Vice and Virtue

 

Indulgences and Social Mores Amongst the Inhabitants of Spanish Alta California

 

  

 

By

Shuryn Riggins

and

Dinelle Lucchesi

 

 

 

 

ANTH 146: Spanish and Native American Experience

Dr. Russell K. Skowronek

Spring 2004

 

 

Vice and Virtue:

Indulgences and Social Mores Amongst the Inhabitants of Spanish Alta California

Introduction

As the world enters a new century and a new millennium the moral barometer seems to swing from liberal to conservative. People are faced with dilemma of social conduct. Who can drink what, and how much? What is overly  promiscuous behavior? Is tobacco use acceptable? And if so, for who? Is abortion permitted? Was there contraception? Who is an acceptable marriage partner for who? When the colonists who traded with Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in California, their social mores were not that different- or were they? The following explores some social mores from the time of de Anza among both the colonists and their Indian neighbors.

Alcohol

The Golden Age of Spain (1556-1665)

The Spanish used wine in their Catholic mass ceremonies. Although there were great vineyards in Spain and large amounts of wine were produced, during the “Golden Age” (sixteenth to mid seventeenth century), Spaniards exhibited a considerable amount of temperance. The women rarely drank wine, at least not in public, and the men consumed about a quarter of a liter per day (Defourneaux 1970:152-153).

Pre-Contact Era in Native California

Only a few native cultures north of Mexico had knowledge of alcohol before contact with Europeans. In what is now Arizona, both the Pima (Akimel O’odham) and Papago (Tohono O’odham) people did make versions of wine out of saguaro cactus. The alcohol content was between three and four percent, much lower than the wine of grapes drunk in Europe (Mancall 1995:132). It had significant nutritional value and large amounts had to be drunk to achieve intoxication. The beverage provided a good source of comparably safe liquid where water was not easy to find. The Pima and Papago peoples made large quantities of saguaro wine in July, after the harvest of the first crops. They would have a saguaro ceremony and all of the adults would drink large amounts of the wine. The belief was that just as they were saturating their bodies with the wine the earth would be saturated with rain. North of the Rio Grande, use of alcohol outside of ceremony was infrequent.   Thus “drinking etiquette” was not developed among the native peoples (Hoxie 1996:14-19).

After Contact in Alta California

Use of Alcohol in New Spain was common among both the Spanish settlers and the natives. The Franciscans introduced to California what was known as the mission grape in 1767, and small quantities of surplus wine were given to travelers starting in the early 1800's (Viola and Margolis 1991:60-61).  Pima and Papago drinking patterns changed greatly after the onset of new diseases and much warfare between . Indians who had previously restricted drinking to ceremonious occasions changed their patterns. The arrival of the Europeans allowed distilled beverages to be introduced into their diets. To this day tribes continue to incorporate alcohol into their  religious ceremonies (Mancall 1995:132-133). However, during colonial times taverns and inns turned drinking alcohol into a social pastime. Brandy and wine imported from Spain and Mexico made drinking alcohol less of a strictly religious act among the Indians. Although Spanish bureaucrats and clergy did not approve of Indians increased alcohol consumption, not all colonists condemned drinking among the natives. One observer noted when Indians “ assemble at their festivals, the whole tribe bring eatables, and they sing and dance till they get drunk and are tired and so they freely pass a happy time” (Mancall 1995: 132-133). When Padre Catala and Padre Viader of mission Santa Clara were asked in 1814 of the natives on the mission, “What kind of fermented drinks do they use? Are they useful or harmful to them? Explain also the ingredients and types of these drinks.” They replied, “They have no fermented drink and their only beverage is water. The same is true at all other missions except at Carmel where they have learned to drink wine, whiskey and mescal. They get tipsy, even intoxicated by chewing tobacco and this is very harmful to their chests The missionaries at Santa Barbara replied, “These Indians have no fermented drinks whatever of their own but they hanker after ours wherefore we keep them securely hid” (Geiger and Clement 1976: 89).

