Janet L. Finn
Tracing the Veins
Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata
$26.95, £15.95 paperback
978-0-520-21137-7
Available Now
347 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 26 black-and-white photos, 14 line figures.
August 1998, Available worldwide
Categories: Anthropology; Cultural Anthropology; American Studies; Sociology; California & the West; Economics; Environment; Gender Studies
August 1998, Available worldwide
Categories: Anthropology; Cultural Anthropology; American Studies; Sociology; California & the West; Economics; Environment; Gender Studies
Free online edition (eScholarship)--available only to University of California faculty, staff, and students (List of public titles)
"Novel, engaging, and interesting. . . . [Finn] conveys the urgency of understanding the intertwining sources of conflict and struggle in the contemporary world."—Benjamin S. Orlove, University of California, Davis
"Finn blends trenchant scholarship and stylistic mastery with exceptional intelligence. If this is not cutting edge, I just wonder what is."—Jean-Paul Dumont, George Mason University
"Finn blends trenchant scholarship and stylistic mastery with exceptional intelligence. If this is not cutting edge, I just wonder what is."—Jean-Paul Dumont, George Mason University
This tale of two cities—Butte, Montana, and Chuquicamata, Chile—traces the relationship of capitalism and community across cultural, national, and geographic boundaries. Combining social history with ethnography, Janet Finn shows how the development of copper mining set in motion parallel processes involving distinctive constructions of community, class, and gender in the two widely separated but intimately related sites. While the rich veins of copper in the Rockies and the Andes flowed for the giant Anaconda Company, the miners and their families in both places struggled to make a life as well as a living for themselves.
Miner's consumption, a popular name for silicosis, provides a powerful metaphor for the danger, wasting, and loss that penetrated mining life. Finn explores themes of privation and privilege, trust and betrayal, and offers a new model for community studies that links local culture and global capitalism.
Miner's consumption, a popular name for silicosis, provides a powerful metaphor for the danger, wasting, and loss that penetrated mining life. Finn explores themes of privation and privilege, trust and betrayal, and offers a new model for community studies that links local culture and global capitalism.