We share a number of traits with other animals. We have language, as do dolphins and whales and ants and birds. Maybe many other animals use language and we just haven’t yet learned to recognize it. We know that there is body language but we have begun to decipher audible languages among animals, which is pretty exciting science in itself.
We also share social organization with animals. Bees and ants build entire cities and civilizations. But many other animals live in social groups: schools of fish, herds of mammals, families among gorillas, clans or tribes among chimpanzees, pods among dolphins and whales, etc. Life on Earth is very social. Rarely does anything live alone for very long because in all species we need at least one other member in order to survive and pass on our genes.
Some animals even “dress up” with cosmetics and camouflage, according to this article from the National Geographic. And yet with the possible exception of the birds using iron oxide makeup, these animals are doing things for natural, not social, reasons. So we do share some aesthetic principles with other animals, but there is one thing where humans stand out in the animal world.
We make and wear jewelry for ourselves. I don’t know of any other creatures that make jewelry. Some species of bird like shiny things but they don’t make them, so far as we know. Humans are unique in crafting jewelry.
No one knows why our ancestors began to make jewelry. The best articles you can find about the history of jewelry offer few details about prehistoric jewelry, if anything at all. The International Gem Society says the oldest jewelry known is about 25,000 years old. That’s impressive, to think humanity has cared about bling for 25,000 years. But we don’t really know how far back our interest in jewelry goes. Scientists have found what they think were seashell necklaces more than 100,000 years old.
We have come a long way indeed from fish bones and seashells to tungsten carbide rings. There is just nothing else in the fossil record that resembles the human interest in jewelry. Did we adapt it because it conferred social status? Did it start with someone putting together “something pretty”? We’ll never know. All we know is that we are the only animal species that makes jewelry for decoration.
We even decorate other species with jewelry. We make jeweled collars for our pets and for animals we ride like horses and elephants. We even put necklaces on our camels. Really, I can see dressing up the gentle elephant with some bling, but camels are just rude and mean. Why do they need jewelry?
It’s more than a status symbol. When I see my wife looking at jewelry she just loves the shiny, brilliant colors. She admires the way light plays on her jewelry. It’s not just about status. It’s like it makes her feel good. I asked her once why she loves jewelry so much and she struggled to narrow it down to just one reason. She loves beautiful things.
Perhaps that is what makes us human more than anything else. We see beauty where, maybe, the other animals do not.
