|
Jewellery has
been used for a number of reasons:
* Currency, wealth display and storage,
* Functional use (such as clasps, pins, and buckles)
* Symbolism (to show membership or status)
* Protection (in the form of amulets and magical wards),
* Artistic display
Most cultures have at some point had a practice of keeping large
amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous
cultures move wedding dowries in the form of jewellery, or
create jewellery as a means to store or display coins.
Alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade
good; an example being the use of slave beads.
Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles originated
as purely functional items, but evolved into decorative items as
their functional requirement diminished.
Jewellery can also be symbolic of group membership, as in the
case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star of David, or of
status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western
practice of married people wearing a wedding ring.
Wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection
or ward off evil is common in some cultures; these may take the
form of symbols (such as the ankh), stones, plants, animals,
body parts (such as the Khamsa), or glyphs (such as stylized
versions of the Throne Verse in Islamic art).
Although artistic display has clearly been a function of
jewellery from the very beginning, the other roles described
above tended to take primacy.[citation needed] It was only in
the late 19th century, with the work of such masters as Peter
Carl Fabergé and René Lalique, that art began to take primacy
over function and wealth.[citation needed] This trend has
continued into modern times, expanded upon by artists such as
Robert Lee Morris and Ed Levin. |
