Circle of Goods: Women, Work, and Welfare in a Reservation Community

Tressa Berman

feb 2012 · State University of New York Press

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Circle of Goods compiles the stories of Native American women and examines their kinship, wage work, and informal economies. Responding to the upheavals of reservation life brought about by federal policies—from commodity rations to welfare reform—Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara women, each with distinct histories and cultural practices, stand at the center of the Fort Berthold reservation economy. Berman introduces the concept of ceremonial relations of production to explain the contradictory effects of economic incentives and cultural commitments, and argues that the historical movement of people and goods through a series of structured dependencies often gives rise to creative strategies for survival and new social identities.

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Tressa Berman is a Visiting Scholar with the Women's Leadership Institute at Mills College. She is also a Research Associate in the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences and is Executive Director of BorderZone Arts, Inc.