This book examines current archaeological approaches for studying the organizational structure of prehistoric societies in the American Southwest. It presents the historical background of the divergent theoretical models that have been used to interpret Southwestern socio-political organizations.

This book examines current archaeological approaches for studying the organizational structure of prehistoric societies in the American Southwest. It presents the historical background of the divergent theoretical models that have been used to interpret Southwestern socio-political organizations.

CaliforniaOCOs earliest European colonistsOCoRussian merchants and Spanish missionariesOCodepended heavily on Native Americans for labor to build and maintain their colonies, but they did so in very different ways. This richly detailed book brings together disparate skeins of the pastOCoincluding little-known oral histories, native texts, ethnohistory, and archaeological excavationsOCoto present a vivid new view of how native cultures fared under these two colonial systems. Kent LightfootOCOs innovative work, which incorporates the holistic methods of historical anthropology, explores the surprising ramifications of these long-ago encounters for the present-day political status of native people in California.Lightfoot weaves the results of his own significant archaeological research at Fort Ross, a major Russian mercantile colony, into a cross-cultural comparison, showing how these two colonial venturesOCoone primarily mercantile and one primarily religiousOCocontributed to the development of new kinds of native identities, social forms, and tribal relationships. His lively account includes personal anecdotes from the field and a provocative discussion of the role played by early ethnographers, such as Alfred Kroeber, in influencing which tribes would eventually receive federal recognition. "Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants" takes a fascinating, yet troubling, look at CaliforniaOCOs past and its role in shaping the state today."