Gold and Mind by Pravu Mazumdar

The following essay is based on a book length essay in German published in 2015. [1] In most of the traditions familiar to us, gold is connected with the sun. (A remarkable exception are the Kogi of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, who associate gold with the darkness of the earth.) Since the sun is experienced as a metaphor of truth across cultures, gold has been enmeshed with religion and politics since ancient times. The essay, consisting of five sections, begins with a description of the archaic triangle of gold, money and jewellery and ends with a reflection on the use of a material like gold in contemporary jewellery.