Women's traditional jewelry from the Drâ Valley of southeastern Morocco is characterized by a profusion of coral, amber, amazonite, carnelian, shell and glass beads. An ensemble generally includes a necklace, a forehead band or frontal, and a pair of hair pendants. Forehead bands are often decorated with large beads arranged in a linear format. Necklaces and hair pendants are usually composed of thick clusters of smaller beads interspersed with selected larger beads, each arrangement a unique reflection of the jeweler's art and a client's personal taste. At times, silver alloy conical ornaments included in the composition were packed with scented resin designed to enhance one's allure in attracting the opposite sex and to serve protective functions. Worn especially for weddings, but for other public gatherings, as well, a woman's beaded jewelry ensemble would have made a dazzling and impressive visual statement. It would have reflected, as well, a woman's status and the prominence of her family, as the highly valued coral used to fashion these works was usually old and reused for many generations. Indeed, women's jewelry from this region functions as portable wealth, as individual beads of coral, amber, and stone can be sold when a family needs money, something that is preferable to parting with an entire piece of jewelry. Jewelry of this quality is rarely worn today and scarce coral and amber beads are increasingly being replaced by glass and plastic imitations.
Moroccan populations living in the southeast along the Drâ River are often referred to as Draoua peoples. This is a complex population group of multiple ethnic origins--Imazighen (or Berber), Arab and Haratine peoples, the latter long-established in the pre-Sahara oases of this region of northern Africa. The Ait Atta peoples, of Imazighen origin, are one of the larger groups in the region.
Description:
Beaded necklace composed of two clusters of tubular orange-red coral beads strung with smaller glass, shell and metal beads and off-set with larger amber and black beads (stone, wood, or glass) arranged roughly by size. The central portion of the necklace includes a large black bead flanked by two large and several smaller amber beads followed by another black bead. An undecorated and worn fiber string, knotted in places, is used to secure the necklace around the wearer's neck.
Provenance:
Ivo Grammet, collected Ternata village, southeastern Morocco, ca. 1985-1986 to 2003
Exhibition History:
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2017-ongoing
Splendeurs du Maroc, Musée royal de l'afrique centrale, Tervuren, Belgium, 1998-1999
Published References:
Musée royal de l'afrique centrale. 1998. Splendeurs du Maroc. Paris: Editions Plume, p. 240, no. 341.
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