Anthropologists everywhere! Filming heavy metal with Sam Dunn

The first time I met Sam Dunn was in the smoking room (when those still existed) of a dive-y bar that my cohort of Dalhousie MA students used to ritually visit on Thursday wing-nights in Halifax. One of my colleagues, a die-hard metal fan and Marxist sociologist, called me over to his table and introduced us. Dunn had completed his MA at York in 2000, and we had both accepted offers to begin our PhDs in Social Anthropology at York University in Toronto in September, 2006.

By September, he decided to postpone and eventually declined his acceptance to the doctoral program -- with good reason!

Dunn had already filmed Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (2005), and would soon film a sequel of sorts, Global Metal (2008). Yet, rather than a departure from anthropology, both of these films and others made throughout Dunn's career are informed by his anthropological training and perspective.

Besides being a cool example of what you can do with a degree in anthropology, I have found Dunn's work to be a really useful teaching tool. For instance, Global Metal is a great resource for teaching about globalization, and how cultural forms and practices are always reinterpreted locally, sometimes deeply changing the meaning of the original cultural producers.

Check out more about Dunn and the connection between his work and anthropological background in the following links... and more about finding anthropologists everywhere:

• Interview with Sam Dunn, BA '98 (University of Victoria: Alumni, 2017)
• Global Metal on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (Strombo, CBC, 2008)
• Chief Headbanger (York University Magazine, 2011)
• Applying an anthropological perspective outside of university (anthro everywhere!)
• To PhD or not to PhD... (anthro everywhere! July 13 2017) 
• Undergrad & MAs career paths (anthro everywhere! May 22 2017)

What do Cultural Anthropologists do? "Decode" Human Behaviour

According to a recent article (August 3, 2017) in the Financial Post, Martin Birt discusses the work of Johanna Faigelman, CEO and founding partner of Human Branding.

In answer to a few questions including how deep is your understanding of the needs and behaviours of your customers or employees? Faigelman responds that traditional market analysis is too superficial. It relies on 'consumers as experts' and simply reports on what 'consumers know they know.' This is a risky approach given the scope and potential exposure of many business investments.

In speaking of how to launch a new product successfully or 'innovate', Faigelman identifies three importance aspects, that is, understanding (1) human-centric insights, (2) business needs and realities, and (3) socio-cultural factors. To accomplish this, a business — with appropriate support — should do a deep dive into societal trends, gain an understanding of unmet human needs, and the dynamics of the business category. Layered onto this complexity are cultural and generational differences.

Birt goes on to write that [e]very business is under pressure to grow and to anticipate market and competing trends. Even before a new product is developed, for example, anthropological research and insight can help a business decode socio-cultural factors that set the context for what people are saying … and what they are not saying. This can help a business think in a way that is future forward. They’ll be able to identify latent (and therefore unmet) needs, define and harness unarticulated emotions and predict real life behaviour.

It's important to acknowledge how the write-up by a non-anthropologist (although this is not confirmed), the editing process, or the need to grab views might influence how the practice of anthropology is worded. However, describing anthropological methods as a means to define and harness unarticulated emotions and predict real life behaviour  would likely be seen as problematic. Earlier in the piece, Birt describes Faigelman's methods as involving “naturalistic unobtrusive observation” (being the fly on the wall), in-depth respondent-driven interviewing, and participation. 

This flies in the face of postmodern critiques of the method, that is:

1. What role does the ethnographer play as an 'expert' in describing the culture (behaviours? thoughts and perceptions?) of others?
2. Where does the role of the ethnographer (as a research tool) come into play in - in this case - market research?

Here on Anthro Everywhere!, we've written about the packaging of anthropological knowledge (see quick links) and asked a number of questions including: What language or terminology will reach which audiences? Why?

We also made a note in our first post about packing anthropological knowledge...a caveat

*Note, the authors of this article use somewhat problematic language as 'eavesdropping' which may spur an ethical conversation among anthropologists but the focus of this post is about the nature in which the work of anthropologists is described by non-anthropologists (who may or may not have anthropological training).

