Clarity, Cut, and Culture

Images of diamonds appear everywhere in Americanculture. And everyone who has a diamond has a story to tell about it. Ourstories about diamonds not only reveal what we do with these tinystones, but also suggest how we create value, meaning, and identity through ourinteractions with material culture in general.Things become meaningful through our interactions with them, but how dopeople go about making meaning? What can we learn from an ethnography about theproduction of identity, creation of kinship, and use of diamondsin understanding selves and social relationships? By what means dopeople positioned within a globalized political-economy and a compellinguniverse of advertising interact locally with these tiny polishedrocks?This book draws on 12 months of fieldwork with diamond consumers inNew York City as well as an analysis of the iconic De Beers campaignthat promised romance, status, and glamour to anyone who bought adiamond to show that this thematic pool is just one resource amongmany that diamond owners draw upon to engage with their ownstones. The volume highlights the important roles that memory,context, and circumstance also play in shaping how people interpret and thenuse objects in making personal worlds. It shows that besidesoperating as subjects in an ad-burdened universe, consumers arehighly creative, idiosyncratic, and theatrical agents.