Bean Jewellery with anthropological/culture-history background

Etsy

Living art

Since pre-Columbian times, ancestral peoples have had a particular fascination for beans, the only food originally domesticated not to be eaten, but to be used as body adornments or central pieces in ritual ceremonies. The Moche people in Northern Peru had such faith in the power of beans, that they were featured in pottery as warrior messengers carrying divine information. Their most respectful caciques or spiritual leaders were buried with beans.

Today, Arhuaco people in the Sierra Nevada in Santa Marta consider beans as sacred living entities. Their spiritual leaders, the Mamos, believe that mountains, rivers, and every natural being, including beans, were all in one moment or another, human beings, and viceversa.

For the past five years, I’ve also been fascinated by these tiny seeds. Mesmerized by their beauty and history, I’ve been gathering heirloom seeds from Colombia, Mexico and Peru, all the way to Spain, Switzerland and Italy, countries which today have beans first brought from the New World. I then bring them to my garden workshop in El Retiro, Antioquia.

When I hold a handful of beans, I channel my pre-columbian ancestors. Captivated by both their aesthetic qualities and their mystical aura, I see them as totems for our most sacred temples. Each is a piece of wearable art, and at the same time a living amulet that can add magic and color to your home.

Being the bean

colonial history of beans. Heirloom bean
reference to europe now? relevant?

A living amulet

beans that originate in europe/surrounding:
- fava
- peas (many kinds)
- chickpeas
- lentils

So I'm using mostly exotic beans now? Context? Relevance? Globalism? Italian packaging

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-51629-1_10