How Spaniards Became Chumash and other Tales of Ethnogenesis

In the 1970s, a network of families from Santa Barbara, California, asserted local indigenous identities as “Chumash.” However, we demonstrate that these families have quite different social histories than either they or supportive scholars claim. Rather than dismissing these neo‐Chumash as anomalous “fakes,” we place their claims to Chumash identity within their particular family social histories. We show that cultural identities in these family lines have changed a number of times over the past four centuries. These changes exhibit a range that is often not expected and render the emergence of neo‐Chumash more comprehendible. The social history as a whole illustrates the ease and frequency with which cultural identities change and the contexts that foster change. In light of these data, scholars should question their ability to essentialize identity.