da Sage

On Ebay they are sometimes called "hand flowers", but I have only recently seen that term.

Are slave bracelets authentic/period? Is the style a recent invention? Do the bracelets have some kind of symbolism? Where did the name come from, and what does it mean?

Someone once told me that the bracelets weren't worn by slaves, but that they were named so because the ring is a "slave" to the bracelet.

Dipali

Hello Da Sage.....

The term Hand Flowers is quite new to me, i havenot heard that before, But Slave ring that is the most commonly used word for Bracelets which attached to the ring.I did a search for the meaning of "Slave rings" on the net and according to wikipedia Slave ring is
1. A copper bracelet used as a medium of exchange in the West African slave trade.
2.Any bracelet made of chain links or A wrist bracelet joined to a ring by a chain.

In west africa where slavery thrived between 10th and 19th century , Copper used to be precious metal and Human Exchange as slave for copper was quite common. Probably that was when the slave used to wear the copper bracelet to associate themself with their status.

In india Slave Bracelet is a very popular ornaments amongs the newly wed bride from ancient times, there are no direct link with this type of ornaments and slavery, But they use it as a fashion ornaments.They have different names in different region, but nowhere it is related to slavery,
Da Sage , I hope i answered your question partially, if i find more information i will post it here.

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da Sage

Thank you, Dipali. I suspected that the ring-linked bracelets were an old ethnic style from some part of the world, but I didn't know where. Perhaps they should be called wedding bracelets!

My theory is that someone in the West recently coined the term "hand-flower" to avoid the politically incorrect term "slave-bracelet", but for all I know, it might be a literal translation of one of the Indian names.

Dipali

Hi da Sage..

well in certain part of India they call it "Hath Panja" I know the meaning of Hath , it means hand, i am not sure what is Panja mean, It might be flower, and you might be right, hand flower probably a literal translation of the name hath panja.


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Mouse

panja means five or group of five in hindi so hath panja would be referring to a covering on the hand with ring on each finger (according to my relatives anyway *lol*)

Dipali

Thank you Mouse.


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