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"Since Cahuilla culture has not been adequately studied or describe in the past, a straightforward ethnographic presentation alone would have made this a valuable book. However, Bean adds greater depth to the study by posing a series of hypotheses and problems which are then examined in the light of the Cahuilla data. . . . Mukat's People is a tightly-written and informative book, and was a great pleasure to read."
--California Historical Quarterly
"Bean presents a fairly complete description of one of California's lesser-known Indian tribes before it underwent extensive cultural changes. Combining archaeological, ethnohistorical, and earlier ethnographic descriptions with his own field observations, Bean presents a technical and well-rounded picture of Cahuilla social structure, ritual, world view, and the semi-dessert ecological niche to which the tribe successfully adapted. A welcome edition to the study of ecology, hunters and gathers, desert living, and California Indians."
--Choice
List of contents
1. Introduction
2. The Cahuilla Physical Environment
3. Plant Environment
4. Faunal Environment
6. Social Structure and Organization
7. Other Institutions
8. Ritual
9. World View: Existential and Normative Postulates
10. Conclusions
Bibliography
About the author
Lowell J. Bean is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, California State University, Hayward.
Summary
Examines the relevancy of the opposing theoretical views I will develop hypotheses concerning a particular culture, the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, which will be used as a test case. This title presents two sets of hypotheses which logically follow from each of the assumptions.
