Timely Rubies: Temporality and Greenlandic gems

TY - JOUR

T1 - Timely Rubies

T2 - Temporality and Greenlandic gems

AU - Brichet, Nathalia Sofie

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Based on anthropological fieldwork in Greenland, I explore how rubies as a natural resource create and organise forms of temporality in order for the stones to appear as a valuable good. I suggest that a circular argument is at play with regard to the Greenlandic rubies, namely that time creates valuable rubies and rubies create time. I further argue that this interdependence is an important self-fulfilling driver in creating a viable mining industry for gemstones in Greenland. A focus on temporality enables me to engage in this circularity and thereby explore one component in the work of making valuable rubies. Rubies, then, come to work for me as a lens through which to think about ways of creating and organizing time and vice versa. The underlying premise for thiscontribution is that time is thus not a universal measure that externally orders events, but rather a fieldwork feature deeply embedded in and generated through social practices. Accordingly, time in relation to mining does not so much present a philosophical challenge, but is rather just a “thing” that happens to be good to think a Greenlandic resource landscape through – as are rubies.

AB - Based on anthropological fieldwork in Greenland, I explore how rubies as a natural resource create and organise forms of temporality in order for the stones to appear as a valuable good. I suggest that a circular argument is at play with regard to the Greenlandic rubies, namely that time creates valuable rubies and rubies create time. I further argue that this interdependence is an important self-fulfilling driver in creating a viable mining industry for gemstones in Greenland. A focus on temporality enables me to engage in this circularity and thereby explore one component in the work of making valuable rubies. Rubies, then, come to work for me as a lens through which to think about ways of creating and organizing time and vice versa. The underlying premise for thiscontribution is that time is thus not a universal measure that externally orders events, but rather a fieldwork feature deeply embedded in and generated through social practices. Accordingly, time in relation to mining does not so much present a philosophical challenge, but is rather just a “thing” that happens to be good to think a Greenlandic resource landscape through – as are rubies.

U2 - 10.1016/j.exis.2018.03.001

DO - 10.1016/j.exis.2018.03.001

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2214-790X

VL - 5

SP - 267

EP - 273

JO - The Extractive Industries and Society

JF - The Extractive Industries and Society

IS - 2

ER -