What if there was no jewellery?
admin | August 17, 2010
Jewellery was one of the oldest forms of body dressing that we know of today, with beads that have been found that date back to 100,000 years ago. It is something that has been passed down through the generations and symbolises so much more than just a piece of jewellery. It can show a person’s wealth, with the amount that a single piece of jewellery costs. It can show what type of music a person follows, a religion they may follow, a person’s culture, jewellery speaks far more than we sometimes realise.
Without jewellery men and women alike would have had to find a way of accessorising outfits without it.The crazes we have followed which has involved jewellery such as charm bracelets and the memories that are collected in each individual charm would not be passed down to further generations. So there would be no Pandora jewellery, no lovelinks jewellery or nomination jewellery? Companies such as Tiffany’s and Links of London would not exist!
Jewellery in some countries has been used as money to help purchase land, food, animals etc and without jewellery people would have had to work harder to buy such things. In times of hardship it has often been allowed to trade in a piece of jewellery for cash.
Artists have also used jewellery for their work, as a metal it can be sculpted into a shape it has often been used within the art industry. Silver and gold are certainly hard wearing metals as we know and daily we wear items made of these two metals.
The dressings of buildings such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace would not look like they do today without the use of gold. We may be living in a more simplistic way and not see the need to dress the things we own in such a way.
Even though the first pieces of jewellery would not have been made with silver and gold, this is where it leads to and this is where jewellery became a status of wealth. Jewellery originally was made of teeth and hair and this is what began as the first of body dressing. Jewellery has since advanced to the use of glass such as murano glass, re-cycled jewellery such as aluminium, diamonds make up a large amount of jewellery with the main use for them being in engagement rings and wedding rings and all the gemstones that have been used in jewellery would not be there.
I think we can safely say people and life would be completely different and somehow not as colourful, jewellery has made a person feel dressed and especially for a woman can make them feel ready to go out into the world when they have a lovely piece of jewellery on.
Images sourced http://www.fotopedia.com/en/Samburu_people
