Accessories & Body Art in Early Civilization

Jin Feng at the American Museum of Natural History with classmates from NYLC. 

by Jin Feng

Although nowadays we have totally different cultures from each other, our ancestors had unbelievably common interests in accessories and body arts. We can discover that from the exhibition about human origins and cultures. Not matter where they were from, Africa or Asia, America or the Pacific, before they wore clothes and wrote history, they already started to make holes in their nose, earlobes, cheeks, under lips, and any place else on their body. They wore masks, necklaces, earrings, rings, bangles, belts, headgear, etc. made of bird’s feathers, animal’s bones, shells, seeds, stones and wood.

One item on display which I cannot forget is a round shape adorned with over ten small birds hanging from it. They didn’t use the feathers only, they hanged the whole bird just because of the beautiful colors, I think. We can infer at least two things from that: First, we are naturally cruel, at least in past. Second, at that time, the variety and quantity of birds was greater than today. None of us can catch so many beautiful birds today. Isn’t it sad? Another truth I heard about is there are 90% kinds of birds were disappeared in recent 100 years in Hainan Island in south China– an English ecologist recorded this.

Human’s cruel nature also appeared in their body art, especially tattoos. Tattoos are still popular today, but except their decorative role I think they may have had more special meanings to identify their tribe, status, position, marital status and so on in the old days. Compare with modern techniques, their tattoos were more sample but still full with aesthetic feelings. They usually used dark red and black colored tattoos on their faces, arms, legs and bodies. They also knew how to use white, black and orange make up. In some areas, people mastered the technology of hair dying thousands of years ago.

Even if we advanced their technology a lot, the basic mind set still exists. Accessories and body art bring joy and special self-expression to everyone in our modern life. The old styles still bring new inspiration to our fashion designers.

NYLC students with their teacher, Greg, on a trip to the American Museum of Natural History.

Jin Feng with a T. rex

My name is Jin Feng, I'm from China; I got my MBA in South Korea, and I worked in Singapore as a sales assistant manager for 2 years. I had studied at ALCC for 8 months as a part-time student, but I found NYLC is much better for me to improve my English and make friends. I had been studying here 2 months as a full-time student, and I'll stay one more month to prepare for a new job here. I really like the teachers and stuff and the school's activities at NYLC. It's really an amazing experience for me in New York.