Religion is in many ways a story of our relation to collective identity, which can create something higher than ourselves as well as swarms that destroy. Not surprisingly the locust plays a prominent role in ancient religious texts, more in regard to the latter aspect of the mystery than the former, though now that most of us live a life far removed from swarms of locusts devouring our crops the references might seem somewhat oblique.
Pictured above: cicada jewelry, created and sold by teen entrepreneurs Katheryn Maloney and Brady Cullinan. And from a reference by a BoingBoing commenter, be sure to scroll down this fascinating site for a story about Mayan cockroach jewelry:
There once was, I have been told, a Maya princess who fell in love with a man she would never be permitted to marry. So heartbroken was she that she wept night and day over her forbidden love. A shaman, hearing her cries and learning of her misery, transformed her into a glittering beetle, a piece of living jewelry. Her beloved pinned her to his breast. Thus she spent her life, close to the heart of the one she cherished.
Doesn't sound like much of a relationship to me, but perhaps I'm too cynical. In any event, this legend is perpetuated to the present day in Yucatán by the makech (that's Yucatec Mayan, in Spanish, it's maquech).
These large beetles spend most of their lives as larvae; their transformation into adults marks the end of their existence. Once pupated, they stop eating, breed, and die. Yucatecos decorate them with rhinestones and tether them with little gold chain leashes. Pinned to the purchaser's clothing, they spend what remains of their brief existence wandering aimlessly about, sparkling as they move.
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