Maasai beadwork has always been modern: An exploration of modernity through artifacts

Maasai beaded ornaments are generally understood as traditional artifacts, but are in fact the result of modern developments. This case study refutes widespread assumptions about Maasai beadwork, showing that modernity cannot be captured accurately by the narrative of binary oppositions it has produced. I describe how the very presence, but also many of the uses and designs of these artifacts are material expressions of the dynamic and complex interactions and relationships between people across continents in modern times. By establishing and reflecting on these connections, I argue that modernity should be approached as a stage in the ongoing, increasingly integrated, humanity-wide cultural dynamic on our earth. This insight takes us out of the impasse in the debate on how to approach the concept of modernity, giving a clear space to the singular concept while simultaneously acknowledging that a variety of modernities have come about as different peoples are influenced by, as well as contribute to, the wider cultural dynamic. Employed so often in daily and scientific sense-making, it is essential to further disentangle understandings of modernity from modernist thinking in simple and absolute dichotomies, and establish it as an emergent and interactive process with semi-permeable boundaries that includes opposing voices.