Page 114

T80E

FEATURE The desire to adorn oneself and to alter and embellish one’s body is part of human nature. Body ornaments play an important role in societies in which there is little personal property. Nearly half of the objects manufactured in such cultures have a direct relationship to the body, and in the warmer parts of Africa, where clothing is largely unnecessary, people often wear more adornment than they do items intended to protect them from the elements. The decoration of hair has special importance here. In South Sudan and northern Uganda, there are related 112 groups of Nilotic descent that speak similar West or East Nilotic languages. While there is an awareness of common heritage, states of enmity between them are not uncommon. Among many of these cultures, men wear hair ornaments composed of glass beads as their principal decoration. Obviously, this fashion could fl ourish only when the necessary quantities of beads became locally available, which in the areas within the scope of this article occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century, at the same time that trade in slaves and ivory intensifi ed. Beads were tied to this trade. Before that, imported glass beads existed only in very small numbers and were worn strung on cords, just as seeds, insect shells, feathers, and other materials that preceded them had been used. Beaded Coiffures of the Acholi, Dodinga, Latuka, and Related Groups By Michael Oehrl FIG. 1 (below): Drawing of a Dinka Rek man with a beaded headdress, by Georg Schweinfurth, 1871. Pencil on paper. Inscribed: “Type d’un Dinka de la tribu des Rek au bonnet de verrotine?”; “Kopfputz der Rek (Dinka), June 1871”; and “Haube aus weissen Muria-Perlen gestickt (mit blauen Muria-Perlen besäumt).” Frobenius Institut, Frankfurt, inv. EBA-B02221. © Frobenius-Institut. All rights reserved.


T80E
To see the actual publication please follow the link above