"A Thousand Beads to Each Nation:" A social interpretation of glass trade bead distribution in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America

Through LA-ICP-MS elemental analyses of 874 glass trade beads from 31 early colonial-era archaeological sites in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America, and from late 17th century contexts historically associated with French exploration of the Gulf Coast of Texas, I identify patterning in the spatial and temporal distribution of European glass-bead recipe groups. Trading relationships among Indigenous peoples and outsiders in this French "Upper Country" took place on a complex "middle ground" organized and navigated by an "Infinity of Nations" (White 1991; Witgen 2012), who maintained social and political autonomy through gift-giving and forging fictive kinships. Therefore, patterning of glass recipe groups may reflect: socially-structured exchange networks circulating goods across a diverse ethnic landscape, dynamic population movements, and groups’ changing access to materials over time. In this case study, archaeometric analysis of glass beads supplements standard archaeological methods, like stylistic analyses of ceramics and other "Native-made" artifacts, to clarify ethnic groups’ interactions and boundaries as reflected in material culture. This regional examination of glass bead exchange highlights the usefulness of investigating archaeological glass recipes beyond simple chronology-building or clarifying historical manufacturing processes, demonstrating potential for illuminating social connections of ethnic groups interacting on a dynamic past landscape. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.本研究对北美上五大湖地区31处早期殖民时代考古遗址出土的874颗贸易玻璃珠，以及与17世纪晚期法国探险活动相关的得克萨斯州墨西哥湾沿岸地层遗存中的玻璃珠开展激光剥蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱法（LA-ICP-MS）元素分析，以此识别欧洲玻璃珠配方组在空间与时间分布上的模式。在这片法国“上领地”中，原住民族群与外来者之间的贸易关系，依托由“万族共构”（White 1991; Witgen 2012）组织与运作的复杂“中间地带”展开，这些族群通过馈赠礼物、构建虚构亲属关系来维系自身的社会与政治自主性。因此，玻璃珠配方组的分布模式或可反映：以社会结构为框架的交换网络在多元族群格局中流转商品的模式、动态的人口流动，以及各群体随时间推移获取原料的途径变化。在本案例研究中，对玻璃珠的考古理化分析可补充陶瓷器风格分析、其他“本土制作”遗物分析等标准考古研究方法，以此阐明物质文化所反映的族群互动与边界问题。本次针对玻璃珠贸易的区域性研究表明，对考古出土玻璃珠配方的研究不应仅局限于构建年代序列或厘清历史制造工艺，其更具学术价值，可用于揭示动态历史场景下互动族群之间的社会联系。 本摘要收录于2015年美国考古学会（Society for American Archaeology）年会论文集，由美国考古学会与数字古董中心（Center for Digital Antiquity）联合发起的“改善考古学数字数据”合作项目提供至数字考古记录平台（tDAR）。若您为本场展示的作者，可免费上传您的论文、海报、展示文稿或相关关联数据（最多3个文件，总大小不超过30MB）。请访问http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 获取操作指南与更多详情。