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Wampum are traditional shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. Wampum were used by the northeastern Native Americans as a form of gift exchange. Early historians and colonists mistook〔http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/edu/f01/edu315-01/liberato/wampum.html〕 wampum as a form of money.〔http://szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html〕 The colonists then adopted wampum as their own currency; however, the Europeans' more efficient production of wampum caused inflation and ultimately the obsolescence of wampum as currency. Wampum was often kept on strings like Chinese cash. Before European contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and the recording of important treaties and historical events,〔 such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty. ==Description and manufacture== This term initially referred to only the white beads, which are made of the inner spiral, or columella, of the Channeled whelk shell, ''Busycotypus canaliculatus'' or ''Busycotypus carica''.〔Dubin, Lois Sherr. ''North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999: 170-171. ISBN 0-8109-3689-5.〕 ''Sewant'' or ''suckauhock'' beads are the black or purple shell beads made from the quahog or poquahock clamshell, ''Mercenaria mercenaria''. ''Sewant'' or ''Zeewant'' was the term used for this currency by the New Netherland colonists.〔Jaap Jacobs. ''The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-century America''. Cornell University Press, 2009. pg. 14〕 Common terms for the dark and white beads, often confused, are ''wampi'' (white and yellowish) and ''saki'' (dark).〔Geary, Theresa Flores. (The Illustrated Bead Bible. ) London: Kensington Publications, 2008: 305. ISBN 978-1-4027-2353-7.〕 In the area of present New York Bay, the clams and whelks used for making wampum are found only along Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. The Lenape name for Long Island is ''Sewanacky'', reflecting its connection to the dark wampum. Typically wampum beads are tubular in shape, often a quarter of an inch long and an eighth inch wide. One 17th-century Seneca wampum belt featured beads almost 2.5 inches (65 mm) long.〔 Women artisans traditionally made wampum beads by rounding small pieces of the shells of whelks, then piercing them with a hole before stringing them. Wooden pump drills with quartz drill bits and steatite weights were used to drill the shells. The unfinished beads would be strung together and rolled on a grinding stone with water and sand, until they were smooth. The beads would be strung or woven on deer hide thongs, sinew, milkweed bast, or basswood fibers.〔Perry, Elizabeth James. (About the Art of Wampum. ) ''Original Wampum Art: Elizabeth James Perry.'' 2008 (retrieved 14 March 2009)〕 Care must be taken while crafting or incising wampum. If one does not keep the shell wet while drilling or scratching, the shell will crack, split, or break. The same trouble occurs if one tries to remove too much material at once. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wampum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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