|
?:reviewBody
|
-
A three-minute Facebook video attracted millions of views and a boatload of controversy in June 2018, with the astonishing claim that there exists a type of jewelry made and worn in Mexico that consists of live beetles bedecked with gold and semi-precious gemstones. According to the video, which was produced and posted by In the Know by AOL, the bedazzled brooches even come equipped with tiny gold leashes designed to prevent one's jewelry from escaping: The consensus among the thousands who commented was basically no, they would not wear such a thing, ever — with many relying on terms like gross, creepy, cruel, and inhumane to express their opinions of the practice. Besides those who questioned the ethics of it, there were some who wondered if the practice is even real. It is, we discovered, and indeed the practice is more than a hundred years old. Among the earliest print references we found to jeweled bugs was in a syndicated newspaper article dating from 1887, attributed to the New Haven Register: The description comports in most respects with modern accounts of jeweled makech (or maquech) beetles (Zopherus chilensis), including an April 2015 article on Smithsonian.com that delves into the supposed mythological origins of the phenomenon: But the article also quotes Raul Aguilar, a San Francisco artist who grew up in Mexico and once owned a makech, and who questions the authenticity of the legend, as well as the implied trendiness of the beetle brooches: A 2015 story in the Yucatan Times questioned the validity of the claim that wearing live beetles as jewelry originated in Mayan culture, although it also suggested — wrongly — that there is no proof that the practice existed before the 1980s. Environmentalists and animal rights advocates in Mexico and elsewhere are now trying to discourage the capture and decoration of makech beetles, which these days are mostly sold as a novelty to foreign tourists. U.S. residents should think twice before purchasing one, however, as federal regulations forbid transporting live animals across the border into the United States without a permit. In 2010, it was reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers confiscated a live makech beetle from a woman who declared her living brooch as she crossed into Texas from Mexico. A representative for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) quipped sardonically that the woman's choice of fashion accessories gives new meaning to the term fashion victim.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}