Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants

by Lowell John Bean, Katherine Siva Saubel

Temalpakh [Cahuilla for From the Earth ] represents more than ten years of meticulous field work and collaboration by the authors on knowledge and usage of plants among Cahuilla Indians. The work extends our understanding of Cahuilla use of plants far beyond the scope encompassed by David Prescott Barrows in his pioneer monograph Ethnobotany of the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, published in 1900. The studies of Bean and Sauvel reveal the high degree of sophisticated knowledge possessed by the Cahuilla concerning plant life, suggest the acuteness of their ecological awareness, and have implications of considerable significance for southern California Indian research as a whole. This new ethnobotany for the Cahuilla covers more than 250 plants and the often fascinating ways in which they were utilized. Additional supplementary material examines the controversial issue of aboriginal agriculture in southern California. Indian people, laymen, and scholars may all profit from and enjoy reading a book that is certain to become a classic in its field. This is still the authoritative work on ethnobotany in Southern California.

225 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

While living in San Diego learning about the native inhabitants, this book gave me such immense knowledge of the cultural practices that the Cahuilla embraced. Their traditional uses of native southern california plants are described both botanically and ethnobotanically, giving details about the ecological zones each plant lives in, its seasonal transitions, Cahuilla names for plants, medicinal use, food use, tool use, ritual use, and day-to-day use.

While learning about plant uses, Bean also describes the social framework of Cahuilla villages before the Mexican and Spanish Conquests. Technologies such as pottery making, stone-tool making, and basketry were a number of the well revered skills that were incorporated into the lives of many, including neighboring tribes and villages of Southern California and Baja.

This was an intriguing way to learn about plant uses and the ties it has to social stratification, trade, gender constructions of food, medicine, and crafts, and a way of life that has been unfortunately hidden and destroyed with the introduction of Europeans and Imperial attitudes over the once thriving landscape of Cahuilla territories.