Before 1800, crown officials tried to restrict the types and quantities of alcohol that were imported. There were difficulties with this from the onset. In 1776, Commisionado Morago at the Pueblo of San Jose received an order to put an end to drunken behavior in the town. In Santa Barbara Alferez Jose Joaquin Maitorena held a hearing regarding complaints of drinking, gambling and fighting by the Los Angeles vecinos, one of which was Ygnacio Molina. He was eventually sentenced to 100 lashings and forced to work six years as a presidario for his anti-social behavior. By the end of the century however, the government seemed to have given up trying to control the importation of illegal spirits (Williams 2000 4[6:2]: 6-7).

Account books of Santa Clara Mission show detailed lists of what was being purchased and arriving on the mission. Although we cannot determine from these books who was consuming the alcohol or for what purpose, it is known that it was on site. Noted as received was, “1 liquor case with 18 flasks of wine and the case at 50 pesos.” On November 15, 1784, “1 barrel of white wine at 39 pesos and 4 reales.” as well as “1 barrel of brandy at 40 pesos” (Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 1-24).

Tobacco

Pre-Contact Era in Native California

Around the Southern Central coast of California, a large number of pipes have been found in cemeteries of the Chumash. This suggests plants native to the area such as Nicotiana attenuate and N. bigelovii were used. Tobacco was used ceremoniously and may not have been considered an indulgence as it was in Spain. The dried leaves were smoked out of a tapering tube of steatite, and that usually had a mouthpiece of bird bone (Grant 1978). The Chumash also “chewed a confection of wild tobacco and lime, which when chewed, strengthens them as they say; but if they go to excess, it intoxicates them¼” (Englehardt 1932:18). The Ohlone hunters always chewed tobacco while approaching the game as they thought that by altering their consciousness, they also made the prey “drunk and less wary”(Margolin 1978: 33-34). When an Ohlone woman is child-bearing, her husband must give up meat, salt and tobacco (Margolin 1978: 67).

After Contact in Alta California

Tobacco was used on the missions, most likely by the padres, as the account books cite numerous bundles of tobacco as being received. On November 6, 1776, recorded as sent to Santa Clara mission was “25 bundles of tobacco at 18 pesos 6 reales” (Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 3). On September 30^th of 1806 “2 large boxes with 24 pesos of cigars and cigarettes” were received (Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 85).

Other Intoxicants

Pre-Contact Era in Native California

Toloache, or jimsonweed, is a datura plant used in Mexico, California and South and Central America (Bean and Saubel 1972). Yokuts used a drink of crushed datura roots in rites and ceremonies (Ibid.). Datura was also used for medicinal purposes (Bean 1992: 75) As was said by one Cahuilla Indian:

‘Medicine men use it. They were permitted to go from this world to another world. That’s how they went. They would take a portion of what we call the dream weed, and then would tell people what they’d see: fantastic colors, horses and other things. They would go clear out. Everyone was not allowed to do that’ (Bean and Saubel 1972:61).

 

Nearly all tribes in Southern California used some form of a datura plant, including the Yokuts and Cahuilla in southern and central California, as well as the Miwoks and Ohlone in northern California and the San Francisco Bay region (Bean 1992: 75). It was believed that datura would bring riches; it was also believed that the events in datura induced visions would come true (Kroeber 1908:65). However not all shamans used datura. Kroeber writes, “It is said by the Cahuilla that the amount of extract of the root that is drunk must be judged by a man experienced in its use, and that a number of deaths have resulted from taking excessive quantities” (Kroeber 1908:66).

 

 

There were many other trance inducers used by shamans. Trances could be induced using rhythmic sounds, fasting, and drugs. Hallucinations were believed to have brought shamans to another world to find lost souls and bring them back before the person who lost them died or got ill.(Bean 1992: 75) The drugs were in form of plant roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds. Sometimes Mushrooms containing psilocybine, which is an agent that causes auditory and visual hallucinations, were used. Flowering plants such as members of the morning glory family, legumes, mints were also believed to have visionary effects (Bean 1992:75).

