THE LANGUAGE OF JEWELLERY: BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION OF SELF

Jewels are a paradox of immateriality expressed through materiality. They are evidence of economic, symbolic, technical, religious, emotional and social differentiation as well as identity and personhood development. In order to unlock meaning in and of ornamental metalwork, it is vital to understand the historical continuity and discontinuity of how artefact style and form can be used to elucidate aspects of cultural and social identity. By reason of jewellery itself being a most tangible manifestation of intangible cultural heritage, identity and gender construction, the aim of this dissertation is to compile an analysis of the historical continuity of the relation and interplay between the body, the jewel and the senses and how they simultaneously construct (social) identity, ethnicity and gender. In the chapter on the private sphere, existing anthropological and philosophical theoretical work on the body will be used to write a theoretical framework on the myriad of ways jewellery interacts with the body/senses and vice versa. The desideratum is to show that humans consider jewellery, when worn, as an extension of Self as per phenomenologist thought and includes an in depth case study based on anthropological fieldwork and historical sources in Morocco and the Western Sahara.  The chapter on jewellery in the public sphere deals with what role jewellery plays in establishing and ratifying, or transforming identity, ethnicity and gender. A first case study makes a historical and contemporary comparison of traditional ornamentation signifying local identities in Morocco and an analysis how this tradition is carried on by women. A second case study addresses the traditional uses of jewellery and identity construction and its transfer through the female as well as interference of the state in jewellery traditions to control the body of the Other in the public sphere among the Chin tribes in Chin state and Rachine state, Myanmar and the Kayan and Kayoh tribes in Kayah state, Myanmar. No theoretical work on the body has put forward an analysis of the relation between the jewellery, the body and the senses as of yet. My research aims to bring forth a thorough study of how this interplay shapes public and private identities as well as how this interplay is oft used to control the body of the Other and how jewellery was, is, and has therefore become an intrinsic part of ‘tradition’ and its transference.