jewelry: Artifactual and medium of symbolic communication

Jewelry is the lovely manifestation of man’s imagination and creativity which symbolizes the ethnic culture and heritage of mankind and represents as one of the most invaluable constituents of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Every human society expresses its socio-cultural identity and distinctiveness through its social organization, language, rituals and festivals and also in art and craft objects.

Jewelry as an essential form of arts reflects the living traditions through cultural self-image and aesthetic sensibility.

It is subjected to constant collective creation and recreation by the communities or groups in response to their environment, close interactions with the nature and historical conditions of existence. The legacy or the sense of identity that has been maintained and fostered among certain groups or communities using jewelries is still cherished in many parts of the world. The evolution of human civilization has also witnessed varied forms of jewelry in conventional, flexible and stylized forms through continuous creative pursuits and cultural synthesis of human mind. It not only fulfills the material needs of human society but also carries aesthetic and intrinsic values in them. It also helps us in understanding the cultural discourse and encourages mutual respect for other’s way of life.

Jewelry as a form of non-verbal symbolic communication is not only transmitted from generation to generation within the same society but also transmitted to other societies as well. Jewelry is considered to be the most invaluable material possession of mankind which has long been used not only to beautify human body and also serve as status symbol to articulate one’s social status, wealth or financial means and membership. Jewelry presents an excellent opportunity not only for beautification or decoration of human body but also is treated as items of socio-cultural value and marks as criteria of social identity, marital status, social and economic status and other cultural aspects of the community.

Jewelry is the most effective medium of cultural communication of human civilization which fosters socio-cultural solidarity of groups or communities through preserving ethnic identities and traditional cultural heritage. In the era of industrialization and globalization when the material culture is profusely flourishing due to mechanization and automation of human civilization on the other hand it results in potential loss of intangible cultural heritage including loss of language, cultural values, customs and traditions, arts and crafts etc. In this context, it is essential to preserve our intangible cultural heritage. The conservation of ethnic jewelry is extremely important in the present context as it gradually languishing day by day. Ethnic jewelry has immense significance as it not only strengthens the ethnic ties or bond among the people of the same community but also play a significant role in connecting diverse human civilizations.

SOURCE: Dr. Chinmayee Satpathy Fulbright Scholar

B.N. Dash 2009