Minerals, Collecting, and Value across the US-Mexico Border

"A jewel to those interested in ore mining, mineral collecting and mineralogy, or the anthropology of value." —American Ethnologist

Anthropologist Elizabeth Emma Ferry traces the movement of minerals as they circulate from Mexican mines to markets, museums, and private collections on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. She describes how and why these byproducts of ore mining come to be valued by people in various walks of life as scientific specimens, religious offerings, works o...