The bejeweled body: Beauty and ornamentation in Banaras, India.

摘要

Studies of ornamentation in India have tended to focus on adornment found on statues in temples or on isolated objects of jewelry. Few works have centered on the decoration found on women's bodies and its integration as an organic whole or as a complete work of art. This study examines items of jewelry not only as objects of art, but as dynamic instruments affecting motion, creating a sound, camouflaging and enhancing the wearer's inherent beauty, and helping the body to adhere to existing standards of ideal feminine beauty. Jewelry is self-consciously worn as a way of communicating non-verbally the wearer's many identities and interests: ethnic, regional, religious, marital, astrological and superstitious among others. Jewelry placed on a woman's body not only affects her visage, but her behavior, mood, movements, housework and child care. The way a woman smells, looks, feels, and especially the sound she makes as she walks, moves or dances has a profound effect on herself and her audience, especially on her husband.;An analysis of adornment also provides insight into the wearer's perception of her own body, feelings towards the person for which she is adorning herself, the occasion she is attending and the people present or absent from that particular event. Women manipulate their own adornment to gain control of family situations, for example by helping their husbands fall in love with them (in arranged marriage situations). Daughters-in-law may be outwardly obedient and submissive to their mothers-in-law, but may be simultaneously rebellious by altering their self-image with the absence or presence of specific items of jewelry, choice of colors, amount or juxtaposition.;The study of the aesthetic impulses found among women in India provides insight into power struggles, notions of individuality, satisfaction of creative urges and the acquisition of pleasure and self-esteem. The popular perception of Indian women as helpless beings is incorrect. In fact, by manipulating their bodies through adornment women in Banaras can actively improve the quality of their lives.