Gifts and gift giving in Native American culture
Gifts and gift-giving play a significant role in Native American culture, serving as a vital aspect of social interaction and relationships. Historically, the practice of exchanging gifts was integral to treaties, trade, and alliances among Native tribes, symbolizing social bonds and mutual respect. Gifts were used not only to establish and maintain connections but also to signify identity, foster egalitarian social structures, and redistribute wealth within communities. Additionally, the introduction of European powers brought changes to this gift-giving tradition, as European settlers began to use gifts strategically to secure loyalty and trade advantages, often leading to tension and competition among tribes.
The variety of gifts exchanged included traditional artifacts such as textiles, baskets, and leather goods, as well as food, plants, and even songs or healing ceremonies. European contact introduced manufactured goods into the exchange economy, shifting the focus from traditional gift-giving practices to commercial transactions. This transition often disrupted the community-oriented nature of gift exchanges, leading to cultural challenges and conflicts as Native Americans navigated the complexities of a commercialized economy. Overall, the tradition of gift-giving in Native American cultures reflects deep social values and highlights the intricate relationships established through these practices.
Subject Terms
Gifts and gift giving in Native American culture
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: Gift exchange was an essential mode of strategic interaction with other tribes and with the colonial powers
Gift giving was a central feature of exchange customs common to North American Indians. Treaties, trade, and other interactions demanded the distribution of various gifts among the parties. These presents symbolized the social bonds between the participants. Native Americans presented gifts to make and sustain alliances and to demonstrate continued control to the colonial powers. They used this gift giving to symbolize, sustain, and equalize human relationships. Presents were also given to create and alter social relationships. Other functions of gift giving were to establish an identity, to maintain peaceful interactions, to provide a basis for genuine friendships, to foster an egalitarian social order, and to create an economic order based on the redistribution of wealth.
The European powers were forced to comply with a gift-giving political economy in order to obtain commercial advantages. They presented gifts to guarantee loyalty from tribes and chiefs, to buy service from Indian leaders, to counter influence from rival colonial governments, and to foster trade. In addition, European gift giving served to create kinship ties to important chiefs and to signify respect for Indians.
There were many varieties of items in the gift-exchange economy. Among these items were artifacts such as looms, Native American baskets, textiles, leather goods, and clothing. Plants, animals, shells, skins, food, and medicines were also offered as gifts. In addition, rituals could produce presents of songs, stories, or healing ceremonies. After European contact, commodities such as manufactured goods, rum, brandy, and other products were introduced into the gift-exchange economy.
Gift giving was supplanted by European-style commerce. Gift giving had always been in conflict with commercial economic activity. The Europeans first participated reluctantly in gift exchange to receive commercial advantage. Over time, however, Native Americans were drawn away from gift exchanges and toward commercial exchanges. This resulted in much destruction of their culture. For example, subsistence hunting was replaced with the near extinction of species because of the commercial desire for certain pelts in the fur trade. This commercial activity also countered the community-forming function of gift exchange by bringing Indians into conflict through commercial competition.