Jewelry form and function from Jewelry chen

                                    Form and function

Jewelry Chen have used jewellery for a number of different reasons:


functional, generally to fix clothing or hair in place, or to tell the time (in the case of watches)
as a marker of social status and personal status, as with awedding ring
as a signifier of some form of affiliation, whether ethnic, religious or social
to provide talismanic protection (in the form of amulets)
as artistic display
as a carrier or symbol of personal meaning - such as love, mourning or luck

jewelry chen dancing stone

Most cultures at some point have had a practice of keeping large amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous cultures store wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or make jewellery as a means to store or display coins. Alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good; an example being the use of slave beads.

jewelry nature stone beads

Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles, originated as purely functional items, but evolved into decorative items as their functional requirement diminished.


Jewellery can also symbolise group membership (as in the case of the Christian crucifix or the Jewish Star of David) or status (as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice of married people wearing wedding rings).


Wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures; these may take the form of symbols (such as the ankh), stones, plants, animals, body parts (such as the Khamsa), or glyphs (such as stylised versions of the Throne Verse in Islamic art).

jewelry access