Genuine Bone and Antiqued Brass Bali Bead Choker Tribal Necklace.

This Bone Bead Choker is an austere piece of hand strung tribal jewelry. These Bone and Antiqued Brass beads have been strung in an alternating pattern for a fashionable and defined character. The use of bone and metal together is symbolic of the relationship between the living things of the Earth and the Earth itself, the natural and the unnatural, and the balance of energy between them. Animals have developed bone for strength so they can live in the Earth's rocky and solid surface by using materials derived from the earth. Together, the two materials convey strength, resilience, and elemental simplicity. This choker necklace comes with a lobster hook and eye for an easy wear. This fine piece of beaded jewelry is 17-1/2" long.

Bead making is one of the earliest human crafts. As people began to populate a larger portion of the earth, the variety of materials available for bead work and other artifacts increased. As tribal groups spread through the distances and landscapes, trade often involved beads as a means to exchange and disperse the rare, precious, and unique materials from one region to another. While beads made from varying valuable materials were functioning as the primordial form of money, they were also being used as signs of wealth, status, culture, and religion in the form of jewelry and other adornment. It didn't take long for the great empires of the ancient world like the Egyptians to advance the use of beads in fashion. A long history of intricate multi-strand compositions and elaborate clothing made entirely from bead work would develop. In the Americas, the use of beads was highlighted by their production in gold, jade, turquoise, and silver for use in an abundant variety of amazing jewelry by the South American civilizations and the North American Natives. Although the industrial revolution changed the way we value and look at beads, their prolific use still continues today in the same ways it has for thousands of years. A single bead can be produced from plastic in a micro second for a fraction of a cent. Despite this fact, when embroidered together in the thousands by hand on a wedding dress they can increase the value of the dress exponentially, conveying the status, wealth, and individuality of the wearer just as they have in the past. How could we ever live without our accessories and ornamentation? It's the little things in life that sometimes give us the most pleasure and defining character. We as humans, from the earliest times, have considered the adornment of our person to be one of the necessities of life - as essential as food and shelter.