We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Small Wampum Bands Used by Native Americans in the Northeast: Functions and Recycling.
- Authors
Becker, Marshall Joseph
- Abstract
Wampum, as a commodity and as a cultural product, is commonly considered as part of the material culture of the Native American peoples of the northeastern region. These small shell beads, of a roughly standardized size and shape, emerged after 1615 as an effective response to the developing pelt trade. Recent studies reveal that the native populations in this region used these beads in a variety of different ways, and that the political uses generally associated with these materials were regularly employed only among the peoples of the three great confederacies - the Huron, the Susquehannock, and the Five Nations Iroquois. Small woven bands of wampum, as well as strings of these shell beads, were the most commonly used forms of these materials. Despite the vast numbers of studies dealing with wampum, the widely varied functions served by small bands and strings of these beads have never been examined as a specific aspect of Native American material culture.
- Subjects
NORTH America; WAMPUM; MATERIAL culture; SOCIAL life &; customs of Native Americans; WYANDOT (North American people); NATIVE American beadwork; SUSQUEHANNOCK (North American people); IROQUOIS (North American people)
- Publication
Material Culture, 2008, Vol 40, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0883-3680
- Publication type
Article