Are anthropologists everywhere okay with having their method described as:

1. Eavesdropping
2. Unobtrusive observer (from fly-on-the-wall)
3. The ability to predict behaviour

Let us know what you think on twitter @anthrolens

Quick Links:

• Why you should use cultural anthropology as a business tool, Martin Birt, Financial Post (August 3, 2017)
• Anthropologists visualizing data: The Packaging of Anthropological Knowledge Part Three, Anthro Everywhere! (Aug 03 2017)
• The Packaging Anthropological Knowledge Part Two, Anthro Everywhere! (July 31 2017)
• The Packaging of Anthropological Knowledge and Its Merits According to Market Research Experts. Anthro Everywhere! (June 29 2017)

Remembering & Memories: there's an app for that...

As we've posted about before, the adoption of new media and technology in our lives has an impact on our social lives in many interesting ways. In many ways, new technological platforms -- such as digital communications and social media -- are already embedded with certain cultural assumptions. At the same time, there are always unexpected outcomes and unforeseen ways in which the incorporation of new media and technology shape our relationships with others, our environments, and ourselves.

Facebook Memories

This relationship between cultural actors -- including the new digital "memory" systems in our lives -- is what Molly Sauter (PhD student in Communications Studies) addresses in Instant Recall (27 June 2017, Real Life). In this short analytical piece, Sauter addresses three types of memory system and how they have shaped our memories, and the act of remembering: predictive text, "data doppelgangers constructed for ad targeting," and more particularly, reminiscence databases (e.g. Facebook Memories).

Sauter explores how digital evocations of memory differ from physical ones, such as "yearbooks, photographs, cars, houses, trees, gravestones."

These physical evocations age, and their value and veracity as objects of testimony ages with them and us. They date, they fade, they display their distance from the events they are connected to and their distance from us. Digital memory objects, on the other hand, although they might abruptly obsolesce, do not age in the same way. They remain flatly, shinily omni-accessible, represented to us cleanly both in the everlasting ret-conned context of their creation and consumption. 

Contrast this algorithmic "remembering" with how another contributor to Real Life describes the nostalgic recreation of community online through her mother's experience using Facebook in "Post, Memory" (7 July 2016, Real Life). Kelli Korducki's mother had grown up in a small Salvadoran village, once decimated by civil war, and now rebuilt online as a closed Facebook group called “Memorias de ______,” boasting "a membership in the low hundreds, which is impressive given the village’s reasonably small size." 

In this digital community space, "long-lost neighbors and relatives resumed contact after decades of quiet separation, strewn from Virginia to Montreal to Los Angeles and points above, below, and in between." On Facebook, members and diaspora descendants of this scattered community came together, sharing and creating artifacts of the long-gone community, juxtaposed with images and details of the living village today.

What do these different insights onto the intersections of memory or the act of remembering with social media tell us about everyday life? How might these examples be useful in discussing social relationships, memory, cultural artifacts, or even imagined communities?


Quick links:

• Instant Recall (27 June 2017, Real Life)
• Post, Memory (7 July 2016, Real Life)
• You might also want to check out some of the other pieces in Real Life magazine, which all address aspects of living with technology -- including a number of articles that incorporate an anthropological perspective.
• Media, language, and social relationships (20 April 2017, anthro everwhere!)
• Anthropologizing Software and Design (12 January 2017, anthro everwhere!)

The Packaging of Anthropological Knowledge and Its Merits According to Market Research Experts

In a Harvard Business Review article To Get More Out of Social Media, Think Like an Anthropologist authors Susan Fournier, John Quelch, and Bob Rietveld (August 16, 2016) advocate that marketing managers must begin 'social listening'

There is something marketing managers seem to forget about the internet: it was made for people, not for companies and brands. As such, it offers managers a source of insight they never had — social listening. The authors go on to argue that social listening competency will be critical to competitive advantage in the digital age*.

In continuation of our posts about social media these past two weeks, it is interesting to explore the growing business of anthropological techniques in market research. As discussed in a past post from Anthro Everywhere! anthropologists are playing a bigger role in this applied market which is a growing alternative career for anthropology graduates (see for example, #AltAc Anthropology Careers - The draw of experiential design firms).

