Jewellery can also be symbolic of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star of David, or of status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice of married people wearing a wedding ring.

In the late 20th century, the influence of modern primitivism led to legion of these practices being incorporated into western subcultures. Numberless of these practices rely on a combination of body modification and decorative objects; thus keeping the distinction between these two types of decoration blurred. As with other forms of jewellery, the crossing of cultural boundaries is single of the else significant features of the artform in the preceding 21st Visit Site century.