Historical archaeology is a sub-discipline of archaeology that studies past societies according to historical records, oral histories and the analysis of material remains in archaeological sites. Archaeologists who focus on this form of archaeology; obtain their information about the everyday lives of the people who do not have historical records or simply forgotten from the historical records they do have. The practice of trade is the common theme throughout historical archaeology because historical archaeologists are able to identify the social differentiation and the economic structure of past societies according to the spatial distributions of material remains in archaeological sites. Two examples, which feature evidence of the practice…show more content… This region features a unique ecological system composed of mountains, upland, coastal, and desert climates. According to the authors, the Kumeyaay organized themselves in territorial bands, each of which had a central primarily village and other outlier homesteads scattered throughout Southern San Diego County (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:72). Their political system allowed the Kumeyaay to take advantage of the diverse natural resources so that the Kumeyaay are able to subsist, and to trade their resources with other Native Californian groups (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:72). The reason why the authors chose to do their research on the Kumeyaay is because, the history of the Kumeyaay has been poorly documented after Spanish colonization beginning in the year 1769 CE (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:71). Both Lynn and Zepeda wanted to use the archaeological perspective as a way to obtain more information about the Kumeyaay because the Spanish historical records manipulated and left out information about the everyday lives of the Kumeyaay (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:71). To solve this dilemma, the authors looked at the practice of trade of the Kumeyaay by examining…show more content… According to the archaeological remains discovered in the cemeteries, several Kumeyaay groups were a part of a long-distance trading network, which stretched throughout the Southern California region groups (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:73). These trading groups traded baskets and otter skins for glass beads from Southern Californian native tribes such as the Mohave, Yuman, Cocopa, Cahuilla, Luiseno, and the Chumash tribes (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:73). An example from the article, which features the trade of goods between the Kumeyaay and other Southern Californian native tribes, is in the discovery of Olivella shell beads in one of the cemeteries in the Kumeyaay territory (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:73). Early Spanish historical records from the mid-1500s CE to the late 1700’s CE describe that the creation of Olivella shell beads originated from the Island Chumash tribe as a form of currency throughout Southern California (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:74). The article gives a historical account from a Spanish Longinos Martinez, which he describes that the length of the Olivella shell bead will tell other tribes what is the trading values of the bead (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:74). Martinez states that the longer the Olivella shell bead is the more value the bead has for trading (Lynn and Zepeda 2013:74). The reason for the use of the Olivella shell bead currency is because in Southern California different
