Material manipulations: Beads and cloth in the French colonies

Abstract

Few can deny the impact that European-manufactured material had in the history of colonization of the Southeastern United States. Objects produced in Europe for trade with the New World, such as iron knives, copper kettles, wool cloth, yarn and blankets, glass beads, and silver jewelry, made their way into Native hands and transformed the lives and economies for many people living in the New World (Bradley, 2007; Calloway, 1997:42-45; Waselkov, 2004). Archaeological focus in recent decades on the production of commodities for the growth of mercantile economies in North American colonies has given rise to more textured interpretations of the social lives of objects in colonial contexts, not only in the Southeastern United States, but throughout colonial North America (Appadurai, 1986; Wolf, 1982; see also Given, 2005; Gosden, 2004; Lightfoot, 2004; Nassaney and Brandão, this volume; MacLean, this volume; Silliman, 2005; Thomas, 1991). In the French colony of Louisiana, which is the context for this discussion, Native and French individuals integrated newly acquired items into daily practices, putting them into use in households and communities, animating them and infusing them with meaning. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009.