Quand la tugtupite groenlandaise devient une pierre précieuse

Abstract

When, in 2019, the Greenlandic government promoted the artisanal mining of gems, a controversy erupted about the status of tugtupite: was this local stone, which had long been mined, precious or not? For the three bodies involved, the evaluation criteria varied: in gemmology there are industrial standards, for the state an ethics, and for the artisanal market a practice. Approaching gems and other forms of tugtupite as resource “materialities” (Richardson and Weszkalnys, 2014), this article examines the industrial and political characteristics of gems, and analyses the social effects of the promotion of this stone in Greenland. In particular, it shows how the use of this resource category became an instrument of state representation.

Keywords

• mineral resources
• precious stones
• craft industry
• ethics
• gem
• tugtupite