Beyond Sounds: Exchanges, Circulation and Value of Cascabeles (Rumbler Bells) in a Colonial Frontier (Chile, 16th-18th Centuries)

ABSTRACT

Cascabeles (rumbler bells) are among the first objects that were part of the exchanges that took place between Europeans and Indians in the New World since the end of the 15th century. They were, from the beginning, perceived as commodities. At the time of the encounter in regions of contact, they had an equivalent both in their formal aspects - the object itself - and in their sound, and chronicles and other documents show that cascabeles of European origin seem to have been more appreciated among the Indians than those of local manufacture: they had, apparently, a different value. In this article we propose to study the types of exchange, the forms of circulation and the value that cascabeles acquired in the frontier of southern Chile in the hands of various agents such as Indians, explorers, soldiers and missionaries.

Keywords:
Rumbler bells; Indians; Colonial Chile; Value; Material culture; Frontier