to identify the location. Details of the exact location are not included to protect the site, which is part of the California State Parks system.

The cultural landscape of the Kumeyaay living in the Tijuana River Watershed of Baja California embodies the sacred, symbolic, economic, and mythological views of a people who have lived in the region for centuries. Recent research on this region that integrates ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and (to a lesser degree) archaeological information reveals a landscape that is alive and imbued with power, sustenance, and legend-a dynamic construct that reflects both changing Kumeyaay relationships with the land and the group's continuity with the past. Sacred sites, peaks, transformed rocks, magic boulders, and other geographic features associated with oral traditions populate the landscape. Ecosystems and areas of historic significance represent direct links with generations of ancestors and are still layered with meaning in the minds of descendants.

2017

This report presents the results of a public archeological project in Block 15 at Manzanar National Historic Site, in the high desert of eastern California. The Manzanar Relocation Center was one of ten such facilities in the United States where Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned during World War II. The investigations integrated archival history and archeological excavations to find two pond gardens abandoned since 1945: the ponds had been completely buried, with no evidence of them visible on the surface. Both were Japanese gardens featuring irregularly shaped ponds. One, built by Issei (first generation immigrate) Kiichiro Muto and Shinichi Sugiwara, included waterfalls, a low-arched bridge, rustic stone lanterns, stepping stones made of recycled concrete slabs, and possibly a stylized pagoda. The other, built by Issei Yasiaji Nakata, featured scalloped edges and a large central island. The gardens were situated to be shared, and materials used in their construction suggest different procurement strategies. Other landscape features recorded in Block 15 are more western in style: an entry garden built by Nisei (second generation) Tom Muto, walkways, stoops, and other small improvements. Over 4,000 artifacts were encountered during the work, most of them structural materials. However, the artifacts also reflect family life and a range of activities. Food remains recovered include peach pits, egg shell, and chicken, pig, and fish bones; the fish represent at least 23 fish of over 10 different salt-water species. The archeological work in Block 15 provides insight into the ways Japanese Americans modified their environment to acquire the goods they needed to improve their lives under incarceration. Although immersed in American material culture and imprisoned for their ethnicity, the gardens and food remains show how the incarcerees maintained their Japanese heritage. The restored pond gardens are not only a reminder of the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated, but are also a symbol of the hope and resilience of the people who built them.

Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1983

Remains of house structures, refuse heaps, and activity areas within a coastal Chumash village are examined in this paper in order to describe the internal organization at a Late Period archaeological site in southern California. Methods of analysis include visual inspection of the distribution of artifact types and features, contingency tests, and examination of graphs resulting from standardization and other processes. All feature types are described in detail. Then, with the aid of ethnographic analogy and the use of historic records, activity areas are delineated. Activities that occurred within houses are distinguished from those that took place outside houses. In addition, specific activity loci are defined, such as basketmaking areas.

2008

Agriculture and Human Values, 2004

The tropical lowlands of southern Mexico and Central America are composed of a complex mosaic of landscapes that presented a variety of possibilities and challenges to the subsistence practices of the ancient Maya. The Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project has been investigating ancient Maya agricultural practices and use of resources in a unique fresh-water wetland zone located in the northeast corner of the Yucatán Peninsula. While containing only a sparse population today, the Yalahau region once supported numerous Maya communities and civic-ceremonial centers, particularly during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, between approximately 100 B.C. and A.D. 450. Our investigations have developed evidence that the ancient Maya manipulated and cultivated the wetland landscape of the region, used soil or algae from the wetlands to enrich upland garden plots, and cultivated trees within their communities. We suggest that the study of ancient Maya agricultural practices can contribute to sustainable development of the area today and in the future. ) is a specialist in Maya archaeology and has conducted field research in Belize and Mexico. Her research interests include settlement patterns, human ecology, community structure, ancient agriculture, the use of scientific method in archaeology, and the development of innovative teaching methods. She is currently employed in Connecticut as an archaeological

American Indian Quarterly, 1986

(1906-1983) spent much of a distinguished career in anthropology teaching and writing about American Indians. In terms of a lifelong conviction that "one goes to ordinary people for cultural essentials, " Spicer learned about Indian peoples by living among them, residing at various times in two different Yaqui villages: old Pascua in Tucson, Arizona, and Potám in Sonora, Mexico. The present volume, first in a renowned series of village studies, offers the pioneer discussion of ritual kinship, a focal point for modern anthropologists' thinking about social organization. Spicer, who joined the University of Arizona faculty in 1946, became editor of the American Anthropologist and president of the American Anthropological Association. Author of nine books and countless essays and articles, Spicer was perhaps best known for Cycles of Conquest (1962) and The Yaquis: A Cultural History (1980), both published by the University of Arizona Press.

Dissertation, 2018

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist, 2014

Laboratory of Anthropology note, 1962

Recording and partial excavation of terraced gardens associated with two Pueblo sites - a two room surface structure, pithouse or kiva, and a large Pueblo with an enclosed kiva. Excavations (Archaeology) Salvage archaeology Pueblos Pit houses Surface architecture Kivas Lithic analysis Pottery analysis Terraces and terracing Prehistoric agriculture McKinley County (N.M.) Thoreau Region (N.M.) Terrace Site (N.M.) LA 6485