January IndiGen Blogpost

An anthropology of stones and minerals beyond the nature/culture divide: A reflective essay

Geologists read different material aspects of stones to understand the Earth’s history and specific environmental conditions. Stones, thus, are small fragments that capture a certain, very particular moment in nature’s time.¹ In a way, they are like photographs of the Earth’s structure. What distinguishes them, however, is the fact that they are made from that same structure they tell us about; what they capture is directly inherent in their material quality. Material and content are one and the same. A photograph uses molecules or materials that react to light. While looking at the material used in a photograph can help determine the rough time period it was taken in, the image (unless some very abstract or meta form of art) captures something else entirely – material serves content; it is manipulated to serve a purpose.

This differentiation, here illustrated through the admittedly bizarre example of a stone and a photograph, reflects a binary distinction that has dominated academic discourse in the Global North for centuries. Nature is said to be something immediate and organic whereas culture is whatever is built on top. And since it is built on top of that unquestionable real something, it seems more susceptible to fluctuation, to interpretation, to error, to subjectivity – and, ultimately, more suitable to debate. [...]

Read more on: https://www.indigen.eu/blog/stones-and-minerals-beyond-the-nature-culture-divide-berg

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[1] Fonck, Martin. 2024. "Geological (Dis)orientations: Training Sites, Storytelling, and Fieldwork in the Chilean Andes." Science, Technology, & Human Values.