Speaking with Beads

Morris, Jean and Eleanor Preston White. Speaking with Beads. Thames and Hudson, 1994.

• Back cover: “And the beads themselves ‘speak’:they employ a symbolic language which my indicate coded love messages, the age and social status of the wearer, the home area from which he or she comes – or simply an attraction to colour and pattern.”

• The introduction starts by saying that it was presumed bead work would be lost because of all the Western influences but that it is actually quite alive and still being practiced.

• “While completely new designs, often referred to by beadmakers as or ‘modern’, have appeared, older colour combinations and the distinctive patterns that identified as regional beadwork styles have survived.” 6

• “Beadwork has also entered the international fashion world in the form of costume jewelry.” 6

• I lived in Natal for 5 years where the Zulu were mainly living so have connections to the culture.

• “making money through the ‘updating’ of beadwork skills to meet the growing tourist and art market for beautiful, as well as unusual, ‘ethnic art’.” 6

• “The title captures this intention for it is the communication, first between designer and wearer, and second, between wearer and audience, that is of interest to them.” 6

• Comment on how white and Indian business interests were what introduced the beadwork into the commercial market. 7

• Was treated as a craft – which is what I was brought up to think and believe.

• Voices from the past:

• “beads were made locally of wood, shell, animal teeth or seeds and, in some areas, clay.” 9

• Metal beads were rare so were used for the warriors. (valour)

• “Glass beads of European and especially Venetian manufacture first entered Southern Africa as trade goods imported largely through the East coast (…) much of this trade was in slaves and ivory exchanged for all manner of ‘trinkets’, including blankets and a variety of glass beads that were produced in European factories specifically for this purpose.” 9-10

• Bringing up the slave past

• Reminds me a lot of the Huia feather worn for status by natives and costume by Europeans.

• Regional styles were developed – so certain patterns and colours for certain places (put in photo

• “Strings of beads were given in payment for goods and services” 16

• Symbolic communication

• “With the spread of not only White settlement, but of white entrepreneurship in Natal, beads became a regular feature of most commercial enterprises aimed at black people.” 16

• So the white people were selling beads to the black people who started the beadwork and significance.

• “Later plastic beads, which were manufactured in the country, joined them. Although cheaper and increasingly popular for some items, plastic beads have not gained much ground where the predominant market is a White or tourist one.” 16

• I could claim I am using plastic beads because I am not n original – just a cheap side product of a culture I don’t belong to – like a souvenir.

• Speaking with Beads:

• “where Christianity is the dominant form of worship, beadwork has all but died out. The reason for this is historical: early missionaries associated beadwork with heathen worship and convents were encouraged to lay them aside” 21

• Once again religion is brought up….

• “ways in which dress and beadwork ‘speak’ not only of religion and world view, but also of gender, age and marital status.” 23

• Speaking of meaning:

• “beadwork from particular geographical areas is immediately recognisable” 43

• It seems like married women have bigger shapes and unmarried women have more intricate shapes. Yet triangles seem to be predominant.

• The chapter goes to explain dolls made out of material and beads which represented beauty and fertility but the became so common that “Their meaning has also changed. They no longer signal a message to a lover but speak, instead, to the desire of the tourist for an ethnic momento. For the maker, they speak of making money.” 54

• What if I made a doll representing myself out of the material I used last year or even the printed material from last year as a reference.

• Unmarried women have their hair out in the dolls

• “white beads stand for purity and perhaps innocence, black for depth and profundity, while light blue beads indicate ripeness and fertility.” 55 they aren’t bound to the meanings – depends on the people and their beliefs – (bring up research from last year about colour significant in Western and Maori).

• “Even the material from which the beads are made – glass or plastic – may influence the message or impact of the particular item.” 55

• Speaking of religion:

• Unmarried – no headdresses and short skirts – there is material involved

• Speaking of Fashion and Art:

• They figured out they could sell their beadwork and it became a tourist industry (Shakaland)

• Speaking of Tradition and Nationalism:

• “contemporary beadwork ‘speaks’ not only of personal adornment and money making, but also, on the appropriate occasion, of nationality and ethnic identity.” 89

• “where beadwork is concerned, meaning – as much as beauty – lies in the eye of the beholder, and bead symbols speak with different voices to different people. Therein lies their appeal to the contemporary world, with its divided, yet often overlapping, identities and loyalties.” 92