Early analysts expected Chumash oral literature to conform to the regional pattern of Southern California narratives.
Despite their close ties to the Chumash, Spanish sources did little to collect information on native oral culture.
Obispeño, Purismeño, Inezeño, Barbareño, Ventureño, Island, Cuyama, and Emigdiaño varied to a degree where they were closer to separate languages than similar dialects.
[1] The Chumash weren’t a cultural or linguistic sovereignty in the traditional sense; they were a conglomeration of autonomous settlements.
supernatural beings consume only toxic materials, or events occurring at day versus night in the human world are chronologically switched in the underworld.
Very little detail is placed on the creation of the universe and there’s little chronological order to narratives, suggesting that Chumash culture valued the idea of progress over time in a different way than the West.
“When Coyote was human” or, “Momoy was a rich Widow,” analogous to “Once upon a time” in Western culture, were introductions to stories about the two most commonly seen characters in Chumash narratives.
As the West had, “and they lived happily ever after…,” so the Chumash had an idiomatic expression roughly translating to “I am finished, it is the end.” Most storytelling occurred at night, and some stories were told only in Winter.
These people were thought to be largely humanoid with some floral or faunal characteristics related to the plants or animals they would become after the Flood.
Bears, rattlesnakes, elk, whales, and other seemingly impressive animals don’t appear as characters in Chumash folklore.
Often portrayed as an old man, Coyote is powerful and knowledgeable, but wasn’t born into the high social stratus of the supernatural beings like the Great Eagle.
She herself doesn’t bear power within the universe, but she can take brief glimpses into the future, and inform individuals only the probable outcomes of their actions.
One who drinks the water that Momoy uses to wash her hands will fall into a coma and receive visions pertaining to their future or destiny.
The middle world was believed to be flat and circular with a number of islands floating on an ocean.
The land of the dead contains 3 areas similar to purgatory, heaven, and hell: : wit, ʔayaya, and Šimilaqša.
Immediately following death, the soul oversees the destruction of their property and revisits locations frequented in life before heading Westward to the land of the dead in a ball of light.
Two monsters attempt to scare the traveling soul, who, if lacking requisite knowledge or power, will fall into the sea and be transformed into a fish or amphibian.
Souls who pass this final test enjoy Šimilaqša, a land ruled by a chief in a crystal house, the Sun.