Copper

Item number A6261 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

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Data
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Description

Small blackened copper with rectangular bottom section and flaring upper section. The upper section is slightly convex with a face design in brown, and the bottom section has four sets of two diagonal brown lines. The bottom edge is folded over, and there is a convex band running vertically up the centre joined to a convex band that runs horizontally across where the bottom section joins the top section. Part of a larger design is visible on the reverse and indicates that this small copper may have been made from a larger one.

History Of Use

Coppers can be named, displayed, and transferred in accordance with ceremonial privilege and protocol. Historically, within potlatch economies, coppers would rise in value each time they were purchased, ceremonially presented, and strategically re-sold or given away. Among the Kwakwaka’wakw, coppers were sometimes cut or broken during rivalries. Some of these were riveted together and used again, their value then having to be re-established.

Narrative

Perforation at the apex probably means that this miniature copper was suspended from or attached to another object, for example a talking stick, as A9181.