The cultural area was developed in almost the entire territory of the present state of California,

United States (Alta California), and the peninsula of the same name in Mexico (Baja California).

The native peoples of the Californias had common languages, cultures and oral traditions

California was a place of great immigration that housed hundreds of tribal organizations.

Groups from different backgrounds who spoke "Hoka" and "penuti" settled, adapted and

specialized in different microenvironments that perpetuated a way of life archaic languages.

Other dialects had atapascana origin, and some were related to alonquine. About 3 thousand

years ago, several migratory flows from the southern United States penetrated Baja California,

were groups of linguistic and human descent. In the southern end of the peninsula were settled

groups of the linguistic family guaycura-pericú.

The abundance of resources of all kinds resulted in a very similar way of life among the natives,

despite their different origin. The native peoples of this region possessed cultures as varied as

their surroundings and in a certain sense their history was determined by the way they reacted to

their environment.

Trade, cross-marriages, and military alliances fostered social and economic relations among

diverse groups.

The mythologies about the origin of many of these groups allude to common ancestors, the

continuity of cultural features is evident in dances, songs and in the technology to make pottery.

In almost all ethnic groups, the use of toloache ( "Datura inoxia") as a ritual plant is observed. It

was medicine and a means to diagnose diseases and to have visions, amulet of good luck,
auxiliary in the hunt and in the initiatic ceremonies was administered to the young of both sexes

to find the protective spirits.

The ancient roads and commercial networks that united the inhabitants of the north with those of

the peninsula still cross the region, which only in its recent history was occupied by EE. UU. and

Mexico and was bisected by the border.

Alta California

The topography of California is very varied; from the Mount Shasta glacier summit (4,322 m.),

which forms part of the Cascade Range in northern California, to the arid desert region of Death

Valley, with the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (86 m. below sea level).

The Mojave Desert, in Southern California, occupies nearly a fifth of the territory. Among the

most prominent sites this Yosemite, renowned for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear rivers,

forests of giant sequoias and biological diversity great; the area of Joshua Tree, famous for its

characteristic flora, is a desert area that includes parts of the Colorado and Mojave deserts. Its

name comes from a species of cactus, found almost exclusively in this area, called Joshua tree (

"Joshua Tree")

In this environment, they developed a great variety of tribal nuclei that had differences in their

languages, technology, religion and social organization.

For the 2,000 a. C. began the archaic period characterized by the specialization of the groups in

the exploitation of the resources that abounded in each place, be these of fishing or gathering,

simultaneously to the practice of a rudimentary culture.

Towards 500 d. C., the medium allowed them to have surplus production, and allowed to

develop models of storage, trade and redistribution generating traffic that had a currency of

exchange.

Despite being stable, rich and densely populated, they did not have complex social organizations;

their societies were based on kinship. Leadership was deposited with local chiefs, responsible for

directing the production and redistribution of goods.

North Carolina

The climate is dry and warm, the temperature is cooler on the Pacific coast than in the Gulf of

California.

The California peninsula is an arm of land that is separated from Mexican territory by the

Colorado River and the Sea of Cortez (or Gulf of California) in the northeast. To the north, is the

American state of California, once part of the Mexican territory and known under the name of

Alta California. To the west and to the south, its coasts are bathed by the Pacific Ocean.

With a length of 1,200 km, its width oscillates between 45 km and 250 km. And it is surrounded

by 35 islands that total a total area of 1,500 km2.

In its geography stand out the deserts, the mountain ranges and the plain of its coasts. Because of

this, the climate is arid and desert in much of the state. In the Central Desert and the Vizcaíno

Desert we find the flora and fauna that characterize this ecosystem such as cardón, mesquite and

lechuguilla, and wildcat.

The Sierra de la Giganta advances to the sea parallel to the coasts, and hosts pine and oak forests.

Towards the western side, the coastal plain forms plains of great beauty like the plain of Santa

Clara, the Magdalena and Hiray.

In the lagoons of San Ignacio and Ojo de Liebre, the great gray whales arrive to mate and

procreate between the months of December to March. The kangaroo rat and the stone squirrel are

also unique to this area. The osprey, brown pelican, red heron, sea rooster, puma, lynx, peregrine

falcon and Mexican falcon are some of the animals that inhabit here.

The peninsula must have been inhabited for 10,000 years. C., bulldozers, crushers and scrapers

of rough manufacture, which were used to process the products of the hunt, were found in

Laguna Chapala. Its age is between 13,000 and 8,000 years.

Then between 8,000 and 1,500 years ago, there is intense climate change, which transforms a

medium of abundant vegetation into arid, and indigenous groups are more adapted to the

consumption of food from the sea; Due to this, they have found great amount of concheros, that

are the garbage cans of this type of activities. Near Ensenada, the skeletal remains of the

"Woman of Yatay" 4,400 years old recovered.

The arrival of yuman groups with pottery, bow and arrow, mark the later stage and whose

archaeological materials show in the sites the intensive use of what the medium provides: in pine

and oak forests, pine nuts and acorns are collected. In the mountains, deer and bighorn sheep

hunting, and fishing on the coast and collect shellfish.

The clans define the lineage of the lineages and the inheritance, through the father. Whereas the

families were responsible for transmitting the kinship of the mother tongue; in addition to

ensuring the permanence of the community social structure; as is the division of labor and

solidarity