Can Necklaces Mean a Pain in the Neck?
The wearing of jewellery has been with us across the ages with
both men and women seeking to adorn their persons with these
ornamental devices. The word jewellery is anglicised from an old
French word "joule" (jewel), but the origin can be further
traced back to the Latin word "jocale" which means plaything.
Although we typically think of jewellery as being made from
precious metals and gemstones, over the centuries it has been
made from a variety of materials such as cloth, wood, shells,
rocks and stone. In fact man has been very ingenious and
artistic in creating jewellery from just about anything and in
many different styles from the plain and simple to the highly
elaborate.
Items of jewellery have also been adopted as potent symbols and
even worn to ward off evil spirits or to help overcome enemies
in battle.
Examples of jewellery being worn other than for adornment, are
necklaces such as the cross or crucifixes worn by Christians as
potent religious symbols. Other religious types of necklaces are
pendants known as amulets, which are figures or symbols of
varying shapes and sizes, which are hung on a chain round the
neck.
Necklaces
called lockets, which are usually heart shaped are worn as a
symbol of love and open up to reveal a picture or lock of hair
from a cherished one.
Necklaces and pendants are both worn around the neck but a
pendant usually means a hanging object although it can be
hanging from a neck chain or an earring. A choker is also a form
of necklace but is worn high around the neck and can also have a
pendant hanging from it.
Perhaps the most bizarre form of necklaces are those worn by the
Pa Dong Long Neck people who are part of the Karen tribal group
that live along the border between Thailand and Burma. From the
age of 6 years old, brass rings are snapped around the necks of
young girls, a few every year, up to a limit of 20 rings
although there is a woman on record as having 28 around her
neck. As they progress from childhood to womanhood, their necks
appear to elongate although apparently what really happens is
that the weight of the rings crushes the women's collarbones
giving the illusion of a very long neck.
It is said that these women only remove the brass rings on their
wedding night with a long drawn out process involved, which
involves much neck washing. As brass often tends to discolour
the skin one can imagine that there may be a rather nasty green
mess under those rings. After the wedding night, the rings are
replaced and must remain in place for life, as the women's neck
muscles are now no longer strong enough to support the length of
the neck and the weight of the head on their own.
This wearing of neck rings was also a practice adopted by women
in South Africa and in particular those from the Ndebele tribe
and these women have often been referred to as giraffe women
because of their long necks. The Ndebele women traditionally
wore copper and brass rings around their necks arms and legs as
a symbol of their status in society and after marriage as a
symbol of her bond and faithfulness to her husband. Husbands
would provide their wives with these rings and the richer her
spouse the more rings she would wear and they would only be
removed after his death as they were believed to have strong
ritual powers.
Thankfully, in both the Pa Dong and the Ndebele tribes, this
traditional practice is no longer popular and is now dying out
in favour of the more usual types of necklaces.