Beads have played an important role in every major civilization and have traveled widely as valuable and easily portable objects of adornment. This comprehensive and visually stimulating history focuses on the bead in its cultural context as personal decoration, currency, status symbol, magical charm, and form of cultural communication. Complementing the well-documented text are full-page color photographs of beads from museums and private collections; maps showing bead-making centers and distribution routes; and a fold-out chart of every major bead type (over 1230) from the dawn of history to the present. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries. Janice Zlendich, California State Univ. Lib., Fullerton
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.