 

 

 

Sexual Codes of Behavior, Marriage & Divorce 

 

      The Golden Age of Spain (1556-1665)

 

In Spain during the eighteenth century, the Bourbons passed the Royal Pragmatica of 1716 which was applied to the colonies in 1718. In regards to marriage, this decree stated that “parental consent for youths under the age of twenty-five [be obtained] to marry, and it upheld the parent’s right to oppose their children’s choice of mate.” However, parental consent was not required of “Mulatos, Negros, Coyotes and similar races” in the Americas because of the difficulty of finding parents (Bouvier 2001: 113-114). The Spanish Crown encouraged inter-ethnic marriages on the frontier, like it had done in New Spain; soldiers who married converted natives were promised land and other incentives (ibid.: 114-115).

In general, Spanish society and Catholicism forbade premarital sex and required marital fidelity. Marriages were monogamous and were for the duration of the partners’ lives.  Remarriage of widows and widowers was permitted; however, granting divorce was rare and required dire circumstances. “Of course, fornication, adultery, incest, seduction, rape, and polygamy were sins, but far worse than any of these were the execrable sins ‘against nature,’ which included masturbation, bestiality, and homosexual copulation” (Hurtado 1999: 5). Sex was allowed, but only in the ‘missionary position’ and only for procreation (ibid.). However, despite their firm Catholic beliefs, many Spaniards had concubines, thus, breaking their sacred bonds of marriage (Defourneaux 1979: 109).

 Pre-Contact Era in Native California          

Sexual codes of conduct of the natives seemed very relaxed and promiscuous to the missionaries. However, this was a way of life for the natives. For the Ohlone people of the San Francisco Bay area, virginity before marriage was not demanded or expected (Margolin 1978: 84). Marriage between two native peoples was very casual in comparison to Catholic marriage practices and laws. According to the missionaries at San Miguel, in pre-mission times, if a native couple loved each other, they would be considered married. The fiancé sometimes would ask the consent of the parents and would have to give the bride’s family a quantity of beads as payment (Bouvier 2001: 112-113). Similar accounts have been documented by missionaries throughout California stating that marriage between natives was relaxed and hardly required matrimonial ceremonies (Geiger and Meighan 1976: 65-69).

Many of the native peoples of California before contact practiced polygamy (Hurtado 1999: 2). However, polygamy was usually restricted to leadership and the acquisition of wives was for practical, rather than purely sexual, means. In the San Francisco area, it was reported by H.D. Richardson, an early California pioneer, that the chiefs “ ‘possessed eleven wives, the subchiefs nine, and the warriors two wives or as many more as they were able to care for’ ” (Bouvier 2001: 111). He also wrote that this many wives was essential in times of war when the wives would care for and recover the wounded from the battlefield. However, not all tribes had as many as eleven wives; the coastal Miwok chiefs often had only two (ibid.: 111).

Divorce was common in the native populations and most native peoples were able to leave marriage at will. Both men and women were able to divorce one another (ibid.: 112). Within the Chumash culture of Southern California women initiated sex and ridiculed, even divorced, inadequate partners (Hurtado 1999: 4). Adultery, however, was usually not taken lightly. Among the Gabrieli_o people, men could exchange their wives and the women had to submit. However, it was not permissible for women to engage in sexual relations outside their marriages on their own (Bouvier 2001: 112; Hurtado 1999: 4).

In some native cultures, homosexuality was accepted. The Chumash people of Southern California had homosexual transvestites at each rancher_a for common use (Hurtado 1999: 7). The Ohlone people, as well, accepted homosexuality as a functioning system in their way of life. Father Palou described a group of natives who were visiting at Mission Santa Clara and noticed that one of the natives among the women was actually a man.

‘There was one who, by the dress, which was decorously worn, and by the heathen headdress and ornaments displayed, as well as the manner of working, sitting, etc., had all the appearances of a woman, but judging by the face and the absence of breasts, though old enough for that, they concluded that he must be a man, but that he passed himself off always for a woman and always went with them and not the men’ (Margolin 1978: 84)

 

Both native men and women could be homosexuals it seems. Where the men would completely adopt the roles of women’s life in the community and even be a second or third wife to a native man, women could be homosexuals, but could not adopt men’s roles (ibid.).

