Wampum Wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and the white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. It was used by the northeastern Indian tribes as a form of gift exchange, and the colonists adopted it as currency in trading with them. Eventually, the colonists developed more efficient methods of producing wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately its obsolescence as currency. Wampum was often kept on strings like Chinese cash. Before European
Prehistoric beads in the Philippines Prehistoric beads in the Philippines The Philippines, like other Southeast Asian countries, is an archipelagic body of land and thus, commonly comes in contact with natural resources found in bodies of water. Many of the decorative pieces and tools that they possess, as well as their culture, seem to reflect this maritime characteristic. Tools such as choppers made of shell as well as decorative pieces like shell beads are common in Southeast Asian archaeological records due to this characteristic. According to Hughes, unlike glass beads, trade of shell beads usually occur from the shore line towards the interior of the