Yet, how do non-anthropologists describe the anthropological approach and its merits?

The authors of To Get More Out of Social Media, Think Like an Anthropologist article argue that

Social media data is inherently qualitative and while it can and should be quantified for manageability, at some stage in the analysis it must be treated and represented as qualitative. In order to “appreciate the qualitative” and extract meaning from it, managers have to think like anthropologists and jettison many of the scientific principles that underlie traditional hard science research.

In this article, the authors ask those interested in analyzing public posts across various social media platforms as market research in order to critically reflect on 'issues' related to social media research (but qualitative research in general). These issues include:

1. Adequate sample size 
2. Finding so-called representative samples 

In response, Fournier, Quelch, and Rietveld argue that: "social listening in its purest form does not presuppose anything and this unsolicited quality creates an opportunity to answer questions that managers do not even know they should ask." They go on to advocate that "managers (need to) drill into the data to ask questions, not confirm or reject hypotheses." And by "moving beyond the science of data management to the art of interpretation," managers looking for consumer insights need to "embrace the context offered in qualitative commentaries."

The Packaging of Anthropological Knowledge is something blogger Jennifer Long is increasingly interested in. Questions for further study include: 

1. Who has the 'right' to speak about (with authority?) on the methods and practices of anthropologists? 
2. How can anthropologists 'package' our knowledge in consumable and accessible ways to have the most impact? 
3. What language or terminology will reach which audiences? Why?  

Your comments, as always, are welcomed on twitter @anthrolens or @JennLong3

*Note, the authors of this article use somewhat problematic language as 'eavesdropping' which may spur an ethical conversation among anthropologists but the focus of this post is about the nature in which the work of anthropologists is described by non-anthropologists (who may or may not have anthropological training).

Quick Links:

• Anthro Everywhere! #AltAc Anthropology Careers - The draw of experiential design firms (June 5, 2017)
• Susan Fournier, John Quelch, and Bob Rietveld To Get More Out of Social Media, Think Like an Anthropologist (August 16, 2016)

Understanding hipsters - scholarly and otherwise

Are "hipsters" on their way out, or have they become so normalized in our popular culture that we don't really notice them anymore? (And, if the latter, is that ironic?)

In any case, social scientists still have some interesting things to say about hipsterdom.

If you never quite figured out who or what hipsters were, you might want to start with this cheeky and informative video (4.40 minutes of the 5.53 minute video) from PBS: Are You A Hipster? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios (2013). The main argument reflects on the interconnections between subculture authenticity, cultural capital (in subculture objects and affects), and cultural appropriation.

From there, you might want to check out some commentary on "The sociology of ‘hipsters’" by Mark Carrigan on hipsters as an youth subcultural movement.

Or, perhaps a little more intriguing is this Savage Minds series from Alex Posecznick questioning and working through the possibility of "Anthropologists as Scholarly Hipsters" (2014):

• Part I: What is a Hipster?
• Part II: Critiques from the Margins
• Part III: The Anthropological Brand
• Part IV: Authenticity and Privilege
• Part V: Why Do They Hate Us?

Across the five-part series, Posecznick addresses the hipster as a conceptual category that's productive for thinking about the discipline (practice, style, public reception) of anthropology today.

Naming and place: What Do You Call the Corner Store?

Depanneur in Quebec

This is a fun little piece from Atlas Obscura that teachers might want to bring into a discussion of language: What Do You Call the Corner Store?

Every city has something like this, the anchor tenant in many city-dweller’s mental maps of their neighborhood. But in many places, you’d be laughed out of the building for calling it a “convenience store”. It’s a bodega. It’s a packie. It’s a party store. What you call the store on the corner says a lot about where you live. 

Bodega in New York City

Instructors might ask students to unpack these examples and to think about how this social institution, and the name that we have for it connects to local contexts. How do histories (such as of migration), geography, and politics come together to shape urban spaces?

Hallowe'en & Racism

LSPIRG's (Wilfred Laurier University)
I am Not a Costume campaign

Boo!

