Claws, bones and coins: What ethnic jewelry are worn by women around the world

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Since ancient times, women from different countries have tried to emphasize their beauty, sexuality or status with the help of accessories. Different nations had and still have their own criteria of attractiveness, on the basis of which to this day designers create their collections. Ethnic motifs in jewelry remain a constant trend. They can emphasize the individuality of a person, culture or era.

The materials from which accessories are made can be varied: from wood, stone and blades of grass to silver, gold and precious stones. Some women used body jewelry as protection from evil spirits and magic, while others emphasized their importance and status.

Tibet: jewelry as amulets and a measure of status

Women here wear accessories not just for the sake of beauty, but use amulets against evil forces and emphasize their social position. It is believed that gold and silver bring good luck. And until the middle of the last century, girls did not part with jewelry, even in a dream, for fear of causing trouble. Tibetans have a special relationship with earrings. They believe that if a person does not have their earlobes pierced, then his next reincarnation will be a donkey. Therefore, women often wear large earrings, fearing in their next life they will not be reborn into a person, but into an animal. Tibetan accessories are characterized by massive necklaces, large stones of turquoise, coral, pearls. Also an obligatory element is a headdress, which was decorated with many stones. The more precious the stones, the higher the status and the richer the family.

Also, quite often, stones are used to decorate completely the clothes of women. Sometimes one garment can weigh up to 15-20 kilograms. Each family has been collecting relics for centuries and, giving a young girl in marriage, they decorate her wedding dress with all kinds of accessories. One can only imagine how hard it is for the bride to wear them.

In everyday life, women often wear large red beads on their breasts, which symbolize divine protection and the bond between mother and child. It is believed that red stones mean love, and wearing them near the heart shows that a girl always keeps her children in her soul.

India: jewelry with sacred meaning

Indian women are used to decorating themselves with all kinds of bracelets, necklaces, earrings and headdresses. A distinctive feature of Indian women is an unusual earring, which is fixed at one end in the earlobe, and at the other end is attached to the nose. In India, it is customary to mix precious stones with quite simple, expensive metals with ordinary copper or ivory.

Jewelry for the women of this country is diverse. Here they wear not only rings and chains in the places we are accustomed to, but also use bracelets for ankles, rings for fingers, jewelry for the forehead and, of course, hats. The material used for these accessories may indicate a woman's status (married or not), the number of children, and her class. The more expensive the material of manufacture, the richer the girl's family. Indian jewelry is often performed in the form of lotus flowers, jasmine, as well as stars or the sun.

In India, body decoration has a deep sacred meaning. It is believed that the more jewelry a woman wears, the happier she is. Therefore, the Indians look at the girl in a simple sari and with only a few bracelets with pity. Also, according to the inhabitants of this country, jewelry enhances the spiritual potential of a person and the influence of the chakras. The number 16 is magical in this country. It is associated with all the mythical, who were supposedly 16 years old. A girl at this age is also considered to be in the prime of her attractiveness. Women use this number to decorate their bodies: they use accessories for 16 body places, decorate their braids with the same number of hairpins, etc. There are no accidents in this culture. Each accessory is carefully selected.

Japan: minimalism and style

Japanese women pay great attention to hair ornaments. Naturally brunettes, they often decorate their hair with light floral arrangements, thus creating contrast and emphasizing their femininity. In the past, women in Japan used to style themselves tall with pillows, rollers and combs for volume. Nowadays it is not often found in everyday life such unusual ways of styling hair, but flowers and all kinds of hairpins are used to this day. Also, Japanese women still use all kinds of bows and ribbons for their hairstyles. Japanese hairpins are still the quintessence of tenderness and femininity. All kinds of flowers, decorative butterflies, satin ribbons, etc. are used for their manufacture.

A distinctive feature of the culture are geisha, who themselves were a kind of decoration. They are free, beautiful and intelligent women who were invited to various receptions and ceremonies. They had to master the art of seduction, be flexible, versatile and create an atmosphere of calm and tranquility.

Africa: everything from nature

African accessories feature a mix of more natural materials. They use ivory, stones, animal skins, wood, shells, glass and even clay. Modern fashion designers quite often emphasize their clothes with jewelry borrowed from African culture. These are massive pendants of various geometric shapes, large beads, bracelets. Also, African women quite often cover their heads with variegated scarves, tying them tightly on their heads and twisting small plaits from them, which they wrap around their heads for convenience and beauty. Initially, headscarves were tied to prevent sunstroke and for the convenience of wearing things on the head. But now this is a kind of trend, with the help of which you can emphasize the expressive features of the face and a long neck.

Also in Africa, they actively decorate their hair with shells and weave multi-colored threads. Through jewelry, Africans can even communicate. They weave beaded bracelets with which they can convey messages and even confess their love. For example, a girl who falls in love for the first time weaves a necklace for her lover, and creates a belt or bracelet of the same color for herself. This is how they declare to the world that they are a couple. Accessories are a kind of expression of feelings for this emotional people.

South America: claws, bones and coins

Initially, the Indians' jewelry carried the role of protection from evil forces. Later, feathers, ropes and stones became an integral attribute of culture, not only as amulets, but also simply to emphasize beauty. The Indians often use hair accessories. Previously, these were huge headdresses made of feathers, now some girls weave ropes with feathers and strung beads into their braids. Also, wide bracelets made of metal and leather, long chains with all kinds of amulets and symbols of protection are often worn. Women wear long, loose hair, accentuating the forehead line with a headband with feathers or small fangs. This culture is usually dominated by brown and burgundy shades in jewelry.

Claws, animal bones and coins carry not only an aesthetic meaning in the creation of accessories, but it is also believed that they can protect a person from enemies and evil forces. Therefore, whole vests of these materials or large pendants were created that covered the chest, where all the vital organs are located.

Any ethnic jewelry can be used in everyday life. You just need to be able to correctly combine them with the image. It is the accessories that complement the image and make it unforgettable.

Russian women also always loved to dress up, and their jewelry was no less exquisite. And in continuation of the theme, a story about how in Russia pearls were mined and clothes were decorated with them.