A Study of the Personal Ornaments and Make-up of Maroccan

모로코인(人)의 장신구(裝身具)와 화장(化粧)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究)

  • Lee, Soon-Hong (Dept. of Clothing & Textiles, Sungshin Women's University)
  • 이순홍 (성신여자대학교 의류학과)
  • Published : 2001.06.30

Abstract

Ornaments are accessories for the decoration of the body or dress. They aren't unavoidably required one, but serve to make one's dress perfect as decorative industrial art objects. In Morocco, ornaments were initially used as a sign of social position or the class or an incantatory symbol. In effect, they were originally employed to adjust one's dress, not just for decoration, and they were of use for household economy. Gold, silver and handcraft available for exchange were a means of increasing one's property and an indication of social standing and wealth. In particular, the dress and jewelry of a bride was a measure of her family's wealth, regarded as a symbol of her chastity and value. The ornaments symbolically back up people's faith in supernatural power, and their real value is based on implicit form or way of decoration, not the external shape. Specifically, there is a tendency to use the form of animal as a protector, not one to frighten people. In the artistic tradition of Morocco, fish pattern stands for water and rain, and eagle and bird are considered to be related to fate. Scorpion and lizard are depicted as an inquirer of sun, and snake is a symbol of abundance and sexual instinct, being viewed to have an ability to cure disease. Turtle pattern is a symbol of saint because it protects one from the evil. The ornaments are made of gold, silver, amber, clam, garnet, glass, nielle, enamel, glaze, coral or tree, and symbolic patterns are used, including hand(a symbol of five numerals), turtle, lizard, scorpion, eye, triangle, bird and eggs. They are very big and diverse, being categorized into ornaments for the head or the chest, neckless, fibula, earring, bracelet and ring. For Moroccans, make-up is a sort of instinctive behavior to meet aesthetic and sexual desire. They also wear make-up for practical purpose of protection, intentionally inflict a wound on the skin for ceremonial or religious purpose, paint the skin with pigment, or have the part of the body tattooed for incantatory purpose. All this actions are regarded as make-up. The raw material of cosmetics is aker, a vegetable dye. They get the lips or cheeks turn red and paint eyebrows with yellow saffran powder to have a bad devil lose its strength. Tattooing is mainly done by women and viewed as a sign of their value or social organization they belong to. Sometimes that is used to represent a woman's being old enough to marry or getting married already or the frequency of marriage. Besides, tattoo is believed to prevent or remedy loose bowels or cough, depending on its location or pattern, and they often change tattoo according to the change of beauty art.

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