kopar

[Mike Cleven]

janilta wrote:
>
> Hello, Mike,
>
> What I meant is that as 'kopar' is the noun for the material in
> Icelandic, so I don't think it describes an 'object made out of
> copper'... and has thus no plural...
> I understand that 'copper' in English can bear this meaning, as in
> French 'cuivres' (the brass in a band), but am not sure for
> Icelandic/Norse variants...

You misunderstand my previous comment; "coppers" in the Pacific
Northwest has a particular cultural and historical meaning that most
other participants in the group are familiar with; of course in standard
English "coppers" can mean pennies or policemen (and can even function
like an imperative!), but that is not the meaning here.

An integral part of the system of wealth and inheritance of the
so-called "potlatch economy" were the valuing and trading of pieces of
hammered copper, usually of a special shield-trapezoidal shape that
shows up as a design motif - representing physical coppers - in other
modes of Northwest art such as painting and woodcarving.  Coppers were
often broken into units, but they were also created out of other copper
items, notably many of the early trade goods but also earlier native
copper sources; the boom in copper supply because of the fur trade made
these current and numerous in the 19th Century Northwest.  Certain
coppers have auspicious histories and complex names; maybe some of the
native members of the list might know some of these.  Coppers were
primarily items of wealth and prestige, rather than ritual or heraldic
value.  Many are heirlooms, some of no small antiquity; others are
scattered through museums and private collections like so much else of
the Northwest cultures' material heritage.