Most dolls, in Africa and throughout the world, are used by children--primarily girls--to help them imagine their future roles as adult women, mothers and the primary caregivers in their communities. Though used in play, the forms of many dolls encode important social and aesthetic concepts about appropriate demeanor and the links between physical and moral beauty. Not surprisingly, dolls in different African societies emphasize--in form and decoration--aspects of ideal feminine beauty to include elaborate coiffures, body ornamentation and physical features that underscore the importance of fertility.
Beaded Ndebele dolls are made for adolescent girls either by their mothers or by the girls themselves as beadwork samplers. Tacks are added decoration. The beaded rings that encircle the dolls' arms are patterned after the actual arm rings worn by Ndebele women.
Description:
Glass beaded doll with four body rings in white, yellow and green, circled with a beaded band and a rectangular fringe panel. The white braided arms are connected with a button, and strung with eight beaded rings. The doll has a pink face with a white headband and white triangular earrings and a single strand of orange beads around the neck.
Provenance:
Norman and Susan Priebatsch, -- to 1977
Chaim and Renee Gross, New York, 1978 to 1983
Exhibition History:
Designs of the Ndebele, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1979-1981
Content Statement:
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