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Fri, 28 Feb 1997 18:07:26 EST |
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Gee, Ned, it would be useful to know what the cultural and temporal
context of the beads and house corners is! That kinda helps, you
know.
I don't know about this subject in any great depth, but you might be
able to find something useful in Horace C. Beck's "The Magical
Properties of Beads." Published in 1936, this hard-to-find little
book was reprinted in THE BEAD JOURNAL (not to be confused with the
journal BEADS which I edit), spring, 1976, pp. 32-39. It looks at the
European end of things from the Stone Age to fairly recent times.
As for the color blue in beads, this has got to be the most common
color for most North American Native groups as well as
African-Americans pre 1900. It is also popular elsewhere... e.g.,
baby blue is the Mongolian good-luck color. The question remains: why
was it the most popular color? Could be an interesting term paper or
thesis here for someone.
Karlis Karklins, Parks Canada
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