Shell Game: A True Account of Beads and Money in North America
- ISBN-10
- 1562790803
- ISBN-13
- 9781562790806
- Series
- Shell Game
- Category
- History (General)
- Pages
- 240
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1996
- Publisher
- Mercury House
- Author
- Jerry Martien
Description
Shell Game, a unique and revealing investigation into the nature of money and human exchange, intertwines two stories. One starts in Manhattan in 1627 with the transactions by which North America was "bought" by Europe. Martien shows how a gift relationship based on beads was replaced by monetary relations based on credit, and how ancient ways of bookkeeping, exemplified by the Iroquois wampum exchange, were replaced by a social contract based on scarcity and deficit.
Interspersed with his historical account, Martien tells a parallel story set in the present in which he attempts to negotiate a book advance, visit the wampum keeper at Onondaga, and unravel a personal tangle of love and habit in his life. Martien's search becomes a journey of remembrance and acknowledgment and an apology and condolence for cultural and monetary misappropriation. It becomes a pilgrimage in search of restitution and recovery that many readers will want to join.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Shell Game
By Steve AltenThis fictional tale resonates with chilling facts from real-life informants in the oil industry and the U.S. government, piecing together the terrifying truth about a nation addicted to oil.
-
Shell Game
By Carol O'ConnellIts high stone arch was flanked by elegant cornices and columns of the early 1900s. Hexagonal patterns on the concave wall echoed the shape of the plaza's paving stones, where a standing audience was herded behind velvet ropes.
-
Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime, and Terrorism
By J. C. Sharman, Michael G. Findley, Daniel L. NielsonThis book sheds new light on the sordid world of anonymous shell corporations through a series of field experiments.
-
Shell Games: A John Marquez Crime Novel
By Kirk RussellRoberts was young , unafraid , and strong . She was an expert markswoman , had a black belt , ran marathons , and had been scuba diving since she was ten . She had the shoulders of a swimmer and grew up in a generation where the young ...
-
Shell Games: A True Story of Cops, Con Men, and the Smuggling of America's Strangest Wildlife
By Craig WelchIn Shell Games, journalist Craig Welch delves into our nation's waters and wildlands in search of America's most unusual criminals.
-
The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms
By Kim AdrianSurprising, delightful, and lyric, these essays are destined to become classics of this new and increasingly popular hybrid form.
-
Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature's Bounty
By Craig WelchA unique blend of natural history and crime drama, Shell Games by Craig Welch is a riveting tale of rogues, scoundrels, and the hunt for nature’s bounty in the tradition of The Orchid Thief.
-
Shell Game: One Family's Long Battle Against Big Oil
By J. Michael VeronIt is a story of greed and great passion and of one family’s refusal to back down in the face of unrelenting pressure. Shell Game is the story of how one family not only righted a wrong, but also changed the way oil companies operate.
-
Shell Game
By Melissa Crandall“The proconsul and the Senate confirmed it for me after my appointment. Our Lady seems very pleased that you're going to be a part of this endeavor. She expressed the greatest confidence in your contribution to the success of the ...
-
The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms
By Kim AdrianThis volume contains a carefully chosen selection of beautifully written, thought-provoking hybrid essays tackling a broad range of subjects"--