=Gift Giving=: Dances were held periodically, and at these the
dancers would dole out presents such as wampum, to the spectators.
Each man who was to dance would take his turn at it, giving away his
possessions bit by bit until he had no more to give and was exhausted
from dancing.[329]
At the Nickomo feast, held in the winter, the person giving the
feast, besides providing food for perhaps hundreds of people (the
size of the guest list depended upon what one could afford to pay
for) presented goods and money to his guests.[330] Upon receipt of
the gift, the guest would call out three times an invocation for the
prosperity of his host.[331]
=Trade=: The several groups of Indians of southeastern New England
traded among themselves in pottery vessels, wooden bowls, bows,
arrows, pipes, shell money, stone bowls, skins, and food products of
the hunt and the fields.[332] The manufacture of some of these items
appears to have been specialized according to local group. That is,
the women of one locality seem to have made cooking pots, and these
were traded to the women of other groups.[333] Wooden bowls seem to
have been the specialty of the Wampanoags. Soapstone pipes and bowls
were produced by the Narragansetts and were traded north at least to
Cape Cod.[334] At a time that was probably early in the seventeenth
century the Narragansetts also took over the production of wampum for
the region. Craftsmen spent the summer collecting suitable shells
and the winter making the beads.[335] Trade in furs among Indian
groups was not highly developed prior to the arrival of Europeans. It
seems to have been mainly a matter of trading for kinds of skins that
were scarce or finer than those in one’s own territory.[336] Food was
probably traded according to need. It was also traded on the basis
of geographical location, coastal tribes exchanging with interior
tribes.[337]
The arrival of Europeans in the New World provided a great trade
stimulus. The major trading interest between Indians and Europeans
was the fur trade. Here coastal dwelling Indian groups such as the
Wampanoags took the advantage. Being first to meet the Europeans,
they quickly established themselves as go-betweens in the trade,
and besides doing trapping of their own, they traded for the furs
of inland tribes, which they then traded to the Europeans for a
profit.[338] The fur trade caused increased emphasis upon hunting
and trapping. Since it was more profitable to trade skins than to
wear them, the fur trade was a force that encouraged Indians to adopt
European textiles and dress.
The fur trade also was responsible for the introduction of wampum
into Wampanoag culture. Wampum, used as money, was a trait
belonging to Indian groups to the south. Purple wampum may have
first originated on Long Island.[339] When the Dutch settled New
Netherland, they found it a convenient medium of exchange and adopted
it. The regular use and production of wampum found its way north to
the Narragansetts, but it did not become popular with the Wampanoags
until after 1627, the year in which the Dutch first brought wampum
to Plymouth and suggested its virtues to the English settlers
there.[340] Once its value was appreciated, Indians of the Plymouth
area began to make it also.[341] Within the next twenty years, wampum
as ornament and money became ingrained in Wampanoag culture.
Purple wampum was double the value of white. Wampum was reckoned in
value by count, 360 white beads equalling a fathom, which was worth
five shillings. This number of beads might exceed or fall short of
a fathom in linear measure, but the number of beads rather than
actual length was the important criterion.[342] The value of wampum,
however, was based on the market in furs.[343] After 1648 this market
dropped, and after that date a 5-shilling “fathom” of wampum had to
consist of 480 white beads. In the period immediately prior to King
Philip’s War the use of wampum as currency declined.[344]
Not all trade was in terms of skins and wampum. These were basic but
not the exclusive goods in circulation. Guns and alcohol were popular
items, introduced onto the market chiefly by the French—much to the
distress of the English colonists and missionaries. Corn was also
much involved in New England commerce.[345] Settlers traded corn with
the Indians, according to the needs of each in a particular year.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth traded corn to Indians in Maine for furs,
although this pattern came to be replaced by an exchange of furs for
wampum.[346]