When Spanish explorers and missionaries came onto Southern California's shores in 1769, they encountered the large towns and villages of the Chumash, a people who at that time were among the most advanced hunter-gatherer societies in the world. The Spanish were entertained and fed at lavish feasts hosted by chiefs who ruled over the settlements and who participated in extensive social and economic networks. In this first modern synthesis of data from the Chumash heartland, Lynn H. Gamble weaves together multiple sources of evidence to re-create the rich tapestry of Chumash society. Drawing from archaeology, historical documents, ethnography, and ecology, she describes daily life in the large mainland towns, focusing on Chumash culture, household organization, politics, economy, warfare, and more. “In this masterful combination of empirical research, controlled comparison, and attention to contemporary theories regarding the social formations of hunger-gatherers, Gamble has contributed an authoritative, richly documented and illustrated synthesis of this fascinating time and place in protohistoric California.” -- W. S. Simmons ― Choice Published On: 2009-02-01 “An important book. . . . One of the most vivid and sophisticated studies of any Indian group in North America at the point of their first sustained contact with Europeans.” -- Steven W. Hackel ― Journal Of American History Published On: 2009-09-17 “Gamble’s careful scholarship makes this text a fine template to be followed.” ― Journal Of World History Published On: 2010-09-01 “Gamble presents a significant contribution, both descriptively and methodologically, that will be of interest to a wide variety of anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and other researchers in California and around the world.” -- Todd J. Braje ― American Anthropologist Published On: 2009-12-01 " The Chumash World at European Contact is a major achievement that will be required reading and a fundamental reference in a variety of disciplines for years to come." Thomas C. Blackburn, editor of December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives "An extremely valuable synthesis of the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological record of one of the most remarkable populations of Native Californians." Glenn J. Farris, Senior Archaeologist, California State Parks Department " The Chumash World at European Contact is a major achievement that will be required reading and a fundamental reference in a variety of disciplines for years to come."―Thomas C. Blackburn, editor of December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives "An extremely valuable synthesis of the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological record of one of the most remarkable populations of Native Californians."―Glenn J. Farris, Senior Archaeologist, California State Parks Department Lynn H. Gamble is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara