Africa Adorned [Hardcover]

Angela Fisher (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First edition (September 30, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810918234
• ISBN-13: 978-0810918238
• Product Dimensions: 14.3 x 10.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely!, September 24, 2001

By 

"sproutsie" (Chapel Hill, NC, USA

(currently) Windhoek, Namibia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa Adorned (Hardcover)

This is a thoughtful and gorgeous peek at the diversity of the continent. The colors of the photos alone are worth the price! Fisher's more recent work, "African Ceremonies", with Beckwith, is even better, if possible. And folks, Africa contains 54 countries, over 800 different languages and thousands of dialects, and has around 730 million people. If you consider yourself an interested citizen of our world, don't just look at the pictures, learn about the continent! Many people have criticised the authors, for this and their other works, because they present an Africa that doesn't exist anymore, or they are patronizing and exploitative- I agree in part with this criticism, but I would add some balancing words. This continent has some of the richest cities in the world- Johannesburg being one, and some of the poorest villages- I was visiting in one of them several weeks ago in eastern Namibia. People have cellphones, people have no phones, some drive Lexuses and some drive donkey carts made from the beds of old pick-up trucks. "Old" ceremonies are vibrantly alive for some people, and simply unimportant for others, sometimes within the same family or community. The point is that the images from this book *are* parts of life on this continent, but obviously do not tell the whole story. However, it is just as wrong and short-sighted to dismiss cultures as it is to see only the "exotic". The funny thing is that I first saw this book and "African Ceremonies" at a Himba village in Kaokoland, Namibia, shown to me by a man who was wearing "traditional" Himba clothes, with red ochre on his skin and so on. We were paging through this book and my friend, who is also Himba but wears "western" clothes, commented on how weird the images were, to which his friend laughed and agreed. To them, the pictures of most of these ceremonies were just as alien as they are to most westerners. So, to everyone who likes to box "Africa" and "Africans" into one category, this is perhaps something to think about.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless repository of jewelry..., June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Africa Adorned (Hardcover)

...origin as it relates to African cultural and creative expression and influence. Many designs and patterns we see repeated in contemporary jewelry design can be traced to African styles and designs created centuries ago - a fact beautifully exemplified in this book - with the added bonus of learning something about the meaning behind the particular adornment/piece of jewelry. The photos are brilliant! This book is a treasure and a highly recommended "must read" for everyone interested in design, jewelry and fashion history, and cultural customs, influences and contributions.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You get a rare jewel of a book in Africa Adorned, January 4, 2003

By 

Rae Schwarz "post-modern Renaissance woman" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa Adorned (Hardcover)

Angela Fisher spent seven years criss-crossing Africa, seeking out traditional forms and styles of jewelry and body adornment. The metal crafting, artistic modes and affectations of traditional piercings are stunning. The more extreme examples of African body art are already missing: cutting and/or scarring, limb binding (neck/arms/legs) and lip stretching are lost arts these days.

The photography is top notch, with highly detailed closeups and oversize, full-color images on most pages. Notes are included for each image, with geography, tribal information and craftsman's details for many pieces.

This is a great example of the "coffee table" book. I checked this title out of the library while in graduate school repeatedly until my mother gifted me with my own copy (thanks, Mom!). For artists and jewelers, this volume will be an endless source of inspiration.