Hallowe'en is a rich holiday for anthropologists to dig into for how it brings together many different social phenomena such as ritual and liminality, layers upon layers of changing tradition, and social justice in questions of cultural appropriation and racism in costuming.

Every year in recent memory, my social media feeds have been chock-full of snappy posts and often well-considered reactions to racist Hallowe'en costumes. While black-face still seems to be a good idea to some (it's not), other groups and cultures also frequently turn up in costume shops and Hallowe'en social events (also not a good idea).

These racist costumes -- like the ongoing use of racist mascots and team names -- have become important public sites for discussion around racism in the everyday, and how these common aggressions are actually part of larger systemic issues. For instance, this year in Canada, costumes parodying Indigenous people have been subject to criticism through public campaigns like this one in Regina, where 'warning labels' were attached to these costumes in a popular seasonal costume store:

In case you can't read the fine print, this warning label indicated that "The items contained in this package are offensive and promote the sexualisation of Indigenous women and peoples. Please avoid contact with these dangerous materials. 
There are well-over 4000 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. An inquiry is being pursued to address this issue. It takes everyone in Canada to fight against sexualised violence. That starts with outfits of this nature."

In the classroom, examining something that may seem frivolous -- such as
Hallowe'en costumes -- can help us to make sense of the much deeper and complex connections between these banal practices and systems of social inequality that are built on institutional racism and colonialism. How are these costumes connected to the broader social and political issues that are daily making headlines at the moment, such as MMIW in Canada, and the North Dakota Access Pipeline in the US? How do these costumes help to shed light on the ongoing processes of systemic violence against Indigenous peoples in North America by our governments and settler-Canadians/ Americans? What are the guidelines for choosing a costume that isn't racist?

Quick links and further reading:

• Google search on "racist Halloween costumes" because there is actually just so much great content being written on these issues on the web.
• Google search on the "my culture is not a costume" campaigns, such as LSPIRG's (Wilfred Laurier University) 'I am Not a Costume' campaign, and the 2011 Ohio University 'We're a Culture, Not a Costume' campaign
• The relevANTH Guide to Choosing a Culturally Sensitive Halloween Costume (2016, relevANTH)
• Racist Halloween Costumes Get Temporary Warning Labels In Regina Store (2016, Huffington Post)
• Native Americans Try On "Indian" Halloween Costumes (2015, BuzzfeedYellow video, 2 minutes 30 seconds)
• Native Women's Association of Canada and their site on MMIW
• Related past anthro everywhere! posts: 
• The dos & don'ts of Cultural Appropriation (13 June 2016)
• Racist Mascots (11 April 2016)
• Anthropoliteia's #BlackLivesMatter Syllabus (5 September 2016)
• How To Support Blacademics & Be an Ally (8 July 2016)

Ethnography & Tourism: Part III

Part of the blog-writing duo had the opportunity to travel from Canada to Japan for one short week. During this time, blogger Jennifer Long wanted to explore the question: What are the similarities and differences between ethnography and tourism?

These blog posts are meant to explore the differences and similarities exposed by 'being away' for very different purposes, that is, as an ethnographer or as a tourist. Yesterday was a culminating affair as to why my partner and I have come to Japan. At this event, we were wined and dined like guests from out of town (read on below), but not just as guests from Canada but as guests from around the world (as the group boasts delegates from 21 different nations). Every morning our party eats breakfast, shares our daily events, and eats dinner with people speaking different languages, although English does predominate. Having stated this, our shared dinners have items that are eaten and enjoyed around the world with a focus on Japanese cuisine. Mark Augé who so long ago (1995) argued that non-spaces created so-called 'passenger' experiences as the delegates and their handlers are trotted through events and activities similarly (Augé uses the airport lobby or check-out line at a grocery store to describe how non-space is generated).

