The Iroquois and the World's Rim

Speculations on Color, Culture, and Contact

Bibliographic Data

ID4040095
AuthorsGeorge R Hamell (corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume16
Issue4
Pages451
Publication date1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe American Indian Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0095-182X • E-ISSN: 1534-1828
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1185292
OpenAlexW2325425964
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited15

CONTACT BETWEEN THE PEOPLES of the New World and of the Old World had ideational consequences for both. The event of Contact, and more importantly the process of Contact, initiated the reciprocal redefinition of the mythical realities which for centuries, if not millennia, had structured New World and Old World thoughts and behaviors about the other world. Neither the event nor the process of Contact are over. For the Iroquois, dwelling beneath the Great Tree at the center of Earth-Island, indirect knowledge of Contact at the eastern World's Rim and the indirect receipt of exotic trade goods emanating there, appear to have reified and reinvigorated the traditional ritual meanings and functions of light, bright (reflective), and white things. Not least among these were white marine shell and red, upper Great Lakes native copper, into whose meanings and functions were incorporated and assimilated analogous European trade goods of glazed ceramic, glass, and metal. This seemingly innocuous exchange of European baubles, bangles, and beads along the mid-Atlantic Coast of northeastern North America during the sixteenth century catalyzed profound changes in the ideational, sociopolitical, and economic subsystems of coastal and interior native populations. At the turn of the sixteenth century the indigenous populations of northeastern North America were either Algonquian, Northern Iroquoian, or Siouan speakers (c.f. Trigger 1978). The latter were by far in the minority and were found nearer the mid-Atlantic coast, while the majority were speakers of diverse Algonquian languages. With the exception of the Meherrin, Nottaway, and Tuscarora of the coastal Virginia and Carolina regions to the southeast and the socalled St. Lawrence Iroquoians to the northeast, the remaining Northern Iroquoian speakers dwelt in the interior in what is now north central Pennsylvania, western and central New York, and southwestern Ontario, bordering the Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario. These northern Iroquoian speakers have since been linguistically differentiated into eleven regional populations, which with caution can be identified with as many historically attested geosociopolitical entities, or tribes (nations), bearing the same linguistic identifiers (c.f. Lounsbury 1978; Trigger 1978: 282-289, 357-417, 466-524). Caution

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