A Rock Feature Complex from Northwestern California

Abstract

Six types of rock features have been identified in a northwestern California mountain range. The features, including cairns, alignments, hearth rings, stone circles, rock stacks, and semicircular enclosures (tsektsels) form a complex in association with traditional trails and mountain high points. Combined ethnographic and archaeological research reveals this complex to be associated with patterns of traditional religious activity involving power quests, ritual and medicinal training, and individual prayer among the Yurok and their neighbors. The complex can be traced from prehistoric beginnings to the present time, indicating the persistence of this ideological pattern through a period of severe cultural change associated with Euro-American settlement of northwestern California. It is not known yet whether the complex is unique to northwestern California or is manifested over a wider region.