Welcome to the Ventura County Archaeological Society!

Dr. James Sneed, assistant professor of anthropology at CSU Northridge, will be our speaker at the May 2nd, 2012 meeting. His talk will be “The Terrain of Time: Collectors, Archaeologists, and the Myth of Southern California.”Southern California in the late 19th century presented complex cultural terrain for new arrivals from other parts of the United States. Indigenous and colonial histories were poorly understood and framed by prejudice, thus challenging efforts to create a sense of identity. Artifacts, place names, and other material features provided a potentially neutral means to establish a past for the region, and the activities of numerous collectors from the 1870s onward reflect attempts to build an appropriate heritage for Southern

California. Horatio Nelson Rust of Pasadena and Steven Bowers of Ventura were particularly influential in this movement, which also touched on areas as far apart as paleontology and historic preservation.

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The monthly meeting of VCAS is held from September through May on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 P.M at the Community Room of the Ventura County Star, 550 Camarillo Center Drive in Camarillo.

Welcome

Join us once a month for informative talks on all aspects of local archaeology.