Santa Ines Mission Excavations: 1986-1988. Julia G. Costello. Salinas: Coyote Press series in California Historical Archaeology No. 1, 1989, xii + 196 pp., 63 figs., 46 tables, $24.95 (paper).

A Revised, Annotated Bibliography of the Chumash and their Predecessors. Compiled by Eugene N. Anderson, Jr., Socorro, New Mexico: Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 11, 1978, 82 pp., 1 map, $5.95 (paper).

The Changing Faces of Main Street: San Buenaventura Mission Plaza Project Archaeological Report, 1975. Roberta S. Greenwood, ed. Ventura: City of San Buenaventura Redevelopment Agency, 1976. vii + 591 pp., figs., tables, photographs. $10.25.

An Archaeological Overview of the Northern Channel Islands, California, Including Santa Barbara Island. Michael A. Glassow. Tucson: Western Archeological Center, U. S. National Park Service, 1977. vi + 249 pp.

Among the many items of material culture representative of the prehistoric cultures of coastal southern California, stone effigies have generated the greatest interest as objets d'art among both anthropologists and art collectors. These artifacts generally lack provenance data, and this has led to ambiguous functional interpretations (Greenwood 1962, 1965, 1967; Eisenbud 1964). Such objects are traditionally placed in the nebulous category of "ceremonial objects." The questionable authenticity of many specimens provides an additional complication to objective analysis. There has long been a need for a detailed description and comparison of all known specimens, many of which are now widely scattered throughout Europe and North America. Robert Wharton of the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, and I have initiated such a project. As a preliminary step in this research I wish to present here some general observations that I have made or which are illustrated elsewhere in the literature on effigies from coastal southern California.

The Chumash of the Santa Barbara Channel region have long been famous for their pictographic rock art (Grant 1965; Heizer and Clewlow 1973), but they were also producers of numerous examples of portable art—what French prehistorians would describe as art mobilier. The designs used conveyed ritual and social information, and reflected the world view of the Chumash. Georgia Lee, a noted expert on Chumash art (Lee 1977), has both an anthropological and professional artistic background. Most recently, she has been conducting research on the rock art of Easter Island. She combines her extensive knowledge and practical experience with a lucid and stimulating writing style.