Acorns, Asphaltum, and Asymmetrical Exchange: Invisible Exports and the Political Economy of the Santa Barbara Channel

Exciting new discoveries have forced us to reevaluate longstanding assumptions regarding the origins of social complexity in the area of the Santa Barbara Channel. Whereas previous models for the development of Chumash chiefdoms assumed that islands were terrestrially marginal environments, current data suggest islanders enjoyed a diversity of subsistence resources. Given these developments, it is time for us to reexamine the economic basis for exchange across the Santa Barbara Channel.