Speaking with Beads: Zulu Arts from Southern Africa
Anthropologist Preston-Whyte and photographer Jean Morris combine talents to create one of the first mass-audience books on the beauty and meaning of South African beadwork. Morris, having traveled twice to the eastern seaboard of southern Africa, shows via color photographs how much of the art has changed; whereas Preston-Whyte writes in lay language of the mystical powers, religious ceremonies, and fashion significance of these unique body decorations. Documented here are both new and old styles of bead adornment as well as the accompanying traditions and rites in which they play a part. A nontechnical, elegant glimpse into South African ways and means.Barbara Jacobs