North American Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

North American Music - Essay Example North Americans believed that objects of extraordinary value possessed a spirit element, and more so sacred were regalia and obsidian blades. Getting wealth and maintaining the status that came with it were central to North Americans thoughts and consciousness. The rich men did not labor but spent most of the time in their homes making ceremonial costumes and arrows which they sold at a high cost. Feasts, ceremonies, and dances could not be held without the inclusion the ceremonial regalia that are owned by the rich. It was a hard and tedious job assembling the many scalps and skins that some pieces needed, but the effect was striking. In public ceremonies they were dazzling; they were prized for their uniqueness and beauty and the wealth they symbolized (Randel, D. M. 2003 pg. 41). Equally rare and costly were the big, oblong blades. The larger blades were more expensive. The more perfect and regular the shape of the blade the more its value; artisans deliberately and carefully chip ped them in an oblong form. From the high costs associated with the costumes, arrows, and blades that are the symbols of the ceremonial and social songs, I think that this basically means that these songs are basically preserved for the rich who mainly posses them or can easily afford them in their functions.