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

Description

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.