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CANADA: potlatch shield piece (3.53g), VF

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Ethnographic Start Price:130.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 200.00 USD
CANADA: potlatch shield piece (3.53g), VF
SOLD
350.00USD+ (70.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2022 Sep 16 @ 19:22UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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CANADA: potlatch shield piece (3.53g), Opitz (2011) p.507 (plate example), 35 x 26mm fragment from a copper shield, pierced at the top, exchanged along with blankets, canoes, fish oil and other items during the potlatch ceremony of various tribes of the Pacific Northwest, VF, ex Charles Opitz Collection. The potlatch was a fundamentally competitive gift-giving ceremony among the indigenous people of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Through the gifting, or sometimes outright destruction of one's own property (e.g., slashing up one's otter pelts, killing one's slaves), an individual publicly displays his own wealth, thereby reaffirming both his horizontal lineage and vertical hierarchy of rank. These ceremonies, which can take many years to prepare, also allowed tribes to settle old debts and scores through such competitions in lieu of conflict and bloodshed.Visit www.traditionalmoney.com for a downloadable copy of Odd & Curious and Traditional Money (Opitz, 2011).