Papers on "The Chumash: Seafarers of Southern California" and similar term paper topics

Paper #101931 :: The Chumash: Seafarers of Southern California
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A study of the Chumash, a seafaring Native American tribe of Southern California and their possible connection with ancient Polynesian seafarers.

Written in 2007; 1,760 words; 10 sources; APA; $ 56.95

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the Native American tribe of Southern California, the Chumash, one of the few New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean. The paper points out that they built plank canoes, unlike most other North American native tribes whose canoes were of an unsophisticated hollowed-out tree trunk design. Only Polynesian seafarers from the distant South Pacific were thought to use similar plank boats to explore and colonize the various islands of the Pacific over a thousand or more years ago. The paper draws a possible connection between the two peoples according to both linguistic and archaeological evidence. From a purely linguistic standpoint, the Chumash word for plank canoe, "tomolo", may be derived from the Polynesian word "tumu-raa'au", referring to the wooden plank boats used by Polynesian explorers. The paper concludes that these findings regarding the Chumash wood plank canoe may open the door to seeing Native American culture in a whole new light, and even call into question old orthodoxies about migration patterns.

From the Paper:

"Due to the vast size of the area that eventually became known as California, there were at one time or another dozens of small Native American tribes who inhabited the region, differing widely in language, culture and lifestyle, due to the great variety of environmental conditions they found themselves in (desert, mountain, seacoast, etc.) The Chumash are a Native American tribe who historically made their home along the southern coastal regions of California, stretching roughly from the vicinity of what is now Santa Barbara in the north down to Ventura in the south, but (to a lesser degree) even extending as far south as what is now Malibu ("Chumash.") They also lived on the three largest of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel. The Channel Islands, located about 20 miles off the coast near present day Santa Barbara, are the largest offshore islands on the West Coast of North America ("Channel Islands.") This offshore presence was unique to the Chumash among California Indian tribes and will have a central place in the subsequent examination of their seafaring abilities and possible trans-Pacific origins."

Tags: Polynesia canoe tomolo plank boat

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