Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A Mixed Pot: The Crafting of Identity
- 2 The Historical Landscape of Southeast Africa
- 3 Early Exchanges: Political and Economic Contexts
- 4 Ties That Bind: Social Structures and Cultural Practices
- 5 Keeping up Appearances: Identity and Adornment
- 6 Brewing Beer, Making Rain, and Holding Court
- 7 Memories and Identities in the Shadow of Ngungunyana
- 8 Past and Present in the Ndau Region
- Notes
- Glossary of Ndau and Portuguese Words
- Bibliography
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
5 - Keeping up Appearances: Identity and Adornment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A Mixed Pot: The Crafting of Identity
- 2 The Historical Landscape of Southeast Africa
- 3 Early Exchanges: Political and Economic Contexts
- 4 Ties That Bind: Social Structures and Cultural Practices
- 5 Keeping up Appearances: Identity and Adornment
- 6 Brewing Beer, Making Rain, and Holding Court
- 7 Memories and Identities in the Shadow of Ngungunyana
- 8 Past and Present in the Ndau Region
- Notes
- Glossary of Ndau and Portuguese Words
- Bibliography
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Summary
At bathing places by the river, if you did not have pika and nyora you were laughed at and stalked by other girls and labeled as barbel, fish without scales.
—Chinungu MtetwaMeso haana muganho.
Eyes have no boundary.
—Shona proverbThe Ndau proclaimed their identity with cultural materials that were important to themselves and visible to others. They adorned their bodies and living spaces in a manner that signaled social and ethnic boundaries and accentuated gender and status distinctions. By marking their own appearances as Ndau, they presented a group identity to outsiders they encountered. Recognizable aspects of Ndau culture such as body art and ear piercing, as well as details of Ndau tastes in dress, jewelry, pottery, and houses, caught the attention of Europeans, who recorded various intricacies of Ndau culture to leave a rich written record of how the Ndau kept up appearances and maintained standards of beauty.
Body art was one important way to link people together as insiders and set them apart from others not in the social group. Tattoos, called pika, and scarification, known as nyora, were two observable expressions of female beauty and attractiveness. Over several centuries, Ndau women shaped connections by sharing a body language of decorative markings, chains of beads, and metal jewelry such as anklets, bracelets, and earrings. Performing identity with the body allowed the Ndau to shape, and indeed inscribe, a sense of being Ndau in both personal and communal ways.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Crafting Identity in Zimbabwe and Mozambique , pp. 70 - 80Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007