Why wear jewellery?
Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
We will make you earrings of gold,
studded with silver. Song of Songs 1:10-11
The wearing of jewellery is nothing new. It seems that for as long as there have been humans, there has been jewellery – initially some kind of decoration made from leather, bones, feathers, animal teeth, shells or pebbles. These natural objects were crafted into basic necklaces, bracelets and other decorative accessories. Wearing jewellery as we know it, using gold and silver and precious gems, goes way back to ancient cultures and appears indiscriminately across religions, cultures, class and gender.
The gift of a piece of jewellery is a gift of love. The man in Song of Songs has the urge to make something totally unique and precious for the one that he loves to show how much he loves her.
So where does this obsession with jewellery come from? Why do we wear it?
- to show to the world how rich we are
Take a single diamond. What is that diamond primarily saying? A diamond is known to be precious, the most precious of stones. It’s universally recognised to be worth a lot of money. It denotes wealth and status. If you can afford to wear diamonds, then you are rich. And if you love someone and can afford to buy a diamond, you buy a diamond to demonstrate your great love.
- to show the world who we are
Jewellery acts as an agent of personality. We choose the jewellery that we like, that expresses something about us.
- to make a statement
That’s even a thing, isn’t it – statement jewellery. The jewellery we wear makes a statement. We wear a wedding ring to show that we are married. We wear a cross to show we are a Christian. We wear a birthstone to show what month we were born in. We wear elephants and horseshoes and butterflies and stars to show what we have an affinity for – just look at how popular charm bracelets have become.
- to stand out from the crowd
We want to be noticed. We crave recognition. We are each a unique individual and one way to express this is through the jewellery that we wear. As humans, we don’t possess the natural splendour of a peacock, for example,whose feathers are jewels in themselves; we need sparkly, colourful, splendid jewellery to adorn our bodies. You see, some would say we wear jewellery to attract a lover. Like a mating ritual in animals. Male animals – like the peacock – certainly have a wide range of beautiful colours they can draw on when attracting a mate.
- because it’s pretty
Jewellery has no function. It is not useful. But it is aesthetically pleasing. It is nice to look at. There are some amazing designs out there, breathtaking gemstones, incredible combinations of colours and shapes and textures. Jewellery is art. It takes us outside of the everyday.
- to draw attention to parts of the body
We don’t do this deliberately, but just think about it. Jewellery draws attention to the neck, the cleavage, the wrists and ankles, the ear lobes, the navel – all those erogenous parts of the human body.
- to connect us to the giver
I’m currently wearing a pair of earrings that my Dad gave me for Christmas. They remind me of him. They make me feel close to him. If someone gives us a piece of jewellery, then wearing that piece of jewellery will automatically remind us of them and connect us to them. It’s like we’re carrying a piece of them with us everywhere we go. Then there is a whole range of jewellery that is deliberately symbolic – the divided heart, the locket, the friendship bracelet, the eternity ring – it’s a way of expressing sentiments without words.
