If you are interested in Ethiopia, this book provides a pictured guide to the country, its history and its sites. The photography is amazing.

This is an incredibly lovely book that shows the various groups of people that make up Ethiopia. A must read, that's informative, educational and thoroughly enjoyable.

This work of art in nothing less than excellent!!

Angela Fisher spent seven years criss-crossing Africa, seeking out traditional forms and styles of jewelry and body adornment. The metal crafting, artistic modes and affectations of traditional piercings are stunning. The more extreme examples of African body art are already missing: cutting and/or scarring, limb binding (neck/arms/legs) and lip stretching are lost arts these days.

The photography is top notch, with highly detailed closeups and oversize, full-color images on most pages. Notes are included for each image, with geography, tribal information and craftsman's details for many pieces.

This is a great example of the "coffee table" book. I checked this title out of the library while in graduate school repeatedly until my mother gifted me with my own copy (thanks, Mom!). For artists and jewelers, this volume will be an endless source of inspiration.

This is a thoughtful and gorgeous peek at the diversity of the continent. The colors of the photos alone are worth the price! Fisher's more recent work, "African Ceremonies", with Beckwith, is even better, if possible. And folks, Africa contains 54 countries, over 800 different languages and thousands of dialects, and has around 730 million people. If you consider yourself an interested citizen of our world, don't just look at the pictures, learn about the continent! Many people have criticised the authors, for this and their other works, because they present an Africa that doesn't exist anymore, or they are patronizing and exploitative- I agree in part with this criticism, but I would add some balancing words. This continent has some of the richest cities in the world- Johannesburg being one, and some of the poorest villages- I was visiting in one of them several weeks ago in eastern Namibia. People have cellphones, people have no phones, some drive Lexuses and some drive donkey carts made from the beds of old pick-up trucks. "Old" ceremonies are vibrantly alive for some people, and simply unimportant for others, sometimes within the same family or community. The point is that the images from this book *are* parts of life on this continent, but obviously do not tell the whole story. However, it is just as wrong and short-sighted to dismiss cultures as it is to see only the "exotic". The funny thing is that I first saw this book and "African Ceremonies" at a Himba village in Kaokoland, Namibia, shown to me by a man who was wearing "traditional" Himba clothes, with red ochre on his skin and so on. We were paging through this book and my friend, who is also Himba but wears "western" clothes, commented on how weird the images were, to which his friend laughed and agreed. To them, the pictures of most of these ceremonies were just as alien as they are to most westerners. So, to everyone who likes to box "Africa" and "Africans" into one category, this is perhaps something to think about.

...origin as it relates to African cultural and creative expression and influence. Many designs and patterns we see repeated in contemporary jewelry design can be traced to African styles and designs created centuries ago - a fact beautifully exemplified in this book - with the added bonus of learning something about the meaning behind the particular adornment/piece of jewelry. The photos are brilliant! This book is a treasure and a highly recommended "must read" for everyone interested in design, jewelry and fashion history, and cultural customs, influences and contributions.

Buyers should understand what this is - a beautiful coffee table book. Beckwith and Fisher present their usual quality of brilliant, sensitive photography. But understand that this is, for the most part, capturing a memory, a fantasy. This Africa no longer exists. Don't buy the book to learn African culture. Buy it if you like photography. As a historical record, it's lacking. One can capture a visual from the outside, but one cannot capture a cultural understanding as readily.

HOW CAN ANYONE SAY THAT THESE CULTURES DON'T EXIST ANYMORE, OR THIS IS AN AFRICA THAT NO LONGER EXISTS. THEY TOOK THESE PICTURES WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS.. DIDN'T THEY ? DUH ? EVERYONE KNOWS THERE IS A COMMON EVERYDAY AFRICA.. GOING TO WORK GENERAL LIVING ( JUST LIKE US HERE IN AMERICA FOLKS) BUT STILL THERE IS AFRICAN TRIBAL SPLENDOR. JUST LIKE IN AMERICA INDIAN'S GET TOGETHER FOR TRIBAL POW WOWS. THEY STILL EXIST TOO. THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK ARE SHOCKINGLY GORGEOUS...AFRICAN PEOPLE STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL. PLEASE! THE MEN ARE HANDSOME, THE WOMEN WONDEROUS. IT JUST MAKES ME WONDER WHY THE EUROPEAN STANDARD, HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE "STANDARD" OF BEAUTY. THIS REVUE MAY SOUND SHALLOW, BUT IF YOUR INTO THE HUMAN HAS ART FORM ...BUY THIS BOOK!!

The New York Times Sunday Book Review section today had a wonderful review of this book (2 volumes in a slipcase). The documentation of ritual and people performing rituals as the seasons change in Nature and life cycles turn for People is a sacred task. The photographers appear to have embraced their subjects with care and respect - perhaps others will follow in this way in the future. What strikes me most about the book and the reviews is the genuine approach of the authors to the dignity, honor and respect of the African People they have photographed and documented. This alone makes the book a winner for me.

Regarding the book, I am particularly impressed by their treatment of sacredness without judgment and jaded lens. Indeed the art and form of ritual itself creates tradition. The music of these images is at once visual and alive celebrating the sacred as timeless expressions of culture and community.

Great large format whole page images, some of which were presented in the two volume hardback "Ceremonies". Beautiful people, cultures and images for a great price. I hope the traditions of our world never never leave us. A beautiful book.