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Quartz Mining, Crystal Healing, and the Energies of Market Making DISSE

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Quartz Mining, Crystal Healing, and the Energies of Market Making DISSE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Crystallizing Value: Quartz mining, crystal healing, and the energies of market making DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Anthropology by Josef N. Wieland Dissertation Committee: Professor William M. Maurer, Chair Associate Professor M. Kristen Peterson Assistant Professor Valerie Olson 2018 © 2018 Josef N. Wieland DEDICATION To The men and women who risked their lives and livelihoods by allowing me to understand and tell their stories ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii CURRICULUM VITAE viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: Mapping Historical Value 22 CHAPTER 2: Affect and the Moral Values of Hope 59 CHAPTER 3: Negotiative Value 82 CHAPTER 4: Phantasmic Value 112 CHAPTER 5: Lithic Medicine and a Naked Emperor 143 REFERENCES 170 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 0.1 The unintentional fieldsite where this project was born 1 Figure 0.2 Ed at the Caba Saco site in 2002 2 Figure 0.3 Photo from the highlands of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil 4 Figure 0.4 Tião’s shop at the outskirts of Diamantina 5 Figure 0.5 Laser Quartz at the world’s second largest gem and mineral 10 Figure 0.6 The author laboring at the world’s largest gem show in Tucson 11 Figure 0.7 The author receiving a crystal healing session in Oakland, California 11 Figure 1.1 A photo of a polaroid Jim snapped in the 1980s 22 Figure 1.2 The Jequitinhonha River in 2015 26 Figure 1.3 Map of Minas Gerais within Brazil 27 Figure 1.4 An illustration of the Jequitinhonha 29 Figure 1.5 A photograph of a flier from Jim’s scrap-book 39 Figure 1.6 Photograph of a WWII crystal from Jim’s personal collection 40 Figure 1.7 One of many statues commissioned by the town of Corinto 47 Figure 1.8 Table outlining U.S. quartz crystal industries in the 20th century 49 Figure 1.9 Synthetic quartz specimen 51 Figure 1.10 Synthetic quartz samples 51 Figure 1.11 A screenshot of Google satellite image showing the Caba Saco claim 54 Figure 2.1 Hand-made cardboard sign indicating the road to Caba Saco 59 Figure 2.2 A miner hoisting mine tailings into a wheel barrel 63 Figure 2.3 An example of a vein 64 Figure 2.4 Vicente signaling to me from the mouth of a mine 66 iv Figure 2.5 Screenshot of “Seria que é?” 69 Figure 2.6 100 years of dirt mounds at Caba Saco 73 Figure 2.7 Manuel reaching into a recently-discovered pocket 77 Figure 2.8 A rainbow over Caba Saco on my last day of fieldwork 80 Figure 3.1 High-quality quartz from Caba Saco 86 Figure 3.2 A massive 300kg “lot” of laser crystals 86 Figure 3.3 A small lot of crystals of varying quality 88 Figure 3.4 An example of a small galpãoe 91 Figure 3.5 Graded crystals waiting for a buyer 91 Figure 3.6 An example of a wholesaler’s warehouse 92 Figure 3.7 A high-quality citrine lot 103 Figure 4.1 Barrels of crystals in Minas Gerais 112 Figure 4.2 A man unloading barrels of crystals 114 Figure 4.3 A steel drum full of Caba Saco laser crystals 122 Figure 4.4 Cheap newspaper tears 127 Figure 4.5 Laser crystals mined by Vicente and Manuel 127 Figure 4.6 A letter from an import specialist 132 Figure 4.7 Example Bill of Lading 135 Figure 5.1 Preparing for a crystal healing training 144 Figure 5.2 Portuguese copy of Judy Hall’s (2005) “Crystal Bible” 153 Figure 5.3 Chakra stones sold at a tourist shop in São Paulo’s airport 156 Figure 5.4 A vending machine in Sedona, AZ selling mystic gemstones 157 Figure 5.5 Crystal pendants for pets 157 v Figure 5.6 A screenshot illustrating some of Natasha’s “Crystal Ally” cards 159 Figure 5.7 The author receiving a crystal healing session 160 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Like any scholar involved in a multiyear, multisite engagement, I have accrued many academic debts that I would like to ledger. Primarily, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Bill Maurer, who has frequently gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping shape my thinking and my professional development more broadly. Without Dr. Maurer’s guidance and constant encouragement, this project would never have been undertaken, and without his patience, it would most certainly never have been completed. I also owe tremendous thanks to other members of my committee, Dr. Kris Peterson and Dr. Valerie Olson from UC Irvine’s Department of Anthropology. Over the years, Dr. Peterson provided crucial emotional support and a voice of understanding amid undulating doubt and confusion when this project was a collection of nascent ideas. Likewise, Dr. Olson provided a much needed perspective on non-traditional experiences in academia, and particularly on professionalizing for a job market in crisis. Their combined compassion, expertise, and support has led me down an interesting and rewarding