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

252 Pages·2013·9.73 MB·English

by  Ferry

Minerals, Collecting, and Value
across the U.S.-Mexico Border
TRACKING GLOBALIZATION
Robert J. Foster, editor
Editorial advisory board
Mohammed Bamyeh
Lisa Cartwright
Randall Halle
Minerals,
Collecting,
Value
and across the
U.S.-Mexico Border
elizabeth emma ferry
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
© 2013 by Elizabeth Emma Ferry
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permis-
sions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma.
Minerals, collecting, and value across the U.S.-Mexico border / Elizabeth
Emma Ferry.
pages cm — (Tracking globalization)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00928-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00936-4
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00948-7 (electronic book) 1. Minerals—
Collection and preservation—United States. 2. Minerals—Collection and
preservation—Mexico. 3. Rock collectors. 4. Mineral industries—Social aspects.
5. United States—Commerce—Mexico. 6. Mexico—Commerce—United
States. I. Title.
QE392.5.U5F47 2013
382’.45549972—dc23
2013001007
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
T0
David, Sebastian, and Isaiah

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Making Value and U.S.-Mexican Space 1
1 Histories, Mineralogies, Economies 28
2 Shifting Stones: Mineralogy and Mineral Collecting
in Mexico and the United States 56
3 Making Scientific Value 85
4 Mineral Collections and Their Minerals: Building Up
U.S.-Mexican Transnational Spaces 113
5 Making Places in Space: Miners and Collectors
in Guanajuato and Tucson 137
6 Mineral Marketplaces, Arbitrage, and
the Production of Difference 163
Conclusion 194
Appendix: Sources and Methods 199
Notes 201
References 211
Index 229

Acknowledgments
So many people have helped me with this project, it is hard even to know
where to begin. However, I will start in Guanajuato, where I first got the
idea from seeing miners sell minerals, use them as religious offerings, and
give them as gifts. My particular thanks go to Cirilo Palacios and his
family, Pancho and Domingo Granados, Alejandra Gómez, Elia Mónica
Zárate, and Ada Marina Lara Meza. In Mexico City, thanks to María
Guadalupe Villaseñor, Juan Carlos Miranda, Oscar Irazaba, and Oscar
Escamilla. Among those whom I met in Tucson and Colorado, I am par-
ticularly indebted to Dennis Beals, Peter Megaw, and Wendell Wilson,
as well as to Terry Wallace, Steve Smale, Tom Gressman, Mike New,
Herb Obodda, Gene Schlepp, and Carole Lee, among others. In Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, thanks to Carl Francis, Alden Carpenter, and the
members of the Boston Mineral Club, especially Jim Catterton and Nate
Martin. In Mapimí, Lázaro de Anda and Mario Pecina were particularly
kind and helpful. At the Smithsonian Institution, Pamela Henson, Jef-
frey Post, Pete Dunn, and James Luhr went out of their way to educate
and guide me. Lawrence Conklin, William Panczner, and George Hoke
provided me with valuable historical information and materials. Rubén
Lechuga Paredes and Vera Regehr, both, at the time, doctoral students
at the Universidad Iberoamericana, served as gifted research assistants in
Mapimí. Thomas Moore of the Mineralogical Record reviewed the geo-
logical and mineralogical discussions in the book and went above and
beyond in editing my prose.
The project has also benefited from the tremendous help of my anthro-
pological and other colleagues, particularly: Mark Auslander, Manduhai
Buyandelger, Josiah Heyman, Sarah Hill, Robert Hunt, Smita Lahiri,
Sarah Lamb, Ann Marie Leshkowich, Mandana Limbert, Caitrin Lynch,
Roger Magazine, Carlota McAllister, Janet McIntosh, Paul Nadasdy,
Rich ard Parmentier, Heather Paxson, Smitha Radhakrishnan, Leslie Salz-
inger, Karen Strassler, Ajantha Subramanian, Christine Walley, and David
Wood. My thanks go, as always, to my advisors and mentors, especially to
Katherine Verdery, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Sidney Mintz, Gillian Feeley-
Harnik, and Fernando Coronil. Many thanks to Robert Foster for his
support for this project in an early phase and his patience as I slowly got