Grim Commerce: Scalps, Bounties, and the Transformation of Trophy-Taking in the Early American Northeast, 1450-1770

The document explored the historical practice of postmortem mutilation, particularly the taking of corporeal trophies, in Early America and its impact on intercultural relations. It highlighted how European and Indian cultures used these trophies as a form of communication, with human scalps gaining social and economic significance through their exchange for monetary rewards. This practice contributed to the construction of racialized enemies and the unification of whiteness as a principle for the British and later American empire. The document also discussed how 19th-century narratives perpetuated the semiotics of anti-Indian violence, shaping the identity and boundaries of a new American empire through racialized violence.