A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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Comments
Wow, this is truly fabulous!!!
A very interesting and meaningful piece, ayis!
a very lovely necklace. Just one question - why Jewish? Do Jewish ladies really wear Mauritanian or Goulimine crosses which are normally worn by people of Muslim religion? Just wonder, perhaps my question is silly, but it turned up in my brain.............
This is lovely, Ayis. I didn't know the story about the black garnets. I have some and now they have become even more interesting.
The Boghdod or southern cross is firstly a Berber jewel. when the Jewish Berbers were in Morocco these were shared Berber symbols. It is only later political shifts and rifts which create the divides.
This cross would be won by those from the south.. It was not divided bt Muslim or Jewish religious beliefs.
@Sarah, thanks for the explanation. Nice to know.
as sarah said the boghdad ( the cross) is a common west sahara ornament thought to represent the northern star used by nomads to find their way in the wilderness.
the fact is the use of copper is here to mimick gold which was a sole attribute to south moroccan jews in meory of the old days where they were trading gold (and slaves) through the sahara.
Furthermore the disc beads only used by jews from this region, i have written an article about that very bead trying to follow its use from Timbuktu towards the northern edges of the sahara and maybe from its very remote origin among gold producing countries around the gulf of guinea among the ashanti , the akan and the baoule!
short necklaces such as these with those big coral beads were very common among jews from southerne morocco and the old big garnets were as well a pecularity of them, and they were often mixed with white pearls and gold pendants as to highlight their foreign northern origin.....one can surmize the great value coral and garnet beads had at a time, and their heavy use among jewish population was maybe the result of them wanting to remember their mediterranean and eastern origin, from where these beads came
that is why i am assuming its judaica pedigree, from all of this elements
@ Eva look at my pictures to find a gold cross used by jewish ladies from south morocco
Excellent and most informative material, ayis!
Just to add one further point by way of clarification, the "southern cross" of which Sarah speaks is the best known and most often represented star group in the SOUTHERN hemisphere, not part of the northern hemisphere.
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