For those groups that engaged in centralized forms of organization, the role of chief, or tribelet leader, was generally an inherited position. In some groups, such as the Pomo, women were eligible for chiefly office. Typically the chief was an economic administrator whose work ranged from general admonitions to specific directions for particular tasks, such as indicating where food was available and how many people it would require to collect it. Such leaders redistributed the economic resources of the community and, through donations from its members, maintained resources from which emergency needs could be met. Within their communities, chiefs were the major decision makers and the final authority, although they typically worked with the aid of a council of elders, heads of extended families, ritualists, assistant chiefs, and shamans. In some areas the chief functioned as a priest, maintaining the ceremonial house and ritual objects. The chief was generally a conspicuous person, being wealthier than the average individual, more elaborately dressed, and often displaying symbols of office. Chiefs’ families formed a superstratum of the community elites, especially among those tribelets that organized themselves through lineages.

As chiefs led in the political sphere of traditional native California life, shamans led in the sphere in which spiritual and physical health intertwined. The vocation of shaman was open to women and men. Shamans enjoyed a status somewhat similar to that of chief. They served as physical and mental healers, diviners, advisers, artists, and poets. Among other duties, they defined and described the world of the sacred and regulated the fortune of souls before and after death, mediating between the mundane and sacred worlds. Most tribelets in California had one or more shamans, who were active in political life, working with other leaders and placing their powers at the disposal of the community. See also shamanism.

Alongside chiefs and shamans were ritualists—dancers, singers, fire tenders, and others—who were carefully trained in their crafts and who functioned intimately within the political, economic, and religious spheres of their communities. These men and women acquired considerable respect and often wealth because of their skills. In effect, they were members of the power elite. When performing, ritualists were usually costumed in headdresses, dance skirts, wands, jewelry, and other regalia.

Religion

Native California’s traditional religious institutions were intensely and intimately associated with its political, economic, social, and legal systems. Frequently the priests, shamans, and ritualists in a community organized themselves around one of two religious systems: the Kuksu in the north and the Toloache in the south. Both involved the formal indoctrination of initiates and—potentially, depending upon the individual—a series of subsequent status promotions within the religious society; these processes could literally occupy initiates, members, and mentors throughout their lifetimes. Members of these religious societies exercised considerable economic, political, and social influence in the community.

In the Kuksu religion (common among the Pomo, Yuki, Maidu, and Wintun), colourful and dramatic costumes and equipment were used during ritual impersonations of specific spirit-beings. Within the Toloache religion (as among the Luiseño and Diegueño), initiates performed while drinking a hallucinogenic decoction made of the jimsonweed plant (Datura meteloides); the drug put them in a trance and provided them with supernatural knowledge about their future lives and roles as members of the sacred societies.

Religions on the Colorado River differed slightly because they were not concerned with developing formal organizations and recruitment procedures. Individuals received religious information through dreams, and members recited long narrative texts, explaining the creation of the world, the travel of culture heroes, and the adventures of historic figures.

In the northwestern part of the culture area, there was another type of informally structured religious system. Its rituals concerned world renewal (as in the white-deerskin dance) and involved the recitation of myths that were privately owned—that is, for which the prerogative of recitation belonged to only a few individuals. One communal need served by these ceremonies was the reification (or, sometimes, restructuring) of relationships. The display of costumes and valuable possessions (such as white deerskins or delicately chipped obsidian blades) reaffirmed social ranking, and the success of the ritual reaffirmed the orderly relationship of humanity to the supernatural.

The use of supernatural power to control events or transform reality was basic to every California group. Generally magic was used in attempts to control the weather, increase the harvest of crops, and foretell the future. Magic or sorcery was deemed not only the cause of sickness and death but also the principal means of curing many diseases (see soul loss). Its practices were also considered to be ways to protect oneself, to punish wrongdoers, and to satisfy personal ends.

Marriage and child rearing

Because of its implications for long-term economic and social bonds and obligations, marriage was almost always a matter arranged by the families of the prospective bride and groom. Generally, the families exchanged goods at the time of the marriage, with the bulk of goods coming from the husband’s family. In most cases the wife took up residence with the husband’s family and was taught the ways of the group by her mother-in-law.

Adults of childbearing age were generally responsible for providing food for the group; the generation senior to them—their parents, aunts, and uncles—were typically responsible for raising the children of the community. Learning was a continuous process in which older persons instructed children through elaborate tales containing lessons concerning behaviour and values. Constant supervision, provided by adults, older siblings, and other relatives, reminded younger children about how things should be done.

The educational process became more intense and dramatic during rites of passage, when individuals attained new status and responsibility. The female puberty ritual, for example, generally included a time of isolation, because girls were considered especially empowered (and therefore potentially dangerous on a spiritual level) at menarche. Depending on the tribe, this ritual varied in length from several days to several weeks; during this time an older woman would care for the girl and instruct her in her role as an adult. Initiation ceremonies for boys were less common and, when carried out, were usually less formal, involving instruction in male occupations and behaviour and predictions regarding the boy’s future religious, economic, or political career.

Adult education could be heavily institutionalized. Young Chumash men, for instance, purchased apprenticeships from guildlike associations of professional artisans. Young Pomo men were also charged a fee to be trained as apprentices by recognized professional craftsmen, albeit without the intervention of a craft association.

Leaders and specialists continued their training on a less-formal level throughout their lifetimes. A person destined to become chief received instruction from others (such as elders, ritualists, and shamans) and continued to receive such counsel after assumption of office.

Arts

Oral literature—and especially a variety of elaborate creation tales and epic poems—was the art form for which native Californians were most renowned. There were also songs that recounted tales of victory, recent events, daily activities, and romantic love. Songs were usually short but could, in narrative form, last for days. Singing was accompanied by rattles, whistles, or drums.

Visual art forms ranged from decoration on items of daily use, such as baskets and tools, to elaborate rock paintings and rock engravings. Rock paintings were widespread, and, in various parts of the region, designs were incised or pecked into rock surfaces as well. Rock art served a range of functions, from recording individual and group rituals to marking trails.

California peoples were renowned for their exquisite basketwork, though pottery in the eastern desert was also handsomely shaped and decorated. Costuming, particularly in relation to the Kuksu religion, involved the creation of elaborate headdresses, skirts, feathered garments, and other regalia, which were often symbolic of supernatural beings. Body painting was also popular.