| Summary: | Exhibition at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, from February 8 to May 15, 2022. At the beginning of the 17th century in Northeastern North America, as France extended its colonial hold in the region, cylindrical shell beads named wampum (called “porcelains” by the French) began to be used as an object of exchange between Native Americans and Europeans. Among Indigenous nations, wampum held social and political meaning, and often adorned objects of prestige. Some Iroquoian nations, like the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the Huron-Wendat Confederacies, produced strings and belts of wampum that served to materialize spoken promises. In a world of oral tradition where the written document had no value, European nations had to comply with Indigenous protocols, and to adopt the use of these “talking beads” to negotiate alliances and treaties. Thus began a history dating back more than four centuries during which the use and importance of wampum evolved with political and cultural upheavals that affected the region and undermined Native Amerincan autonomy. This exhibition follows the tracks of the surviving examples of wampum in France, which are among the oldest in the world. It looks at their meaning and use over time. The dialogue initiated on this occasion between the Abenaki, French, Huron-Wendat, and Haudenosaunee partners revisits the relationships resulting from the meeting of two worlds, as well as Native American traditions, the European adaptation tothese traditions, Iroquoian mythology and the Indigenous worldviewin the 17th-19th centuries. It also considers the role of wampum in contemporary societies, as both objects of art in museums, and incontinuoususe in contemporary Indigenous communities today. The English version of this issue was supported by the Paris Seine Graduate School Humanities, Creation, Heritage, Investissement d’Avenir ANR-17-EURE-0021 – Foundation for Cultural Heritage. Exposition au musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, du 8 février au 15 mai 2022. Vers le tout début du XVIIe ...
|
|---|