What traditions did the California intermountain Indians have?

- Ceremonies marked rites of passage, seasonal changes, the hunting of major game animals, successful gathering, and warfare as well as other activities related to group maintenance and cohesion.Shamanism

- The shaman practiced their power as healers, diviners, and controllers of weather; some were also political leaders.. Shamans performed curing ceremonies involving sucking illnesses from patient's body, extracting foreign objects which caused diseases, administering herbs, and employing ritual to achieve curesVision Quests for Supernatural Power:

- Individuals experienced vision quests through self-inflicted pain and sleep deprivation (e.g., dancing the sun dance as well as performing puberty rites); such quests were not restricted to malesCremation:

- Cremation of the dead in shallow grave.Mourning:

- After cremation ritual mourning involved: blackening the face with charcoal ash. cutting the hair (sometimes eyebrows are plucked out), covering one's self with sagebrush or dirt for days.

Trade Routes:

- Intermountain regions connected the Great Basin to Northern California the lower Colorado River, the northwest Coast, the Great Plains (through Shoshoni).**Population Movement

**

- Populations move across region and beyond.

Tribal Groupings-

***Northern Group:*

Atsugewi, Maidu (3 groups), Wintu-Nomlaki-Patwin Northern Paiute

Central Group

Washo, 5 groups of Mono; Owens Valley Paiute

*Southern Group:

Serrano; Tubatulabal: Kawaiisu; Koso; Chemehuevi.**

**Housing:*

- Domed or conical bark, rush (or tule)- covered lodges.Subsistence

- Fishing, including irrigation in Owens Valley in order to grow seeds and roots of many types

Language Family**

- Uto-Aztecan family**

- Palutean branch**

- Numic section.Social Systems*

Kinship-bilateral:**

- (recognize both maternal maternal relatives)***Moieties:*

- some groups divided into ceremonial moieties or divisions usually associated with east versus west or sun versus darkness and the sky.**

Marriage:** Patrilocal after marriage but some neolocal

Political Systems

Band level - a headman based on personal qualities but without much real authority to control band members' movements and other group decisions..**

Territorial System:**

Band controlled and defended a traditional territory against people outside.**

Conflict**

Frequent Warfare often associated with acquiring territory.Cultural Adaptations:

- Great mobility to exploit abundant but widely scattered vegetal foods as well as limited game animal; social and ceremonial cohesion as a counterweight to small-scale political groupings