Personal Adornment and Expressions of Status: Beads and the Gambia River’s Atlantic Trade

Abstract

The presence of glass trade beads at Atlantic trade period sites is often thought to provide limited information for the analyst. Several archaeologists working in West Africa have addressed the difficulty of using beads as chronological markers, let alone using these objects to discern local patterns of demand, preference, or consumption. Overall, few scholars have moved beyond the development of descriptive catalogues to determine what information can be ascertained from bead collections other than chronological data. At Juffure on the Gambia River, bead attributes such as shape, color, and size inform the analyst of how change in the demand for and availability of beads were tied to changing local notions of taste and value.