Chumash people: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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== Worldview ==

Chumash [[worldview]] is centered on the belief "that considers all things to be, in varying measure, alive, intelligent, dangerous, and sacred." According to Thomas Blackburn in ''December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives'' published in 1980, the Chumash do not have a [[creation story]] like [[Tongva]], [[Acjachemen]], [[Payomkawichum|Quechnajuichom]], and other [[Takic languages|Takic]]-speaking peoples. Rather, as summarized by Susan Suntree, "they assume that the universe with its three, or in some version five, layers has always been here.{{Cn|date=April 2024}}

Human beings occupy the middle region, which rests upon two giant snakes. Chronological time is unimportant, though the past is divided into two sections: the universal flood that caused the First People to become the natural world and, thereafter the creation of human beings, the arrival of the Europeans, and the devastating consequences that followed."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Suntree|first=Susan|title=Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|year=2010|isbn=9780803231986|page=276}}</ref>

The middle region (sometimes referred to as ''{{'}}antap''), where humans and spirits of this world live and where [[Shamanism|shamans]] could travel in [[vision quest]]s, is interconnected with the lower world (''C'oyinahsup'') through the springs and marsh areas and is connected to the upper world through the mountains. In the lower world live snakes, frogs, salamanders. The world trembles or has earthquakes when the snakes which support the world writhe.{{Cn|date=April 2024}}

Water creatures are also in contact with the powers of the lower world and "were often depicted in rock art perhaps to bring more water to the Chumash or to appease underworld spirits' at times of hunger or disease." ''Itiashap'' is the home of the First People. ''Alapay'' is the upper world in Chumash [[cosmology]] where the "sky people" lived, who play an important role in the health of the people. Principle figures of the sky world include the Sun, the Moon, Lizard, Sky Coyote, and Eagle. The Sun is the source of life and is also "a source of disease and death."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bryan E.|first=Penprase|title=The Power of Stars: How Celestial Observations Have Shaped Civilization|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2010|isbn=9781441968036|pages=128–130}}</ref>

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The Chumash appear to have been thriving in the late 18th-century, when Spaniards first began actively colonizing the California coast. Whether the deaths began earlier with the contacts with ships' crews or later with the construction of several Spanish missions at Ventura, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Santa Ynez, and San Luis Obispo, the Chumash were eventually devastated by the [[California Genocide]] carried out when the United States took over the territory. By 1900, their numbers had declined to just 200, while current estimates of Chumash people today range from 2,000<ref name="sdsu" /> to 5,000.<ref name="nps" />

The demographics of traditional Chumash society are quite complex. One aspect of interest is the 'Aqi gender of the Chumash. 'Aqi was a third Chumash gender defined by biological males that performed work and wore clothing traditionally of women. The 'aqi gender appears to also be closely tied to non-procreative sexual activity, such as homosexuality.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Archaeologies of sexuality|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|others=Schmidt, Robert A., 1953-, Voss, Barbara L., 1967-|isbn=978-0-415-22366-9|location=London|oclc=70746810}}</ref> [[Transgender archaeology|Archaeological investigation]] of morturary practices has provided evidence for this.<ref>Hollimon, S. E. 2000: [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Archaeologies_of_Sexuality.html?id=eSBVQpifqhkC&redir_esc=y Archaeology of the 'aqi: gender and sexuality in prehistoric Chumash society], in Archaeologies of Sexuality, pp. 179-196.</ref>

==Languages==