Tribal Jewelry

Wealth, marriage, protection, rank, worn in metal. Tribal jewelry comes from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas: Tuareg silver crosses and pendants from Niger and Mali, Fulani gold, the cast bronze bracelets and pendants of the Gan, Lobi and Dogon of Burkina Faso and Mali, Kotoko bronzes from Lake Chad, Ashanti gold from Ghana, Berber and Bedouin silver, Naga and Konyak brass and beads from Nagaland and northern Burma, Miao silver from Guizhou, and Navajo silver and turquoise.

Each piece was made to be worn for a reason: to show wealth and marriage, to guard against harm, to mark a warrior or a chief. Gan bronze bracelets coil with the python, the divine snake that holds the earth firm, and served in ritual, divination and as currency. Heavy and worn smooth, they lose none of their force off the body. A Konyak brass pendant with its row of cast heads, laid on a walnut sideboard, needs no wearer.