Jewish North African head adornment: Traditions and Transition

Abstract

The author discusses the craftsmanship of head adornment, particularly jewellery and embroidery, made by diáspora Jews in the Maghreb in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. The religious meaning of the iconographic elements involved was part of an artistic tradition that goes back to the work of the Spanish Jews before 1492; nevertheless, the craftsmen had to deal with the Islamic environment of the societies in which they lived. The 20th century has seen a gradual departure from these traditional patterns and a subsequent preference for those of contemporary western culture.