Abstract
Copper kettles, in high demand among indigenous communities of the Northeast/Great Lakes, became prominent items in the exchange repertoires of early Basque, French and Dutch traders. Kettles’ origin with these “Others” and its connection to a medium (copper) that had held symbolic significance for millennia led them to be used in an indigenous ‘metaphorical’ value regime influencing trade during the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century. An artisan living on the threshold of colonial encounter in Northern Michigan between 1470 and 1660 CE—having seen European goods but not having access to them—harnessed the mimetic faculty to make a small, miniature, ceramic imitation or skeuomorph of a European trade kettle. Rather than the sincerest form of flattery, I suggest this imitation was made to acquire the power of the original to fend off the colonial danger and to connect to this symbolic value regime. I suggest the “magic” of mimesis offered personal and organizational power in the indigenous Northeast/Great Lakes during early contact. This specific case speaks more broadly to how mimesis can provide a robust framework for exploring the material cultures of colonial encounter.
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Acknowledgements
I extend my deep appreciation to Mrs. Hiroko Cook who opened her land to me for excavation, even letting me tear up her beautiful garden beds when features went into them. Her good humor inspired me and my crew the entire time we worked there. My crew that season deserves thanks for their hard work and willingness to follow me all over the interior of Michigan searching for sites. Fieldwork and radiometric dates were generously funded by the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology James B. Griffin Fellowship. I want to thank Dr. Carla Sinopoli for providing extensive critical comments that helped me get this paper off the ground and that greatly improved it as well. My thanks go also to Dr. Katherine Hayes, one anonymous reviewer, and Dr. Charles Orser for their critical insights and help in improving the paper. Of course, all errors and shortcomings remain my own.
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Howey, M.C.L. Colonial Encounters, European Kettles, and the Magic of Mimesis in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Indigenous Northeast and Great Lakes. Int J Histor Archaeol 15, 329–357 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-011-0145-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-011-0145-y