Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society Presentation on Early Kumeyaay Communities

Back by popular demand, historian Richard Carrico will share more about the cosmology and ethnozoology of the Kumeyaay Indians starting at 5 p.m., Thursday, January 11, at La Colonia Community Center.

For the Kumeyaay people of San Diego County, various animals, birds, insects and other creatures hold a special place in the cosmos and played a variety of important roles. Some were involved in the Kumeyaay creation story. Others were whimsical. They can avenge, they can heal, and animals with certain powers can shift shapes and shimmer in the firelight. Their embodiment is not always easily visualized because some creatures, large and small, exist in worlds not always seen by most humans -- and rarely acknowledged by archaeologists.

The Kumeyaay believed that in the mythic, ancient time what we now know as humans, or more correctly as mortals, did not exist. The world was inhabited by animals and by animals who were humans but not mortals—these were the Early People, and some creatures could embody traits of what came to be known as the mortal humans and animals. Only later in time, much later, did the separation grow between animals and humans and at that time humans became mortal.

This presentation by Prof. Carrico will discuss the role and place of non-human creatures within the world and cosmos of the Kumeyaay people of San Diego County. The various creatures are of the land, the ocean, the lakes, and the sky—they are not bound to soil as are most humans. The role of animals in the native world is multi-faceted but often overlooked. With few exceptions, animals small and large, powerful, and meek, on the ground or in the sky, appear as a near constant in the native world.