Paper short abstract:

This paper reports upon research undertaken to identify some of the commercial pathways through which glass beads were distributed in New Guinea during the expansion of global capital in the colonial period, and how beads continue to be used in the creation of local values.

Paper long abstract:

"All things new". Tracing new forms of value through glass beads

The use of glass beads, generally referred to in historical accounts as "trade beads", commenced almost as soon as encounters with Europeans began. Their use was lamented by collectors such as the trader Richard Parkinson who, based in the Bismarck Archipelago, commented in 1907 that the locals displayed a "preference for European industrial items". This, he added, had "arisen from the feeling that all things new are to be preferred to the old…." and in so saying he revealed something of indigenous motivations in the adoption of glass beads. Today, we can appreciate that these inclusions manifest the ingenuity and enthusiasm with which people embraced and drew to them new materials and possibilities in the creation of objects of value.

Inspired by Wronska Friend's work on the introduction of ceramic replicas of indigenous forms of wealth in the Sepik (2015, From shells to ceramic: colonial replicas of Indigenous Valuables), I report upon research undertaken to identify some of the commercial pathways through which glass beads were distributed in New Guinea during the expansion of global capital in the colonial period. This process - the transmission of new materials and their integration into local forms - has contributed to new forms of value, including today, the inclusion of beaded objects in international art exhibitions. This research examines how the introduction and use of beads reveals historic and contemporary engagements with global capital.