The red shift reconsidered: Network analysis of glass bead color and cultural integration in seventeenth-century Northern Iroquoia

Abstract

Abstract

This study demonstrates how material preference can track processes of identity negotiation, cultural transmission, and political reorganization during periods of social upheaval. It applies social network analysis (SNA) to the distribution of glass bead color types from 96 seventeenth-century archaeological sites across Northern Iroquoia, encompassing present-day New York, Ontario, and Pennsylvania. By using similarity matrices based on bead color frequencies and the Morisita Overlap Index, we visualize and quantify shifting material preferences across spatial and temporal boundaries during a period of widespread population dispersals, warfare, and multiethnic integration. Our findings document a pan-regional increase in red bead usage—referred to as the “red shift”—initially observed among Wendat, Petun, and Neutral groups in southern Ontario and appearing later among Haudenosaunee nations following their incorporation of thousands of captives and migrants after 1650. This is the first SNA-based analysis of glass beads in Northern Iroquoia.