Deciphering meanings embedded in the cultural ornaments of Guji Oromo women of Southern Ethiopia

Mulleta, Alemu Disassa; Muda, Kedir

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06774

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…On a social scale it is designed to negotiate and transmit messages concerning different aspects of peoples' personal and social identity [e.g. 12, [18][19][20][21][22]. The shared use of specific items of personal adornment by different members of a social group, expresses their mutual affiliation to one another and to the social group at large [23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making ties and social identities: Drawing connections between PPNB communities as based on shell bead typology

Schechter,

Reese,

Bar-Yosef Mayer

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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People tend to belong to multiple social circles, which construct and reflect a person’s social identity. Group affiliation is embodied and may be expressed by personal adornment. Personal adornment in general has multiple functions in human societies, among them the assimilation and transmission of different aspects of personal and collective, social and cultural identity. Beads in general, including shell beads, often constitute parcels of composite adornment, and as such are used in different configurations to portray these messages. The shared use of similar bead types by different individuals and communities indicates the mutual affiliation of the sharing parties to the same cultural circles and reflects social ties and relationships. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period in the Levant is a time of pivotal changes to human lifeways necessitating profound adjustments in all aspects of life, including social relations and networks. Here we use the shell bead assemblage from the cultic-mortuary aggregation site of Kfar HaHoresh, in comparison to shell bead assemblages from multiple other sites in the Levant, as a proxy for the exploration of local and regional networks and connections between PPNB communities. Multivariate analyses of shell bead type distribution patterns across the Levant demonstrate that some types were widely shared among different communities, characterising different geographic regions, while others were rare or unique, highlighting relationships between sites and regions, which are occasionally independent of geographic proximity. Specific occurrences of shared shell bead types between Kfar HaHoresh and compared sites further illuminate the web of connections between PPNB communities in the Levant and the varying breadths of sharing-patterns reflect the hierarchical nature of the underlying social circles. Outlining these widening social affiliations sheds light on the complex structure of Neolithic social identity.

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