Jewellery is not a luxury
When we speak of jewellery, we tend to think of those large sparkly gems and highly polished precious metals with adequate price tags attached to them screaming luxury and wealth to the world. They seem to present the “real“ jewellery, while everything else falls into the category “fake“. They are, no doubt, perceived as items confirming social status and success in the world, the ultimate expression of conspicuous consumption. They are things that people who have it all can buy, they are surplus, easy to go without, they are luxurious. But do they in fact capture the essence of what jewellery is? Excessive and easy to get without but nice to have or show? I don’t think so…
My passion for ancient jewellery is not accidental. I love to dig deep and far to find what exists underneath the layers of interpretations that our own perceived vulnerability produces. I’m very curious about other civilisations, different approaches to life and how do they shape human minds and relationships (the part of me called social psychologist is speaking loud and clear here), no matter whether they reside on the other side of the world or hundreds and thousands of years in the past. And when we look there, into the prehistoric times, we discover something rather beautiful. Jewellery was “a thing” long before gold and polished gems took place in demonstration of personal wealth and social status. Jewellery actually used to be something much more common, even universal. No matter what part of the world we look at or what time in human history, no matter what social status or level of satisfaction of basic survival needs, people wore jewellery.
It was made by materials naturally obtained from land, it could be shells, pebbles, seeds, bones and teeth, later on, beads made of clay, carved and inlaid, decorated by unusual finds. Many many years before people learned to work with gold, glass and discovered precious stones and learned how to polish them. I know that this description may sound quite obvious, but the main question that has been keeping me up at night is “why?” Why people display such a universal tendency to adorn their bodies with materials found in their environment? Why does it occur even when people starve and fight and their very existence is extremely insecure? They surely did not think of jewellery as a surplus item back then. It was more likely essential, maybe even necessary.
Some may argue that adornment has a strong connection to reproduction, making yourself attractive to the opposite sex to secure the survival of future generations. After all, we can see plenty of examples from animals who adorn their bodies during mating season to appear desirable as reproductive partners. We, humans, are animals and there is no reason why we should do otherwise. But to be fair if this was the case, then we probably would wear jewellery only during the reproductive years. Not as children, pregnant women, elders… But we do. And we do it for some obscure reasons, something we can’t really put our finger on, for something bigger, older and deeper than our own conscious minds can comprehend.
These are the spaces that I like to explore, the connections between the material, the desire to wear it, to make it our own, the honesty, humbleness and universality of the process. I’m standing strong and firm keeping an argument that jewellery is no luxury, it is universal, human expression, it is our connection to the land, and it is so much more!
Paleolithic find from Moravia (found on Pinterest, original source Don’s maps - donsmaps.com)