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- Title
“This is that which … they call Wampum”: Europeans Coming to Terms with Native Shell Beads.
- Authors
OTTO, PAUL
- Abstract
The Native American–European encounter created a multitude of opportunities for understanding and misunderstanding. Linguistic and cultural barriers contributed to the complexity of cross-cultural understanding. In the case of tubular shell beads known today as wampum, Europeans sought a suitable term to describe the unfamiliar cultural goods that served Native people in ways unfamiliar to Europeans. The French, Dutch, and English experimented with diverse terms—both Native and European—eventually settling on porcelaine, sewant, and wampum, respectively. In doing so, they drew on their linguistic and cultural backgrounds while coming to terms with the Native American languages they encountered. A study of these cross-cultural interactions reveals the nuances and the limits of European understanding, and it demonstrates the cultural linguistic legacy of European colonization.
- Subjects
ATLANTIC States; AMERICA; NATIVE American-White relations; LOANWORDS; WAMPUM; FUR trade; CANADIAN history to 1763; COLONIES; CROSS-cultural communication; HISTORY; SEVENTEENTH century; MONEY
- Publication
Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2017, Vol 15, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1543-4273
- Publication type
Essay
- DOI
10.1353/eam.2017.0000