Traditional Zulu beadwork helps to regulate behaviour between individuals of opposite gender.
This exclusively feminine craft flows from females to males from designer/manufacturer to client.
Young girls learn from their elder sister how to select beads according to colour and quality, and any finished products are
discussed so that the initiate can grasp their social significance.
Symbolic coding is influenced by factors such as the colour combination and arrangement, the use and nature of an object,
and even by the deliberate breaking of these operating rules.
Although the bead code is deceptively simple, utilising the basic geometric figure of the triangle, its meaning has to be
interpreted since it incorporates social conventions.
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