Lifeways

The Diegueno were similar in culture to both the Uto-Aztecan-speaking LUISENO to their north and the Yuman tribes to the east, such as the YUMA (quechan), classified in the Southwest Culture Area (in which some scholars also place the Diegueno). Diegueno social organization was based on clans, with tribelets made up typically of a single clan traced patrilineally. A clan chief and his assistant lived in the main village with a number of satellite and temporary villages under him. Permanent dwellings were dome-shaped structures with pole frameworks and various coverings: mats, thatch, palm leaves, wood, bark, and earth. Temporary shelters were made of brush. Caves were sometimes used for shelter as well.

Acorns, mesquite beans, and sage seeds were among the many wild plant foods gathered. Coastal tribelets depended on fish and mollusks. Deer and smaller game were hunted inland. Some groups farmed tobacco, the main crop. Both baskets and pottery were used for con-

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Diegueno shaman's wand

Tainers. Men often went naked; women wore two-piece skirts and coiled basketry hats; when foot protection was needed both sexes wore sandals made of agave fiber.

Diegueno religious practices included the keruk, a clan mourning ceremony that lasted four to eight days and included feasting, dancing, gifting, and the burning of images of the dead. Deer-hoof rattles were among the ceremonial objects used by shamans in the various rituals. Vision quests of boys were aided by the narcotic and hallucinogenic effects of jimsonweed. An older man aided a youth in drinking a beverage made from the pounded plant in a special soapstone (steatite) bowl, holding his head so he would not drink too much, then walking and chanting with him. He also led him to a small enclosure where the youth would be encouraged to dream in quest of a guardian spirit. Ground paintings sometimes 15 feet in diameter of powdered white soapstone, powdered charcoal, red oxide of iron, and seeds of various colors illustrated the Diegueno world in these ceremonies. The Diegueno were the only California tribe to develop a system of color-direction symbolism: red for north; green-blue for south; white for east; and black for west.