Faithful Bodies. Heather Miyano Kopelson

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      Figure 2.2. Seventeenth-century wampum beads placed as grave goods in a Native interment near what is now Revere Beach, Massachusetts. (President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 78–17–10/14204, digital file 60740371)

      The boundaries of physical bodies shared in the permeability between categories of human and other-than-human persons and were little more than perception. This attitude shows up in hogk, the Massachusett word for “body,” which means “that which covers a man or animal.” Rather than being an absolute separation or finite end to identity, the body was a mere covering for the living power or manitou that animated the person or animal.³⁵ Crossing boundaries between spaces or states of being involved great power that could be dangerous, leading to proscriptions placed on menstruating and birthing women, as well as on warriors about to go into battle and the houses of the dead.³⁶ When Algonquians slept, their inner self—or soul, as the English translated the concept—traveled outside the physical body to interact more closely with other-than-human persons who might convey spiritually significant messages. That experience was not always a positive one for the traveling essence of the human individual. Frightening or powerful dreams prompted the dreamer to discern their meaning through further communication with the unseen world or, as Roger Williams described it, “When they have had a bad Dreame, . . . they fall to prayer at all times of the night, especially early before day,” during the transition from night to day and dark to light.³⁷

      Healing practices were based in the ability to bring manitou to bear on the sickness at hand. To cure a sick patient, powwows worked to transcend the limits of their physical bodies as well as those of their patients to access spiritual power. William Wood recounted one cure he observed in which the powwow was “smiting his naked breast and thighs with such violence as if he were mad.” That violence may have served to weaken the bounds of the body in order to allow the powwow to cross that physical threshold and move into a trance state where he could more easily communicate with Hobbomock and lesser other-than-humans. Ministers and missionaries John Eliot and Thomas Mayhew disapprovingly noted, “The Pawwaws counted their Imps their Preservers, had them treasured up in their bodies, . . . who when they had done some notable Cure, would shew the Imp in the palm of his Hand to the Indians.”³⁸ While they meant to emphasize the trickery of the powwow and what they termed witchcraft or diabolically inspired manipulations of the unseen world, their description reflects the Algonquian belief that human bodies might also harbor manitou-holding agencies, and that displaying them was a sign of the powwow’s ability.

      Communal participation was another key aspect of the cure, not only by the presence of others, but by their vocal performance. After the sick person was brought to the powwow, “the rest of the Indians giving attentive audience” to the “imprecations and invocations, and . . . the violent expression of many a hideous bellowing and groaning” of the powwow, “all the auditors with one voice utter a short Canto.”³⁹ The two cures that Matthew Mayhew saw fit to mention in his account of missionary success on Martha’s Vineyard both involved a number of “Friends” of the sick and “Spectators.” In the case of a man who took on the name of George after his cure, his kin “being met, and dancing round a great Fire” determined that a powwow had caused the illness and so must cure it. The second instance involved a woman whose relations called for renowed powwows from Martha’s Vineyard after the local ones were unable to cure her. Mayhew reported, “The Powwow’s, goe to dancing; who with the Spectators, used certain Ceremonies usual in such cases.” The powwows were able to extract and catch “the Spirit (as they said) which entered the Woman” in a deerskin. The individual abilities of powwows to have “immediate converse with the gods” were essential to the success of the cure, but the ritual could not function without group participation.⁴⁰

      “Setting themselves out with white and blew Beads of their own making”

      Although no written record or archaeological deposit indicates Awashunkes’s clothing or anything specific about her appearance during the 1675 ritual with which this chapter opened, it is probable that she prepared herself for the important occasion in a similar way as did Weetamoo, a female leader of a nearby people, the Pocasset Wampanoags, several months later. Weetamoo placed belts and strings of wampum, as well as necklaces and pendants that probably included metal, stone, and glass or crystal in addition to shell, around her waist, neck, and arms and put “all sorts of Jewels in her ears.” Male leaders such as Weetamoo’s husband Quinnapin also wore “Girdles of Wampum,” often on the head and shoulders, and dressed in clothing with glass, shell, and metal embellishments that would shake and jingle as the wearer moved (figure 2.2). Just as Weetamoe had made the belts that covered her “from the Loins upward,” much of Awashunkes’s adornment was probably of her own manufacture.⁴¹ John Josselyn found this practice of “setting themselves out with white and blew Beads of their own making” to be evidence that “they are very proud,” but there was much more at stake than pride in personal appearance.⁴²

      Figure 2.3. Seventeenth-century potsherds excavated from several Native sites across New England incorporate representations of female genitalia and reference to women’s reproductive roles of caring for young children. The castellation shaped to resemble a woman’s head and shoulders includes, on the inside edge, a baby on her back. These sherds are of Mohegan manufacture from Fort Shantok, Connecticut. (Adapted from Nassaney, “Native American Gender and Material Culture”; Williams, “Fort Shantok and Fort Corchaug”; and Handsman, “Algonquian Women Resist Colonialism.” Drawing by Reiko Kopelson.)