After Contact in Alta California

Catholic codes of sexual behavior on the missions included chastity, restraint, monogamy, and the elimination of sexual activity outside of the sacrament of marriage. These values were taught to the neophytes. If they were not abided by, the perpetrators would receive corporal punishment.

When asked to respond to a government questionnaire in 1812 about which vices were dominant among neophytes and in which sex, the prelates almost unanimously listed licentiousness, and more than two-thirds of the respondents named debauchery as the prevailing vice among Indians at their mission (Bouvier 2001: 108).

 

The priests often regarded the natives as sexually immoral and taking part in the satisfaction of various vices.

The natives were considered incontinent and unfaithful; it was said that the Californian Indian husbands would barter or gamble away their wives willingly (ibid.: 109). In the 1812 questionnaire given to all the missions regarding all aspects of native life, when asked, “Which vices are the most dominant among them and in which sex?,” the padres replied with the following response from Mission Santa Clara: “The most dominant vices of these Indians are first, fornication...” (Geiger and Meighan 1976: 105-106). Most all the padres replied in a similar manner to the same question.

Venereal diseases in the Missions was also a huge problem. Father Luis Gil and Father Jose Maria de Zalvidea commented that the natives’ promiscuity had “ ‘penetrated’ the Indians ‘to the very marrow with venereal diseases,’ such that many newborns showed ‘immediate evidence of the only patrimony their parents gave them’ ” (ibid.: 109). A Catholic marriage on the missions was encouraged by the missionaries in order to abate the spread of diseases, as well as to cure the natives of infidelity, and polygamy. Polygamy was considered concubinage by the missionaries and perpetrators of this crime were punished with the whip and the shackles (Hurtado 1999: 11). Divorces were only granted if there was spousal abuse (Bouvier 2001: 112).

Birth Control and Abortion/Infanticide

 

In the Ancient World

 

As early as the seventh century B.C., Greek colonists in Libya have known of the plant silphium, a relative to the giant fennel. “These plants were known in antiquity to have contraceptive and abortifacient properties” (Riddle et al. 1994: 30). In addition to pennyroyal, artemisia, myrrh and rue, the seeds of Queen Anne’s Lace, or wild carrot, may have also been effective as a contraceptive. “Hippocrates, among others, declared that such seeds, when taken orally, both prevent and terminate pregnancy” (ibid.). Ancient Egyptians concocted vaginal suppositories made of acacia gum, dates, and an unidentified plant to stop pregnancy in the first, second, and third trimester. It turns out that acacia is spermatocidal.

Physicians of the Renaissance, however, distrusted folk medicine and had no     occupational or  professional means to acquire this knowledge. In time, Christian church doctrine, canon law, and eventually the laws of the states came to restrict women’s claims that they should regulate their own reproduction (ibid.: 35).

 

 Birth control and abortion were not allowed within the Catholic faith; however, this does not mean that they were not used or did not occur in Spain or in the New World by Spaniards.

Pre-Contact Era in Native California

 

Native populations performed continence, abortion and infanticide as a way of birth control. The Ohlone people of the San Francisco Bay area had prescribed times when men and women could not have sex. When a woman was menstruating, nursing or when a man was getting ready for the hunt, sex was prohibited. Although they themselves thought that this gave them more time to devote themselves to religious practices and gave them more energy for rigorous spiritual activity, these taboos also served in a practical way to regulate population increase (Margolin 1978: 85).

Love-making restrictions served as an Ohlone method of birth control. Of course continence was not the only means of birth control: a high...incidence of infant mortality, the acceptance of homosexuality, and the performance of abortions (which the women knew how to induce) also played a part (ibid.).

 

Thus, intentionally or unintentionally the natives had their own way of regulating their  population.

After Contact in Alta California

 

Some of the priests believed that the native women were controlling their sexuality by not giving birth by inducing abortions or miscarriages upon themselves. The priest’s assumptions may have been true; the historian Bancroft mentioned that “Indian women sought to prevent childbirth ‘by use of the thorn apple’” (Bouvier 2001: 130). In the questionnaire of 1812, the missions of Santa Clara and San Jos_ wrote that abortion was the dominant vice of the natives (Geiger and Meighan 1976: 106). In addition to this, in some cases, when native women were raped by soldiers or colonists, the women would kill the newborns at birth (Hurtado 1999: 14). In other cases, natives on the missions would use infanticide as a form of resistance against Catholic family values (Bouvier 2001: 168).