path. Likewise, Dr. Ruben Oliven at the Universidade Federal Rio Grande do Sul, generously sponsored my research Visa and provided much needed warmth and support when I needed it most. This dissertation was made possible with support from the National Science Foundation (GRFP Grant #2012146816 and DDRI Grant # 1459220) as well as a dissertation research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation (#9113). These institutions’ willingness to fund a quirky project has changed the trajectory of my life and I will be forever grateful. For many years now– and in various incarnations of our time together around the world– Elizabeth DeLuca has provided unwavering support as I struggled through this project. She encouraged me to take risks, listened to me babble on about “materiality and Webb Keane” (now a favorite inside joke of ours), and offered constructive and critical feedback on countless drafts. Had it not been for her constant encouragement and understanding– offering me her apartment in Istanbul to draft several chapters– this dissertation would not have been written. Likewise, my parents– though they often did not fully understand what I was up to– provided unwavering confidence in me and cheered me on to get “PHinisheD” when I most needed it. Their love of adventure and travel continues to inspires me. This dissertation would not be possible were it not for the people whose lives were interrupted by my incessant questions and constant traveling. In particular, I would like to thank Ed Xenja for taking me under his wing and introducing me to people and places I never would have otherwise encountered– especially the citizens of Mendanha, Minas Gerais. Likewise, Bruno, Teo and Cida provided me with a necessary staging grounds in Belo Horizonte and introduced me to all that I have come to love about Brazil: food, culture, geography, tradition, and even bureaucracy. While there are countless others to thank, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to the garimpeiros of Caba Saco, especially Vicente and Manuel. I am not the same person I was before entering those mines, and I can only hope that our time together resonates with them as it has for me. vii CURRICULUM VITAE Josef N. Wieland 2011 B.A. in Anthropology & Latin Am. Studies, Portland State University 2011-12 Research Assistant, Community Knowledge Project University of California, Irvine 2013 M.A. Anthropology, University of California, Irvine 2011-17 Teaching Assistant, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine 2018 Ph.D. in Anthropology University of California, Irvine FIELD OF STUDY Mineral and spiritual commodity networks in the twenty-first century PUBLICATIONS Everett, Margaret and Josef N. Wieland. 2013. “Diabetes Among Oaxaca’s Transnational Population: An Emerging Syndemic.” Annals of Anthropological Practice. (36)2: 295-311. GRANTS 2015 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 2015 Wenner-Gren Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant 2012-15 National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program 2013 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Anthropology, UC Irvine 2012 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Anthropology, UC Irvine 2011 Social Science Merit Fellowship, University of California, Irvine viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Crystallizing Value: Quartz mining, crystal healing, and the energies of market making By Josef N. Wieland Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Irvine, 2018 Professor William M. Maurer, Chair This dissertation tracks the transformation of value as quartz crystals pass through a New Age commodity network spanning from rural Brazilian mines to crystal markets in the U.S. Southwest. The multi-sited research for this dissertation was guided by three primary goals: (1) to map the different ways that informal Brazilian miners, international wholesalers, and New Age crystal healers imagine “crystal energy;” (2) to trace how quartz crystals become spiritually, economically, and socially valuable; (3) to understand what people’s encounters with crystals might tell us about the world’s multibillion-dollar quartz crystal market and about New Age spirituality in the twenty-first century. Drawing from classic follow-the-commodity studies, I conducted over 18 months of ethnographic research in Brazilian quartz mines, in wholesale warehouses, at the world’s largest gem and mineral shows, in U.S. retail spaces, and with crystal healers throughout California and Arizona. While value has long been theorized in terms of labor, exchange, and fetishization, this dissertation interrogates the phenomenal, performative, and semiotic processes that impact value transformation as crystals pass through each node of this commodity network. ix Hedging against Marxian notions of use-value, this dissertation encourages scholars to think through how value and markets are distinctly shaped by performative, semiotic, and phenomenological processes.
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