Diasporic Jewellery: Identity, Memory, and Cultural Continuity

Abstract

This article examines the role of jewellery in diasporic contexts, exploring how diaspora communities negotiate identity, memory, and heritage across borders. Building upon the theoretical foundations of cultural memory and material dialogue, this study argues that jewellery operates as a potent vehicle for sustaining cultural heritage, safeguarding identity, and bridging generational divides within diaspora communities. Through analysis of case studies from South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern diasporas, the article demonstrates how jewellery practices -from wearing traditional ornaments to adapting ancestral techniques- serve as acts of cultural preservation and identity assertion. The study examines how these practices operate across three interconnected dimensions: cultural resistance, intergenerational memory, and hybrid identity. The analysis reveals that contemporary diaspora jewellers reinterpret heritage motifs to address experiences of migration, belonging, and cultural negotiation. Through the adaptation of traditional techniques, the incorporation of culturally significant symbols, and the creation of new forms that reflect hybrid identities, these practitioners demonstrate that jewellery is not merely adornment but a form of material memory and cultural agency. The findings contribute to the fields of diaspora studies, material culture, and heritage studies, while also offering practical insights for understanding how communities maintain cultural continuity in contexts of migration and diaspora. By examining jewellery as a form of material memory, this study offers a new perspective on the relationship between objects, identity, and belonging in the modern world. The notion of the 'material archive' is proposed as a conceptual lens to understand how jewellery serves as a tangible reservoir of cultural memory, identity, and agency within diaspora settings, extending the theoretical framework of the series while addressing the specific dynamics of migration and cultural negotiation.