Brothels and Prostitution

The Golden Age of Spain (1556-1665)

 

In Spain, during the Golden Age sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century prostitution was common. The prostitutes worked in mancebias or houses that we governed by a ‘father’ or ‘mother.’ Each of the brothel houses or puterias were recognized by public authority and under the law of royal decree. The brothels were forbidden to admit married women or virgins or women with debts. The prostitutes had weekly examinations by doctors and had to dress in a particular way so that they would not be mistaken for respectable women. Prostitution was forbidden during Holy Week and during Lent they were exhorted to repent (Defourneaux 1970: 223-225). In the beginning of the seventeenth century Barthelemy Joly wrote that

‘There is in Valencia as everywhere in Spain...a large and celebrated place full of girls dedicated to the public pleasure; there is a whole quarter of the city where they can ply their trade in complete freedom. The women are dirt cheap compared with the excessively high prices of other merchandise (ibid.: 224).

 

Other prostitutes followed the soldier camps and women were one of the soldiers’ favorite pastimes (ibid.: 205-206).

After Contact in Alta California        

In California, during the 1850s, Californian Indian women were the first prostitutes in the mining districts. “Prostitution was not a usual part of Californian Indian society, but native women took it up in the most desperate circumstances” (Hurtado 1999: 87). Faced with starvation, wars, and sexual assaults from foreigners, they turned to prostitution for a small amount of money or food.

Punishment & Inappropriate Behavior

 

The Golden Age of Spain (1556-1665)

 

Soldiers seemed to be an unruly bunch during the Golden Age in Spain. The soldiers were difficult to control and often got away with raping and pillaging the towns. Soldiers often assaulted women. In the News of Madrid, an article related

‘Not a day passes but people are found killed or wounded by brigands or soldiers; houses burgled; young girls and widows weeping because they have been assaulted and robbed...’ (Defourneaux 1970: 208).

 

Students were a serious problem as well. The students of the Jesuit universities in Salmanca and Alcala, in Spain caused much disorder in the towns. It seems that economically the students were the livelihood of the towns.

But how to tolerate not only the shop-lifting (Pablos of Segovia student at Alcala, boasted that he was master in this art), but also the house-breaking, the seduction of girls, and other ‘pranks’ of the same order? On various occasions, the citizens sided with the police against the students, and criminal justice did not hesitate in spite of the famous university fueros- to hang some of the ringleaders to re-establish law and order (ibid., 176).

 

For those serious criminals that fell into the hand of the law in Spain, punishment was merciless.

The condemned man...made his last journey from the prison to the scaffold mounted on a mule or donkey, his hands bound to a crucifix, a halter round his neck, and flanked by two priests...The execution once over (generally by hanging, beheading being the privilege of noblemen), the corpse was quartered and the quarters put on view at crossroads and at the entrance of the town (ibid., 223).

 

Such punishments were usually for serious offenses like murder.

 

Pre-Contact Era of Native California           

 

During the pre-contact era, the native people had punishments for inappropriate behavior. If a woman among the Gabrieli_o people of Southern California was caught engaging in sexual relations outside her marriage, her husband could kill her or injure her. However, such harsh punishment was not usually acted out; the husband usually “ ‘informed the wife’s paramour [or lover] that he was at liberty to keep her’ ” and then the wronged husband took the lover’s wife instead (Bouvier 2001: 112). While the Gabrieli_os were normally content to give away the adulterous wife and take the lover’s wife in her place, the Chumash people actually executed women for adultery. According to Fernando Librado Kitsepawit, a Chumash Indian born in 1804, “ ‘if a woman was unfaithful, she was sentenced to be shot three times with arrows by an executioner. On such occasions they would seat the woman down before the people and execute her’ ” (ibid.: 113). Death was also the punishment for adulterous women within the Nisenan, Konkow, and Maidu tribes (Hurtado 1999: 88). Other inappropriate behavior included rape which was common during warfare. Male natives of one group would often commit sexual assaults on women of their enemy tribes (Williams 2000 4[6:2]: 14).

