Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Cultural relationships between historic Baja California Sur indigenous groups are poorly understood, despite the presence of historical accounts of these peoples. Relationships between groups largely have been reconstructed through linguistic attributes recorded by Jesuit missionaries. Non­linguistic cultural traits derived from historical accounts also can be used to determine relationships between groups. We use content analysis to systematically organize cultural trait information from historical explorer accounts, Jesuit missionary documents, and academic research pertaining to three Lower California groups: the Pericú, Guaycura, and southern Cochimí, as well as the Seri/Comcáac Indians of the Gulf of California and Sonora. Reliability analyses reveal considerable cultural homogeneity between the southern Cochimí and Guaycura, and cultural dissimilarity between all other groupings. Hierarchical cluster analysis reveals the Guaycura and southern Cochimí comprise a distant, but natural grouping with the Seri/Comcáac, while the Pericú are isolated. Several hypotheses are presented to explain these patterns.