Book Description

The Chumash people have lived for thousands of years in coastal California from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, a homeland of uncommon biological richness and diversity. This thoroughly-researched book, in documenting some 175 of the plant species important to Chumash culture, offers a glimpse of life in southern California from pre-European contact through historic times. The 2023 edition adds a new Preface to address topics not explicitly discussed in the original text: plant management techniques that the Chumash employed and their ecological effects; organization of plant knowledge through classification systems and naming; and patterns of usage - which plant families predominated in providing particular necessities of life. The Introduction includes a brief history of the Chumash and explains the purpose of the book, how it is organized, sources, and acknowledgements. The body of the book is a Plant Catalog, organized alphabetically by scientific botanical name and including each plant's common name in English, California Spanish, and as many as six Chumashan languages. Each entry describes in detail not just how the plant was utilized but also its other roles in Chumash life and thought. Following the main text are a Bibliography, an alphabetical listing of Chumash plant-related names and words with their corresponding scientific name and English common name, and an extensive Index. Chumash Ethnobotany draws primarily upon the voluminous and richly detailed field notes and plant collections of John P. Harrington (1884-1961), who interviewed ten Chumash consultants over a period of 50 years (1911-1961). Harrington's Chumash materials comprise some 300,000 handwritten pages and over 450 plant specimens. Information was also incorporated from a wide variety of other sources: ethnographic accounts and modern Chumash consultants; archaeological reports; historical accounts by explorers, missionaries, and settlers; letters, botanical research articles, and floras. Documentation is also provided from neighboring tribes who use or used the same or related species in a similar fashion The book is intended to reach a broad audience, making the information accessible to both interested laypersons and scholars. It is illustrated with Chris Chapman's watercolor botanical portraits and Timbrook's own woodcut-like interpretations of scenes from Chumash life.