Up until tonight, this event has been business-oriented however, starting last night we have embarked on a lengthy cultural tour. As part of the entertainment of a celebratory dinner, we were treated to a 'traditional' drumming show. The drummers were dressed in what North Americans might consider ‘traditional’ Japanese print suits and white shoe covers. In their final song they invited each of the contestants as a display of global unity. In the past, scholars believed that local displays of traditional or cultural dances, rituals, and other art forms for tourists actually worked to reify cultural traditions and practices. These transactions between locals and tourists were thought to take advantage of the local peoples who were losing out in a larger neoliberal framework. As voyeurs, tourists solidified their ideas about difference and “othered” the exotic peoples and the culture they visited (and soon left). In response, other scholars have argued that tourism plays a role in supporting economies in unstable times and empowering individuals in how their own cultural traditions and practices are viewed and commodified (see Cole 2005 for an overview of the debate).

As guests of a national corporation, our participation as one of many delegates complicates the matter in my own experience. In bringing together the multinational perspective of this event, the display of the hosting culture could also be seen as part of a national culture building activity and one which helps various delegates, mind you employees, gain perspective not only on their own but their employers’ identity. What I mean to say is that in this particular microcosm, the role of traditional displays of culture could be understood as a means to link historical practices with some of the most innovative and cutting edge technologies coming out of this country (as per the identity of the corporation hosting this event).

As I continue to walk the line of tourist, guest, voyeur and short-term ethnographer, I am struck by difference (for example, the naming of each employee on the wall of the factory we visited in terms of knowledge and rank as a sign of prestige and more likely, rank and file). I’m aware that I'm receiving a constructed picture of Japan that is both historical and cutting edge - multifaceted as any one national identity would be. Yet, I want to call to attention that this multifaceted perception is afforded on account of my being able to see behind the curtain (as a guest on this business trip) and, as a guest of gracious hosts (post-business cultural tours). I will have to write more on this later; I’m literally on my way to see a ‘Ninja Show’ according to my bus guide.

Quick links:

• Marc Augé's (1995[1992]) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Translated by John Howe. London: Verso.
• Stroma Cole's (2005) "Cultural Tourism, Community Participation and Empowerment," Cultural Tourism in a Changing World: Politics, Participation and(Re)presentation. Edited byMelanie Smith and Mike Robinson. Pp. 89-103. Clevedon, England: Channel View Publications.
• Find all published posts in this series on our Special Series: Ethnography & Tourism page

A historical view of a long heated debate: what could be more menacing than the singular "they"?

The use of 'they' as a replacement for 'he or she' pronouns has been gaining momentum not only because it lets one slip around those steadfast predefined gender binaries of 'he or she', but also because the American Dialect Society voted it the word of the year in 2015.

A relatively recent article by Ernie Smith details centuries of debate around the use of this term that linguistic anthropologists and anthropologists alike would enjoy. Smith also highlights Dennis Baron's publicly available essay entitled: The Words that Failed: A chronology of early nonbinary pronouns which might make a good read for those wishing to use those failed and absent words to understand linguistic changes over time.

Smith goes on to describe what they believe to be the most interesting comment on the debate from Ruth Walker at the Christian Science Monitor who likens the use of the singular they to a shortcut through grammar law that while irksome for some, will most likely become more acceptable over time.

In any case, this historical investigation of the manner in which linguists and laypeople think around (literally in this case) the topic of gender binary might be a useful brainstorming session for students or a stepping stone to being rethinking one's own vocabulary.

Related posts on language, gender, and cultural change:

• Avoiding gendered bias... for instructors (26 May 2016)
• Indigenous languages and gender (10 March 2016)
• Gender & Sexuality Info-graphic (25 February 2016)
• The power of language in historical narratives (21 July 2016)
• The mutability of language (LOL!) (9 March 2016)

Reviving food diversity through Indigenous knowledge

This NPR piece -- How Native American Tribes Saved A Giant, Ancient Squash From Oblivion -- offers an interesting example for thinking about the everyday impacts of colonization through changing eating habits and the cultivation of food. For many of the indigenous peoples in this story, the revival of 'lost' ancient foods like the giant Gete Okosman squash also represents cultural healing and revival in their communities.

The seed library maintained by the Jijak Foundation contains dozens of native varieties of corn, beans, tobacco, watermelon and ancient squash.  |  Rebecca Williams/Michigan Radio

Through the creation of a native seed library, the Jijak Foundation in Michigan is sharing the oral history of the seeds, reviving these 'lost' foods, and traditional farming techniques.

