Experimental Ring Project - Research Notes

Experimental Ring Project

Research Notes

-Historically the things that separate people are clothes and adornements. (rank and status)

-Clothes

-"inner spiritual states" (Ethnic Jewelry)

-metaphor for social elements

-language

-ritual

-art

-beliefs

-ideas

-Examples: Igbo Women:  In nigeria, prestigious women wear heavy brass anklets to create a gait-like walk.  Poor people would fake this gait even though they had no brass anklet.

-Different materials used in history in African, Indian, and New Guinean Jewelry. 

-gold

-silver

-gemstones

-ivory

-shell

-coral

-beads

-INDIA - rings

-finger-rings are worn on all fingers, including thumbs.

- toe rings scare snakes, evil spirits, and scorpions.

-symmetrically arranged on body 

-A popular ring is called Nava Ratna, "nine stones"

-every planet has its own stone

0a nava ratna has nine stones for nine planets and provides universal protection

-THE PACIFIC - Mwali and Soulava and the Kula Circle

-Mwali- arm ornament made from a Conus shell whose base and narrow portion have been removed, pierced, and shells, etc. are hung from it.

-Soulava- Long necklace, flat beads, red spondylus shell, and part of a conical shell.

These were passed around the Kula Circle (group of islands) in opposite directions on a trade route. Mwali- always given with right hand.

-Myth: There was a hero named Tava who sometimes took the form of a snake.  He would visit Kula villages (villages in the Kula circle) and bring good fortune.  One woman in each village knew where he was and had to tend to him.  If he felt mistreated he would leave, taking with him the good fortune he had brought to the village.

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN JEWELRY

Even after the fur trade ended in the early nineteenth century and the supply of tradesilver virtually stopped, silver continued to be a part of Native American Culture.  Itwaspart of the Woodland Indian culture for the remainder of the century, used for ceremonial and costume jewelry.  Some silver got to the Plains from the Eastern Indians and Spanish settlers in New Mexico.  Plains and Iroquois Indians began fashioning silver jewelry in the early 19th century.

Evdence suggests that the Navajo had been making silver jewelry since the 16th century, but it wasn't reported until 1864 in a New Mexico newspaper.  By the 1880's, the Navajo added necklaces, bracelets, and rings and started setting afate, malachite, jasper, cornelian, and more.

-naja- a crescent shaped pendant of Spanish origin.

-Zuni jewelry - setting turquoise, shell, coral, and jet in intricate mosaic patterns.