Body Decoration

FROM: 'The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry' (from the Colette + Jean-Pierre Chysels Collection) Text: Frances Borel Trans. From French

p. 16 “Body decoration is a ubiquitous phenomenon that transcends time and space. There is not one civilization, however limited its available materials may be, that does not practice self-ornamentation. As long as our species has existed, the human body has been a focal point of adornment and a versatile medium for our every longing and fantasy. There is no part of the human anatomy that cannot be embellished with jewelry of one kind or another....”

p. 20 “There is nothing accidental or gratuitous about a people's passionate desire for self-ornamentation. For them, symbolism is not just intertwined with body adornments; symbolism is its very essence. The meaning of a visual vocabulary can be so obvious to its user that they take it for granted and end up forgetting its original significance...”

p. 21 “...Body decoration, which the logically-minded might dismiss as superfluous, plays a decisive role in the lives of ethnic people and their craftsmen. They lavish time and patient effort on self-adornment. Their civilizations do not experience time with the sense of urgency that we do; they relive it over and over again, and their traditions are thereby passed on intact and unaltered from one generation to the next...So pressed are Western jewelers for time that they sometimes find it difficult to duplicate the casting, chiselling and filigree techniques of native crafts people. There are some things our machines can't do. They may save time, but they cannot take its place."

p. 27 “Africa, Asia and the Americas boast gold- and silversmiths renowned for attention to detail and technical sophistication....the same virtues prevail when they make use of less costly materials – unlike most western jewelry, which cares only how showy an emerald or diamond may look. Boldness, profusion of color, opulence – these things should dazzle us, too...Are we so out-of-touch with our sense of celebration that our concept of wealth amounts to a multi-carat stone stuck on the third finger of one hand?”

p. 30 “Among ethnic peoples personal adornment is motivated not just by the obvious desire for beautification, but by the instinctive need for self-protection. Things cannot be left as they are; measures must be taken to safeguard life and limb. Baneful forces are constantly lurking. Clothing and jewelry as a physical and psychological shield...”