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.

中文翻译：

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马赛族的珠饰一直是现代的：通过人工制品探索现代性

马赛人串珠的装饰品通常被理解为传统工艺品，但实际上是现代发展的结果。本案例研究驳斥了有关马赛人珠饰的广泛假设，表明马亚塞珠饰的二元对立叙述不能准确地把握现代性。我描述了这些文物的真实存在以及它们的许多用途和设计是现代各大洲之间人们之间动态，复杂的相互作用和关系的物质表达。通过建立和反思这些联系，我认为现代性应该作为我们地球上不断发展的，日益融合的，全人类文化动态的一个阶段。这种见解使我们摆脱了关于如何处理现代性概念的辩论的僵局，为单一概念提供了清晰的空间，同时也承认，由于不同民族受到更广泛的文化动力的影响并做出贡献，因此出现了各种现代性。在日常和科学意义上如此频繁地运用，至关重要的是，必须进一步以简单和绝对的二分法将现代性的理解与现代主义的思维区分开，并将其确立为一个具有半渗透性边界（包括对立声音）的新兴互动过程。