ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the more important archaeological applications of the approach to California. Costly Signaling Theory attempts to explain how seemingly inefficient types of behavior, such as those often associated with large-game hunting, can evolve through natural selection, as long as these behaviors communicate a series of underlying qualities that are of interest to observers. The importance of hunting in this transformation are detailed, particularly those efforts directed at bighorn sheep, including their relationship to the production of rock art and exchange of exotic obsidians throughout the state. This large-game focus was thought to have continued until relatively late in time when human populations expanded, territories compressed, and large-game populations declined. With its high mobility, agility, low birth rate, and proclivity for inhospitable terrain, the bighorn sheep is arguably the "poster child" for prestige hunting, as it was difficult to hunt but prized by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada, eastern California, and the Mojave Desert.
