Buenos Aires, Argentina

As Durkheim’s contemporary Georg Simmel (1986) noted, jewelry can be worn to please and impress other people as well as to express the social class one belongs to. Such pieces of jewelry at his time were usually items of fashion. Simmel’s view has some validity in my data too, the women studied for this research purchased and wore jewelry for the sake of fashion. These items were more like costume jewelry and had often been purchased to fit a particular style or outfit. The contemporary jewelry was often also kept even though their time to be worn had been short. They also carried memories from the times worn, but did not often carry meaningful memories for a long time.

Women also wear jewelry as part of their everyday life and roles. Erving Goffman (1990) has studied impression management in everyday life. For him, objects are props that help people manage the impression they give to other people. These objects may be anything from the language used to clothing, jewelry, and living surroundings. For example, women have many different roles in their lives, already in everyday life they may be wives, mothers, friends, and employees. In ritualistic family gatherings, for example, they may be daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, aunts, and in-laws. Pieces of jewelry are not only defining the roles to others, but they also make women secure and self-confident, each in her own role. Jewelry may play an important function in maintaining everyday roles and, at the same time it may be used in distinguishing some roles from others. Some of these roles may be invisible to others, but the woman herself needs the jewelry as part of the supporting setting to manage the role.

Since pieces of jewelry are social products, reasons to wear and possess them grow from communal and social aspects. These personal and individual products have huge

social impact. They could also be called social markers since women are communicat- ing about their social relations with jewelry. Women, however, also position themselves within their kin with the jewelry they possess and wear in many ways.

To begin with, people express their social class with jewelry, as Veblen (2001) suggested almost a century ago. This situation is similar today but what we express is not only social class but much more. The perceptions of the others seems to have an impact on what women wear since they are aware of the signals and messages sent via their jewelry.

Women may also express their religious persuasion by wearing crosses or other reli- gious signs, like Heidi, who talks about the way in which she wears her cross in the follow- ing quotation.

The cross is something that is often gotten as a confirmation gift. The cross has some- how also become popular. Many celebrities wear crosses. But then one has to think if it has the real meaning anymore. I think that a Christian wears the cross because he believes in it. In its message.

(heidi 56 yrs)

Nowadays, however, women not only express stable identities like social class and religion through their wearables, but also other compo- nents of life. For example, they express their interests, such as travelling, as Irene does in the following quotations.

I think of their origin but I like the fact of weaving them and that I didn’t find them at the corner store. You know, that they are maybe something special for a certain place that I was in.

(…)

I: I don’t know where it was originally. It looks to me that a lot of the stones were African. Oh, yeah and the silver things. I have something from Ethiopia. (…) I made this from beads I bought from a women’s co-operative in Kenya because there they make ceramic beads. So, most of this I made and I made this necklace on leather.

This was my mother’s. I brought her back these beads from … I don’t know… Thailand or something… and she had them made into this.

P: And then you got it. I: Then I got it. (irene 71 yrs)

Irene’s necklace.

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2. jewelry over gener ations: social theories of jewelry

However, in line with the earlier theoretical discussion, often the main reason women wear jewelry is to carry their loved ones with them. This might be in the form of wedding rings or mementos of children or parents. Nevertheless, often these signs are under- standable only for the wearer herself and others may not see what the wearer is carrying with her. Sometimes, though, the signs are so clear that there is no room for misinterpre- tation, like in cases of wedding and engagement rings, and crosses as pendants. Because of this, women can adjust the messages they send about themselves via their jewelry. However, there are cultural differences in the appearance of jewelry in the two countries. For example, Maria’s ring finger ring in Finland was clearly not an engagement ring, nor did she want to give that signal by wearing it. But in the USA, a similar ring could easily have been misinterpreted as an engagement ring.

Emma has a similar looking ring, though made of precious materials, white gold and a diamond, whereas Maria’s ring is not made of precious materials. Certainly, they do look alike.

M: Nowadays I wear all sorts of trinkets. Things that I buy here and there.

P: But anyways in the left hand ring finger?

M: Well, I have now worn this here. No one would get confused that this was any wedding or engagement ring. Sometimes people make jokes that it is a real diamond. And, I tell them that of course it is. (laugh- ing) Why are they even asking anything like that? No one would mistakenly think that this was real.

P: So, where it is from?

M: From one clothing store. I was shopping for clothes and they were putting jewelry out and then I saw them. As far as I remember, the sales person had a similar one on and I got thrilled of it.

(maria 56 yrs)

On some occasions women may wear fancier jewelry than in their everyday life, just to express that they appreciate the situation. Susanna told me how she wore better jewelry for her mother-in-law’s birthday party. She emphasized that she wanted to express her respect for the occasion by wearing jewelry that made her appearance fancier.

I have had it also at work but maybe somehow I have wanted to…[save wearing it]. I’m thinking that way that it won’t get broken. (…) Maybe because of that I have been saving it and kept it like that. And you also feel, like you know, when you have some piece of jewelry and you get the feeling that now I am going to wear this a little bit better one. Like when you are going to your mother-in-law’s 75th _{birthday party.}

Maria’s ring is not a ring finger ring.

Then you respect her with your own appear- ance. This is the way I think, old fashioned. (susanna 51 yrs)

Susanna did not want to wear this fancy pearl necklace too often on mundane occa- sions because she was afraid it would get broken. The necklace was important to her because her husband had had it custom-made for her on a trip abroad.