Why Do Woman Wear Jewelry?

In order to answer this question, it is important to know in which circumstances it has appeared. The first jewelry pieces appeared around 100 000 years ago, during the times, in which men have been mainly thinking about survival. This may surprise you, taking into account, that jewelry is apparently not something we need to survive – it may seem, that it is a luxury, which we could spend time on after meeting a number of other, more basic needs.

To our ancestors, jewelry served five functions: religious, symbolic, to show social status, usage and as a decoration. They believed in the magic hidden in jewelry, in the form of talismans and amulets. It has been used as an offering to the gods. In ancient times, only the nobility could afford such a luxury as jewelry, and it was a way to stand out from the common masses. To the nobility, jewelry was a symbol of power and allowed them to strengthen their authority.

Despite the fact that most of these objectives are no longer current, jewelry is still very important to us. For us, women, because men often don’t wear it in current times (although recently jewelry appeared in men’s fashion as well, but still very marginal). In the 21st century, it mainly serves the for the purpose of decoration. Jewelry adds to womanhood and emphasizes our beauty. It is not sufficient, however, to wear any jewelry, in order to achieve these objectives. It must be appropriately selected, otherwise it will be counterproductive. Therefore, in this article, I will concentrate on the rules to be followed, which actually add to femininity, and not for the opposite effect.