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The following text has been excerpted from the companion publication, which is divided into three sections: "Yoruba Beadwork in Africa" by Henry John Drewal, "Yorubd Beadwork in the Americas" by John Mason (with essays by Drewal and Pravina Shukla), and a catalogue of the African objects in the exhibition. Here, Drewal's introduction to African beadwork is followed by a selection from Mason's discussion.
YORUBA BEADWORK IN AFRICA
What is a bead? Webster's (1957:128) defines it as "a small usually round piece of glass, wood, metal, etc., pierced for stringing." This may be the physical form, but what of the bead as cultural object? We seek to understand the definitions, qualities, and significances of beads for Yoruba peoples and those who by blood or a sense of belonging have shaped the expressiveness of beads. A number of key concepts-temperament, empowerment, protection, potentiality, desire, wealth, and well-being-are associated with beads.
A bead-a colored and coloring form that reflects, transmits, and transforms lightalso transforms the objects and persons it adorns. Colors are enculturated codes whose vibrations resonate meaningfully Colors move those who experience them, for they connote specific attributes and modes of action.
Coloring and covering the body in beads is healing and empowering. Colorful beads are oogun (medicines) that act upon worldly and otherworldly forces (cf. Keyes 1994). Thus, for example, to wear pupa (hot/red) and funfun (cool/white) kele (neck beads) is to proclaim both the retributive and the healing, enabling presence of the thundergod, Sango.
Stringing, the art of beading, is by its very nature serial in process, and seriate in composition. It proceeds in a les,leseese (step-by-step) or leto-leto (one-by-one) fashion. Such an approach is a fundamental tenet of Yoruba social process and organization, as well as the compositions of Yoruba performance and visual arts (Drewal and Drewal 1987).
When threaded together, beads stand for unity, togetherness, and solidarity. Like the wrapped bundle of atoori (wooden sticks) on an ancestral altar symbolizing family cohesiveness, or like the segments of a bamboo1 stem connoting continuity over time, beads symbolize generation and regeneration. Encircling parts of the body (i.e., head, neck, arms, wrists, waist, legs, ankles, toes), beads literally and symbolically "tie up," seal in, protect, and enclose unseen forces that make up the inner, spiritual...