Diné (Navajo) Sterling Silver Mother-in-law Bell Earrings [R]

The Navajo “mother-in-law” bell is worn by the mother-in-law to warn her son-in-law of her impending arrival. The Navajo believe that the two must not lay eyes on each other.

The following quotation is from Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers by Margery Bedinger. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1973.

“Bells. The Navajo also made tiny bells. Grey Moustache says the Mexicans taught the Navajos to make them many years ago, when they first learned to work silver; (Adair:7). They were made much as a button. Grey Moustache remembers, with a loop of metal soldered inside the top of the bell to hold tiny silver or copper clapper. Both sexes wore them at dances, and women sometimes fastened them to their sashes to warn their sons-in-law of their approach because no Navajo was supposed to look on his wife’s mother; hence the occasional term ‘mother-in-law bell.’”

These two silver bells have been fashioned as earrings with screw-back clasps. They do have a clapper in each. They are in original excellent condition.