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Mahamickwon
and Cultural Change in Southern New Jersey:
The
Story of a Lenopi Family and Native Conservatism from 1660 to after
1810.
Marshall
Becker, PhD, Professor Emeritus, West Chester State University,
Most readers are surprised to learn that the Lenopi, the native people
of southern New Jersey, continued to speak their own language and maintained
a traditional, if somewhat modified, foraging lifestyle well into the
1800s! Documents relating to Mahmickwon, ca. 1665 to after 1740, and
his heirs, spanning the period from 1677 to after 1802, reveal the persistence
of traditional culture among the Lenopi even as the lives of the increasing
numbers of colonials around them were becoming radically altered.
Lenopi traditions
also were changing, but their basic subsistence economy remained remarkably
intact. Even as early as 1697, Mahamickwon was recognized as an important
member of the Rancocus band. This band resided part of the year in the
area around Coerxing, a Lenopi summer station, or Indian Town, where
he was active. From his first appearance in known records, as Mahomecun
in 1697, he was also identified as King Charles. This English name indicates
one element of apparent early acculturation among the Lenopi, and the
title reveals his high status.
The information
drawn from an array of deeds, journals, and other documents enables
us to identify Mahamickwon as the native also known as Him-mick-son
also Hymickhone and Hinneron and to reconstruct his life story and that
of his family. The narrative of the life of Mahamickwon and that of
his family reveals several important aspects of Lenopi cultural history.
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OCTOBER
8, 2011 PRE-COLUMBIAN SOCIETY MEETING
Saturday,
October 8, 2011, 1:30 PM, Room 345
PRE-COLUMBIAN
SOCIETY http://www.precolumbian.org/
University
of Pennsylvania Museum
3260
South Street
Philadelphia,
PA 19104
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| Marshall Joseph
Becker received his B.A., M.A. and PhD from The University of Pennsylvania;
all in anthropology. At present he is Professor Emeritus in Anthropology
at West Chester University where he continues his research. His
primary interest relates to culture contact and processes of culture
change, with a focus on interactions among the Native peoples of
the lower Delaware Valley and Bay and their contacts with early
Dutch, Swedish and English traders and colonists. He has spent 40
years researching the Lenape or so-called Delaware, of southeastern
Pennsylvania, and their native and colonial neighbors such as the
Lenopi and Sekonese. His many publications in scholarly and popular
journals document the success of these peoples in maintaining their
cultures much later than is generally recognized. A number of granting
agencies have supported Dr. Becker’s work, including the National
Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. |
| Also by Marshall
Joseph Becker: |
http://www.jstor.org/pss/987042
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