The Anthropology of Precious Minerals

Elizabeth Ferry, Annabel Vallard, Andrew Walsh (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

216 Seiten

2019
University of Toronto Press (Verlag)
978-1-4875-0317-8 (ISBN)

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Based on a Wenner-Gren international workshop, held at the Royal Ontario Museum, this book addresses the complexity of human-mineral engagements through ethnographic case studies and anthropological reflections on different people and the minerals they deem ‘precious.’

Why do people single out gold, sapphires, diamonds, and other minerals as particularly “precious”? What makes precious minerals “precious”? Drawing from ethnographic and cross-cultural research, this collection of anthropological essays and case studies answers these questions by exploring humans’ multifaceted relationships with the minerals they deem “precious.”

The Anthropology of Precious Minerals addresses the entanglement of humans and minerals, with a particular focus on the practices of scrappers, miners, and hunters as they work to extract value. The editors draw from history, archaeology, and ethnography, and remind us that “preciousness” must always be understood in relation to complex cultural, political-economic, and semiotic systems of value.

Elizabeth Ferry is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis University. Annabel Vallard is a researcher at The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, France). Andrew Walsh is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Western University.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Engaging Precious Minerals
Andrew Walsh, Elizabeth Ferry, and Annabel Vallard

Part One: Engaging Mineral Sources

Introduction to Part One: Scrappers, Miners, and Hunters
Susan D. Gillespie

1. "Check Out That Gold-Plated Board!" Scrapping Cellphones and Electronics in North America
Joshua A. Bell

2. What Is "Artisanal" about "Artisanal Mining"? Reflections from Madagascar’s Sapphire Trade
Andrew Walsh

3. The Value and Social Lives of Alpine Crystals
Gilles Raveneau

Part Two: Mineral Connections

Introduction to Part Two: Making Preciousness: Distinction and Refraction
Elizabeth Ferry

4. When Stones Become Gems: Valuations of Minerals in Thailand
Annabel Vallard

5. Transparent Minerals and Opaque Diamond Sources
Filipe Calvão

6. Gold, Ontological Difference, and Object Agency
Les W. Field

Afterword: Facets of Preciousness
Andrew Walsh, Elizabeth Ferry, and Annabel Vallard

Contributors
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	10.05.2021
Verlagsort	Toronto
Sprache	englisch
Maße	157 x 231 mm
Gewicht	460 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-4875-0317-2 / 1487503172
ISBN-13	978-1-4875-0317-8 / 9781487503178
Zustand	Neuware