Traditional jewellery of Berber peoples in North Africa
Jewellery of a Berber woman in the Musée du quai Branly, Paris
Jewelleryof the Berber cultures (Tamazight language: iqchochne imazighne, ⵉⵇⵇⵛⵓⵛⵏ ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ) is a historical style of traditional jewellery that was worn by women mainly in rural areas of the Maghreb region in North Africa and inhabited by indigenous Berber people (in the Berber language Tamazight: Amazigh (sg.), Imazighen, pl). Following long social and cultural traditions, Berber or other silversmiths in Morocco, Algeria and neighbouring countries created intricate jewellery with distinct regional variations. In many towns and cities, there were Jewish silversmiths, who produced both jewellery in specific Berber styles as well as in other styles, adapting to changing techniques and artistic innovations.[1]
Handing their jewellery on from generation to generation, as a visual element of the Berber ethnic identity, women maintained this characteristic cultural tradition as part of their gender-specific adornments. As Berber communities have been most numerous in Morocco, compared with Algeria and even smaller communities in Tunisia or other geographic locations, the numbers and varieties of their ethnic jewellery correspond to these demographic patterns.[2]
Berber jewellery was usually made of silver and includes elaborate triangular plates and pins, originally used as clasps for garments, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and similar items. During the second part of the 20th century, the tradition of Berber jewellery was gradually abandoned in favour of different styles of jewellery made of gold. Just as other items of traditional rural life like carpets, costumes or ceramics, Berber jewellery has entered private and public collections of North African artefacts.[3] Contemporary variations of these types of jewellery like the symbol of a hand (Arabic: hamsa or in Maghrebi Arabic khmissa) are sold today as commercial fashion products.[4]
^Jonathan Bloom, Sheila S. Blair, Sheila Blair (2009). Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture: Three-Volume Set. New York: Oxford University Press USA. p. 378. ISBN 978-0-19-530991-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^See, for example, Rabaté 2015 and Rabaté, Rabaté & Champault 1996, as well as Gargouri-Sethom 1986.
^Already in the 1950s, at the end of his introduction to Bijoux arabes et berbères du Maroc, ethnographer Jean Besancenot deplored that with some few exceptions in southern Morocco, the production of traditional jewellery had been "abandoned or bastardized to the point of no longer being recognizable, as light-weight and quickly made modern pieces were being favoured by local customers". Besancenot 1953, pp. XIII-XVI
^Rabaté, Goldenberg & Thau 1999, pp. 131–132.
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