The Anthropology of Precious Minerals

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.