[Jewelry making - Article 00761] - Re: [Orchid] Initial impulses for self adornment

[Beth Wicker]

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>         Self-adornment symbolizes wealth and leisure. The manufacture
>     of ornamentation diverts time or money that could be spent
>     obtaining essentials such as food and sleep. If you have jewelry,
>     you can afford to polish bear teeth, drill holes in them, etc. 

    I would respectfully beg to disagree with this statement.  Look at
    photos of "native" tribes anywhere in the world.  I don't recall any
    that DON'T use some form of self-adornment, and I certainly would
    not assign "wealth and leisure" to these tribes!  They use
    everything from paints made from plants and earth to piercings to
    tattoos to jewelry formed from a range of things to adorn both their
    bodies and their clothes, and their religious ceremonies.  Grab any
    National Geographic that features such a tribe and you will see what
    I mean.  Look at any book of historical photos - they are there.  Go
    to any museum carrying a decent collection of items from ancient
    cultures, and you will find either the items, or the images the
    people created of themselves that show this.  I don't know that
    anything of this sort survives from the very early history of man,
    but certainly for the last several thousand years peoples from
    around the world have done, and continue to do, this. 

    I quickly googled ancient peoples+adornment, and one of the first
    links is http://www.aaajewelry.com/ForYourInfo.2.html  which quotes
    Michael Weinstein in The World of Jewel Stones (Sheridan House 1958)
    as saying "personal adornment was considered more important to
    primitive man than any kind of garment." He believes that jewelry
    was "worn long before clothes." 

    This particular site says jewelry has existed for over 30,000 years! 

    I don't suppose we have any anthropologists on the list? 

    Beth in SC who grew up with an addiction to National Geographic! 



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