After Contact in Alta Califonia

Punishment for inappropriate behavior on the missions included lashing, the stocks, and shackles. Offenses included inappropriate sexual behavior like rape, polygamy, and homosexuality. Missions tried to enforce rules against consensual premarital sex, but punishment of the individuals was rare (Williams 4[6:2]: 4).  For neophytes that committed offenses, Franciscan authorities at the college in Mexico City instructed a

maximum sentence of twenty-five azotes (lashings). If the priests determined that twenty-five lashings were insufficient in proportion to the severity of the crime, they could repeat the punishment one week later, or even daily, and supplement it with other punishments (Bouvier 2001: 95).

 

The priests believed that corporal punishment would correct the sinful ways of the unruly              natives.                      

 One example of inappropriate sexual conduct committed by a neophyte in Santa Clara is discussed in an unaddressed letter by an unknown party. The neophyte, Manuel Antonio, in this case impregnated a native woman named Josefa.

...at night I sent for that given Indian to come to my room: I tell him about the issues, I exhort him, and told him you committed yourself, how much will they make you pay: I told him think it over carefully and present yourself, and in that way no one will know anything.  He told me that his mother who had passed away had told him that with that girl (Josefa is her name) he could get married.  Upon leaving the room I repeated to him, son, think it over carefully (Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 34).

 

Manuel Antonio fled after this conversation to take refuge in another town, and authorities were   sent to bring him back for punishment.

The same punishments were used for soldiers as well. One such case of inappropriate behavior occurred at the Santa Clara Mission in 1819. Jose Maria wished to marry Rosa Maria Pacheco; however, he wished to receive punishment for previous sexual relations with another woman. This situation was brought to the attention of Friar Jose Viader by letter. A portion of the letter reads,

This person it has been communicated to my by the Alferez Don Manuel Gomez and under declared oath, that about two years ago he was with another, daughter of Tiburcio Vasquez, and because he fears a punishment for this, asks and begs that the punishment be in such a way that his future consort Rosa Maria Pacheco neither knows it or understands it...(Skowronek and Fanta 2004: 20).

Women were also punished in a similar manner. They too received lashings, but the lashings were done in private and always by another woman. However, women usually were less severely punished than men who committed sex crimes (Williams 4[6:2]: 5). An incident in 1820 occurred near Los Angeles. The woman, Anastasia Z__iga, was found guilty for promiscuity and was sentenced as follows:

‘Let her be taken to Mission San Gabriel on the first feast day. Her hair shall be clipped and one eyebrow shaved off. In this state and with her face uncovered, she shall be exposed to the public at the time of hold mass; and afterwards shall be placed in the prison of the presidio (San Diego) for six months’ (ibid.).

Thus, punishments were more degrading than physically painful.

 

Homosexuality was an institutionalized system within many native cultures. The priests and the soldiers on the missions tried to purge the natives of homosexuality. One incident of an attempt to reform a “berdache” occurred in the early days of Mission Santa Clara. The individual was “captured and stripped naked. For three days the individual was forced to sweep the guardhouse and do other work as a kind of public spectacle and punishment. He was then released, and told that he should henceforth live as a man” (Williams 2000 4[6:2]: 14).  Another incident included two male natives engaging in homosexual intercourse at Mission San Antonio and punishment was dealt with in a similar manner (ibid.). In comparison to other crimes, the punishments for homosexuality, while degrading, were mild.

Colonists and soldiers were punished for inappropriate behavior as well. One incident included the rape of a woman by her brother-in-law in 1821 in Los Angeles. The colonists who committed the crime was fined, put on the chain gang, and made to pay child support for his illegitimate child (Williams 4[6:2]: 4). Another incident in Los Angeles in 1819 consisted of a settler accused of raping his three stepdaughters, the eldest of whom became pregnant. He was sentenced four years hard labor at the Presidio of San Francisco and then exiled (ibid.).

