This is a book about diamond mining and everyday life in Northern Canada. I knew very little about diamond mining. I now know a lot more than I did.
This is a well-researched ethnography that shows the issues surrounding extraction of diamonds and how they're seen in a broader context. This is an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on mining.
In 2007, Canada became the third largest producer of diamonds in the world. primarily mined on th edge of the Arctic, these diamonds are said to bring economic development and opportunity to nearby Indigenous communities.
In this book, anthropologist Lindsay A. Bell examines the effects of diamond mining on an increasingly diverse northern population. It is an amazing token of this book.
Through an ethnographic focus on everyday life in Hay River, a multi-ethnic town in the Northwest Territories, this book illustrates the different ways Indigenous, settlers, and immigrant northerners navigate the opportunities and obstacles created by large-scale resource development.
By situating contemporary diamond mines within the long history of extraction in the region, Bell describes the social, cultural, and economic pressures that shape the people in this Northern community.
In contrast to many polarizing accounts that believe mining is either good or bad, this book uses diamonds as an anthropological prism to consider larger issues related to Arctic extraction, globalization, Indigenous rights, and ethical consumption.
I loved this informative book. It is one of these books that I will be re-reading again.
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