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Beads have been used since antiquity, not only to dress the body, but as measures of value in economic and ritual exchanges. Their popularity has never waned, and in recent years their trade has enjoyed a world-wide revival. Beads have deep and multiple meanings: in many cultures, together with garments, they reflect age, gender and social status, and are a vehicle through which people store, exchange and transmit wealth.This absorbing book analyzes techniques and gendered aspects of the making of beads, as well as their role in trade and body adornment, in a wide range of societies, from the ancient Mediterranean to Renaissance Venice and present-day Southern Africa and West Africa, where they have become a symbol of cultural survival and identity. Anyone interested in material culture, anthropology, art history, and gender studies will find that this book provides fascinating insights into attitudes toward the body and its dress as well as systems of social classification.

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• Introduction
• Greek Beads of the Mycenean Period (ca. 1650 - 1100 B.C.): The Age of the Heroines of Mythology
• Ornament and Belief
• Beads and Beadwork in African Societies
• Women and Men in the Production and Uses of Lantana Beads
• Women at Work: Venetian Glass Beads in the International Markets
• An Historical Perspective
• A Short History of Rosaries in the Andes
• What Beads Mean to Craft Producers Supported by Oxfam
• Bead Terms and their Definitions
• Beads, Gender, and Hierarchy among the Kalabari of Nigeria
• Index

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CHOICE Review

Beads have been an essential item of adornment for many millennia, often for reasons extending beyond beautification. As these 12 essays and two appendixes reveal, bead use ranges from the sublime (rosaries in the Andes) to the outrageous (bead-tossing in New Orleans Mardi Gras). Wearing beads in everyday life or on ritual occasions often shows how wealth and social status are vital aspects of aesthetics. Beads may possess life force, heal, protect, or convey messages; and their colors, the motifs into which they are worked, and when and how they are worn follow symbolic codes and strategies. The production and trade of beads reflect broader patterns of gendered labor and a rich history of exchange between centers of production (especially Vienna) and far-flung lands, revealing colonial and other hierarchical power relationships. Descriptive studies from Africa (4), the Americas (4), Asia (2), and Europe (2) are presented. Theoretical issues of material culture, such as beads as mnemonic devices or the arbitrary nature of bead values, remain to be developed. A map of bead trade routes has captions so small and many photos are reproduced so darkly that they are illegible. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and collectors. A. F. Roberts; University of Iowa

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Lidia D. Sciama The Centre for Cross-Cultural Research on Women,University of Oxford Joanne B. Eicher Regents' Professor, Department of Design, Housing and Apparel, University of Minnesota