Peake, Wampum, or Sewant?: An Analysis of Shell Bead Terminology in the Seventeenth Century Chesapeake

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Ornamentation: New Approaches to Adornment and Colonialism" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Beads and the terminology used to describe them provide a powerful look into the colonial relationships negotiated by both indigenous groups and European settlers. Peake, wampum, and sewant are terms used to describe tubular white or purple shell beads that developed as a result of interactions between indigenous groups and Europeans. This paper uses seventeenth and early eighteenth century documents from Virginia and Maryland to examine the contexts in which bead terminology shifts from the regionally specific use of peake. In examining these deviations from the Chesapeake vernacular, this paper provides another avenue in which to understand not only how beads were used to negotiate colonial relationships, but also to demonstrate who was building relationships with whom and the effects of those relationships.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond Ornamentation: New Approaches to Adornment and Colonialism   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 652