The isimodeni style
Traditional beadwork, Zulu trinket or South African sartorial tradition on Durban's Golden Mile
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2186885 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rowan C Gatfield (0000-0003-0908-1401, University of Lincoln, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 127-148 |
| Publication date | 2019-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology Southern Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2332-3264 • E-ISSN: 2332-3256 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/23323256.2018.1538735 |
| OpenAlex | W2925897483 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 19 |
Beadwork is a well-documented aspect of the socio-political culture of isiZulu-speaking groupings in Southern Africa. Whilst scholarship on beadwork deals largely with the denotative and connotative value it offers wearers, this article’s contribution relates both to its commodification and apolitical value by confronting a general assumption that a beadwork style known as isimodeni (modern beadwork), produced as a trinket for tourists along Durban’s racially stratified Golden Mile since the 1960s, is an authentic representation of a Zulu material culture. The paper probes how traditional beadwork and rickshaw rides (with both highly decorated carts and pullers) were earmarked by tourism officials of the time as commodities that could serve a demand for colourful exoticism and accessible “Zulu” culture. Methodologically, the article draws on the visual analysis of beaded artefacts and photographs, in addition to ethnographic data derived from unstructured interviews with beadworkers on the Durban beachfront, to examine how a beadwork tradition transformed into a “Zulu” tourism commodity, and then transmuted into a nationalised form of ethnic identity and sartorial tradition
Archaeology · Art · Commodification · Ethnography · Exoticism · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Tourism · Value (mathematics · Visual arts · Zulu · Anthropology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · History · Law · Public Spaces through Art
The people's city
The Emergence of the South African Metropolis
Tribing and Untribing the Archive
Constructed leisure space
Viking heritage tourism
He is my king, but he is also my child
Port Towns and Urban Cultures
Illuminated Signs
Traditional Zulu Beadwork of the Msinga Area
Borders of Beads
Dance Uniform History in the Church of Nazareth Baptists
Speaking with Beads
Dislocating modernity
The Effect of Red Background Color on Willingness-to-Pay
The Seventh Moment
Women, Beadworkand Bodies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |