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Archaeology and Linguistics: Pomoan Prehistory as Viewed from Northern Sonoma County, California

Abstract

The present paper, then, compares archaeological data from the Warm Springs Dam Project in northern Sonoma County (Fig. 1) with various linguistically derived reconstructions of Pomoan prehistoryin an attempt to determine the time-depth of Pomoan presence in the area. The paper argues for the necessity of such a "combined approach" and examines the requirements and assumptions inherent in it. In so doing, what follows can be seen as a test case of at least one way in which culture process may be elaborated. Two cultural breaks are present in the Warm Springs sequence, one of which seems best explained by the influx or impingement of Pomoan-speaking peoples and one which can be explained in terms of in situ functional reorientation, perhaps linked with social intensification.

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