Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

WAMPUM

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 302 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

WAMPUM , or WAMPUM-PEAGE (Amer. Ind. wampam, " See also:

white "; peag, " See also:bead "), the See also:shell-See also:money of the See also:North See also:American See also:Indians. It consisted of beads made from shells, and, unlike the See also:cowry-money of See also:India and See also:Africa (which was the shell in its natural See also:state), required a considerable measure of skill in its manufacture. Wampum was of two See also:colours, dark See also:purple and white, of cylindrical See also:form, averaging a See also:quarter of an See also:inch in length, and about See also:half that in See also:diameter. Its See also:colour determined its value. The See also:term wampum or wampum-peage was apparently applied to the beads only when strung or See also:woven together. They were ground as smooth as See also:glass and were strung together by a hole drilled through the centre. Dark wampum, which was made from a " hard shell " clam (See also:Venus mercenaria), popularly called quahang or quahog, a corruption of the See also:Indian name, was the most valuable. White wampum was made from the shell of whelks, either from the See also:common whelk (Buccinum und See also:alum) , or from that of Pyrula canaliculata and Pyrula carica. Wampum was employed most in New See also:England, but it was common elsewhere. By the Dutch settlers of New See also:York it was called seawan or zeewand, and roenoke in See also:Virginia, and perhaps farther See also:south, for shell-money was also known in the Carolinas, but whether the roenoke of the Virginian Indians was made from the same See also:species of shell as wampum is not clear. Cylindrical shell-beads similar to the wampum of the See also:Atlantic See also:coast Indians were made to some extent by the Indians of the See also:west coast.

This was manufactured from the Mytilus californianus, a See also:

mussel which abounds there. In the trading between whites and Indians, wampum so completely took the See also:place of See also:ordinary See also:coin that its value was fixed by legal enactment, three to a See also:penny and five shillings a See also:fathom. The fathom was the name for a See also:count, and the number of shells varied according to the accepted See also:standard of See also:exchange. Thuswhere six wampum went to the penny, the fathom consisted of 36o beads; but where four made a penny, as under the See also:Massachusetts standard of 1640, then the fathom counted 240. The beads were at first See also:worth more than five shillings per fathom, the See also:price at which they passed current in 1643. A few years before the fathom had been worth nine or ten shillings. See also:Connecticut received wampum for taxes in 1637 at four a penny. In 1640 Massachusetts adopted the Connecticut standard, "white to pass at four and bleuse at two a penny." There was no restriction on the manufacture of wampum, and it was made by the whites as well as the Indians. The See also:market was soon flooded with carelessly made and inferior wampum, but it continued to be circulated in the remote districts of New England through the 17th See also:century, and even into the beginning of the 18th. It was current with See also:silver in Connecticut in 1704. Wampum was also used for See also:personal adornment, and belts were made by embroidering wampum upon strips of deerskin. These belts or scarves were symbols of authority and See also:power and were surrendered on defeat in See also:battle.

Wampum also served a mnemonic use as a tribal See also:

history or See also:record. " The belts that pass from one nation to another in all See also:treaties, declarations and important transactions, are very carefully preserved in the chiefs' cabins, and serve not only as a See also:kind of record or history but as a public See also:treasury. According to the Indian conception, these belts could tell by means of an interpreter the exact See also:rule, See also:pro-See also:vision or transaction talked into them at the See also:time and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand of wampum, consisting of purple and white shell-beads or a See also:belt woven with figures formed by beads of different colours, operated on the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular See also:string or figure, thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory. These strands and belts were the only visible records of the See also:Iroquois, but they required the trained interpreters who could draw from their strings and figures the acts and intentions locked up in their remembrance" (See also:Major See also:Rogers, See also:Account of North See also:America, See also:London, 1765). See See also:Holmes, " See also:Art in Shell of the See also:Ancient Americans " in See also:Annual See also:Report of See also:Bureau of See also:Ethnology, See also:Washington, for' 88o–z88z; W. B. Weeden, Indian Money as a See also:Factor in New England See also:Civilization (See also:Baltimore, 1884); E. See also:Ingersoll, " Wampum and its History," in American Naturalist, vol. xvii. (1883); Horatio See also:Hale, " On the Origin and Nature of Wampum," in American Naturalist, vol. xviii. (1884) ; C. L.

See also:

Norton, " The Last Wampum Coinage," in American See also:Magazine for See also:March 1888.

End of Article: WAMPUM

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
WALWORTH, SIR WILLIAM (d. 1385) 		[next]
WANA

Site © 2006 - Net Industries