Family Jewels Producing Emotional Dynasties

This ethnographic paper deals with the phenomenon of transmission of family jewelry and its effects, as a production of ancestry. It is the result of a broader research in which I show that a family jewel is not a ordinary jewel; it is a jewel << in the family >>, as it is constituted in connection with affective groups. Its transfers tend to transit vertically, propagate narratives and signal guardianship: it must be preserved, cared for, exhibited, recounted, and passed on. Moreover, family jewelry is a sacred and inalienable asset, entrusted to the person who cannot dispose of it freely. Because of its economic value, it is subject to the selling taboo, a device implemented to keep it in the family line.