Both incest and bestiality were horrid crimes and perpetrators received harsh punishments for these offenses. “A soldier was sentenced to ten years public labor at San Blas for incest in 1799, while his daughter and accomplice was condemned to seclusion for two years” (Bancroft 1884: 638). Jos_ Antonio Rosas, a native boy of eighteen, and a private soldier for the Santa Barbara company in the guard of San Buenaventura, was caught in an act of bestiality. “In June 1800, while in charge of the animals at La Mesa, he was seen to commit a crimen nefando...Rosas made a confession, pleading only that he was tempted by El Demonio” (ibid.: 639). Rosas was sentenced to death by hanging and the cremation of his body, along with that of the mule’s body, was done in order to cleanse their souls.

Rape was also a crime in the pueblos in the days of the Gold Rush. White men kidnapped and raped native women with little fear of retribution from the authorities. Natives could not testify against whites in court; “Consequently, rapes of Indian women were widespread in gold-rush California. Whites even invaded rancher_as and kidnapped tribeswomen for temporary sexual gratification” (Hurtado 1999: 88).

Conclusion

 

We have made our best attempt to create a complete illustration of social mores and indulgences during the time of Anza for both the indigenous people and the colonists of California. However it is only an attempt. There are gaps that will inevitably remain unfilled due to history’s inherent bias and failure to recognize all people as participants with relevant perspectives. When examining and reflecting on the preceding information, one must keep in mind who have been the recorders of history and what political or social agenda they may have had. We are all susceptible to look at those societies who live as “the other”  as morally inferior to our own. But the pendulum always swings both ways. Europe brought the practice of prostitution to the New World, however there is no record of native reaction to such a practice. Did they look on at the white men in disgust? We may never know. However it is clear from the many accounts available that many of the missionaries viewed the natives as debauched and licentious peoples. Should we then take this as historical fact? Or perhaps it was another way to justify their classification as inferior humans. History is a picture painted from one perspective, we must keep in mind what picture the artist is begging us to see.

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Acknowledgments

 

The research presented here was conducted as part of college level course at Santa Clara University. Anthropology 146 “Anthropological Perspectives on the Spanish an Native American Experience” taught by Russell K. Skowronek during the Spring of 2004. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Meredith Kaplan, Superintendent, and David Smith, Park Ranger-Interpretive Specialist, of the Jaun Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail for their encouragement and support of the project. Special thanks are due to Dr. Jack S. Williams of the Center for Spanish Colonial Archaeology for graciously sharing a draft of his monumental California Mission Studies association manuscript titled, Los Presidios: Guardians of Alta California’s Mission Frontier. Also appreciated is the California Room at the Martin Luther King Library in San Jose for use of their resources.

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Bancroft, Hubert H.

1884    The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XVIII.: History of California, Vol. I (1542-1800). A.L.Bancroft & Company, San Francisco, CA.

 

Bean, Lowell John and Katherine Siva Saubel

1972   Temalpakh Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Malki Museum Press, Morongo Indian Reservation Banning, California.

Bouvier, Virginia Marie.

2001    Women and the Conquest of California, 1542-1840: Codes of Silence. The

University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.

 

Defourneaux, Marcelin.

1970    Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

 

Engelhardt, Zephryn

1908   The Missions and Missionaries of California. Vol 1, James H Barry editor, San Francisco.

1932   Mission Santa Ines, Virgen e Martyr and its Ecclesiastical Seminary. Santa Barbara, California.

 

Geiger, Maynard (O.F.M.) and Clement W. Meighan

1976    As the Padres Saw Them California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by the Franciscan Missionaries, 1813-1815. Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library, Santa Barbara, CA.

 

Grant, Campbell

1978   Eastern Coastal Chumash, pp 509-519. Handbook of the North Americans Indians Vol. 8, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Smithsonian Instituion, Washington, D.C.

 

Hurtado, Albert L.

1999    Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender and Culture in Old California. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.      

 

Kroeber, Alfred L.

1908   Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. University of California. Publishing.

 

Levy, Jerrold E.

1996   Alcoholism, Indian. pp16-19. Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Frederick       E. Hoxie, editor, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.