If I could put my contribution to this very interesting discussion, I would say that this question of western or not western ethnic jewels had occured with the Globalisation and the fact that the world became a big village since more or less 7 to 10 years with the arival of modern communication (web) and simustaneously the edition of more and more books about the ethnic treasures in all aspects...when I started 31 years ago, I did had only a fixed phone and then a fax and a answerer...and we didn't discus about this : we lived ( and we must confess that) in a post colonial world where the word" ethnic" was not on the table in a sense or another...people travelled also more and more and had real contacts with many tribes and different cultures...the confusion and the" new term" of all this came also from the point that in Europe the craftmen changed their technic of making with new technologies and this defined also new styles ( for example Art Nouveau and then Art Deco)... and invented new materials to create new types of jewels which was not the case in" non western" cultures so far...Let's recognize that this question is relatively recent even if I think that it is a relevant one...we also must remind that all these matters have been captured more and more by "specialists" who have deepen all this wonderful ancient and non-western cultures including the jewels...and this is a very good thing! When I made my passion my job ( it was after my return from Iran ( Shah'stime)in the early 80's, the antique shops didn't put so much interest in the ethnic jewels and the dealers and shops just offered very few ethnic jewels as far you coud compare with furnitures statuaires etc. I could write much more to this discussion but my wife is calling me for dinner and I have to go... Michel Halter
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