Narragansett Tribe's Social Life
The life of Native New England Indians prior to English Settlement
Jun 11, 2009
Narragansett Social Games
The men played a game similar to soccer. One village played another village attended by hundreds or thousands of onlookers. In New England this game was played on the sandy beaches on a field that was sometimes miles long. The game could last for days with the tired players being replaced occasionally with fresh players. When one team reached the designated goal line the game ended and the victors took their bets. They often bet their money, clothes, house, corn and even their lives on the outcome. Men and women also played private games such as cards and dice. In the summer, races were run, sometimes of a hundred miles or more.
The Money of the Narragansetts
For money the natives used Wampumpeag, sometimes called just wampum or peag. Wampum consisted of strings of white or black shells and was valued for use by the natives in religious ceremonies. Later the English also used wampum as money both in their trade with the natives and also among themselves. In 1643, Roger Williams wrote that a fathom of white wampum was worth about five shillings and the black double that. A fathom of wampum consisted of about 250-270 beads. White wampum was made from shells found on the beaches of Narragansett Bay and Long Island which gave the natives in these areas an item they could manufacture and exchange for other items.
Barter and Other Trade Items
In addition to wampum the natives traded among themselves their corn, furs, and deer skins, venison, and fish. There were some men within the tribe who were assigned the task of making items that could be traded or used by another tribe. “They have some who follow only making of bows,” wrote Williams, “some arrows, some dishes, and the women make all their earthen vessels, some follow fishing, some hunting; most on the seaside make money, and store up shells in summer against winter.”
Narraganset Family Life
They held the family dear and especially the relations within what we today call the nuclear family. The concept of brotherhood was so strong that when one had committed a murder and fled, the victim’s family had the right to execute his brother or alternatively demand payment of the family’s property to the victim’s family. Usually the debt was satisfied by payment rather than execution. There were no fatherless children not care for and no homeless among them. They displayed strong affections for their children and seldom resorted to corporal punishment. More than one family often lived together in the same house which was built with long poles covered with mats which the women made from hemp.
Narragansett Women, Marriage and Adultry
The women separated themselves from the family during the time of their menstrual period “which custom in all parts of the country they strictly observe, and no male may come into that house” during that time. “Their virgins are distinguished by a bashful falling down of their hair over their eyes.” Generally the men had one wife but the sachem or other village leaders often took two or more. They took a second wife for two reasons: “First (for) desire of riches, because the women bring in all the increase from the field, (and) secondly, their long sequestering themselves from their wives after conception, until the child be weaned, which with some is long after a year old.” Generally the men paid a dowry of from five to ten fathoms of wampum to the parents or guardians of the bride. Fornication without marriage was no crime but once married, “they count it heinous for either of them to be false, (and) the wronged party may put away (divorce) or keep the party offending; commonly if the woman be false’ the wronged husband may take his revenge against the offender even to the point of death.
Source:
Roger Williams, The Complete Writings, 1:104; Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans and the Making of New England, 1500-1643, (New York: Oxford University Press), 30.
