Form and function of Jewelry

Jewellery has been used for a number of reasons:
As a store of value
Functional use, 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 a wedding ring
As a signifier of some form of affiliation, whether ethnic, religious or social.
Protection (in the form of amulets and magical wards)
Artistic display
Most cultures at some point have had a practice of keeping large amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or create 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.

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 be symbolic of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star of David, or of status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice of married people wearing a wedding ring.

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.

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