Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction
Mineral wealth has motivated and funded extractionist empires, often at the expense of local communities, labor, environments, and public health. Yet those connections are not recorded in traditional mineral catalogs, which treat specimens as divorced from context. This essay examines the roots of t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Leicester
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Museum & Society |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/mas/article/view/4599 |
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| author | Selby Hearth Carrie Robbins |
| author_facet | Selby Hearth Carrie Robbins |
| author_sort | Selby Hearth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Mineral wealth has motivated and funded extractionist empires, often at the expense of local communities, labor, environments, and public health. Yet those connections are not recorded in traditional mineral catalogs, which treat specimens as divorced from context. This essay examines the roots of those omissions, and situates mineral cataloging in the larger body of literature on knowledge organization systems and power. We examine how colonial ideologies of land and people become entrenched in mineral cataloging practices, and how this reinforces the ways geologists think about their work. We argue that revising mineral cataloging practices is a necessary first step – both practically and epistemically – toward addressing histories of violence in our mineral collections and the science of geology as a whole.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ec5e885acdb042f3b69ea439382a6db3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1479-8360 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Leicester |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Museum & Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-ec5e885acdb042f3b69ea439382a6db32025-01-07T16:09:07ZengUniversity of LeicesterMuseum & Society1479-83602024-12-01222-310.29311/mas.v22i2-3.4599Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extractionSelby Hearth0Carrie Robbins1Bryn Mawr CollegeBryn Mawr CollegeMineral wealth has motivated and funded extractionist empires, often at the expense of local communities, labor, environments, and public health. Yet those connections are not recorded in traditional mineral catalogs, which treat specimens as divorced from context. This essay examines the roots of those omissions, and situates mineral cataloging in the larger body of literature on knowledge organization systems and power. We examine how colonial ideologies of land and people become entrenched in mineral cataloging practices, and how this reinforces the ways geologists think about their work. We argue that revising mineral cataloging practices is a necessary first step – both practically and epistemically – toward addressing histories of violence in our mineral collections and the science of geology as a whole. https://journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/mas/article/view/4599mineralscolonialismcataloging |
| spellingShingle | Selby Hearth Carrie Robbins Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction Museum & Society minerals colonialism cataloging |
| title | Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction |
| title_full | Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction |
| title_fullStr | Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction |
| title_short | Cataloging minerals, part 1: The categories of colonialism and extraction |
| title_sort | cataloging minerals part 1 the categories of colonialism and extraction |
| topic | minerals colonialism cataloging |
| url | https://journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/mas/article/view/4599 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT selbyhearth catalogingmineralspart1thecategoriesofcolonialismandextraction AT carrierobbins catalogingmineralspart1thecategoriesofcolonialismandextraction |