Indigenous cultural appropriation?

In June we posted an article from The Atlantic on The do's and don'ts of Cultural Appropriation. In that post I suggested that the article, with its focus on fashion and written from the perspective of a white woman in North America, might be useful for provoking or starting a discussion with students about the issue of cultural appropriation.

In the context of contemporary Indigenous rights and cultural activism, this interview from Fader (a music and lifestyle magazine) with an Indigenous clothing-designer and artist provides an interesting twist and greater nuance to discussions of cultural appropriation in fashion.

In "This Is What Happens When Indigenous Artists Do Their Own Appropriating" (2016), Sage Paul discusses her work as an Indigenous artist (Dene) in the fashion industry, and the connections of her work to indigenous culture, cultural identity and activism, as well as the wider world of fashion.

 Jeneen Frei Njootli with Rodrigo HGz / Photo by Krissy Ballanger (Fader Magazine)

Paul is based in Toronto and runs the Setsuné Fashion Incubator with Erika Iserhoff. In this interview, Paul addresses the complexities of her intersectional identity, work, and the power dynamics of cultural appropriation.

"... the idea of cultural appropriation isn’t new to me. I really feel that in the last few years it’s been trendy again to be native. What upsets me about cultural appropriation is the sense of entitlement that comes along with it. The dominant society really feels, like, It’s just beautiful, you know? I think you're overly sensitive about us using this thing. We want to celebrate beautiful Indigenous women. Well actually, Indigenous women are the lowest class of people in this country right now and to use them as an object just keeps us as this objectified, exotic, fantasy image as opposed to beautiful, strong women who are doing work and have a voice, words, and ideas to share. Now, I want to talk about the people who are actually that culture, rather than people who are stealing. So: talk about Indigenous artists, and celebrate and support Indigenous-made work."

Instructors might wish to couple this article with our previous post to add nuance and an alternative perspective to a discussion about cultural appropriation in the context of fashion. This interview would also be interesting to think about in a discussion of representation, authenticity, or reviving traditional knowledge and practices.

Quick links & additional reading:

• "This Is What Happens When Indigenous Artists Do Their Own Appropriating" (2016, Fader)
• Setsuné Fashion Incubator
• How Indigenous artists are taking back what the fashion industry stole (2016, CBC)
• The do's and don'ts of Cultural Appropriation (anthro everywhere! 13 June 2016)
• Cultural appropriation versus appreciation (anthro everywhere! 22 February 2016)
• Other posts from anthro everywhere! on "cultural appropriation"

One person's trash...

One person's trash is another's treasure... or data, if you are an archaeologist or anthropologist working in a landfill.

Places where trash builds up can provide archaeologists important clues into past lives. For instance, in Toronto, Canada, when the Major League Baseball stadium was first built, archaeologists surveying the site found many interesting artifacts from what was then the lake shore in the early city. Most items had either been lost in the lake, or were part of the landfill extending the reaches of the city into the lake.

Archaeological teams have also dug into our more recent past. For instance William Rathje's Garbage Project, which "explores modern waste disposal, consumption, and recycling patterns" across North America. Or, the recent dig for Atari in a New Mexico landfill, which became a much publicized spectacle that "provided the necessary means to directly access the contemporary past for purposes of archaeological and historical research."

But, sociocultural anthropologists -- like Joshua Reno -- are also beginning to turn their attention to landfills and the people that work in this "secret world of activity that [is] utterly necessary to all of us, but completely hidden from most of us." In this interview, Reno digs into our social relationship with garbage.

What does trash, as material culture, tell us about our social worlds?

Quick links:

• "8 things they found when they dug under the Rogers Centre" (2015, Toronto Star)
• "Seeking the Truth in Refuse" (1992, New York Times)
• "Museums: The Truth is in Our Trash" (2002, Archaeology)
• "The Garbage Project & "The Archaeology of Us"" (by William Rathje, 1996, Symmetrical Archaeology)
• "Why We Dug Atari" (2014, The Atlantic)
• "The Anthropologist in the Landfill" (2016, the Atlantic)

Why aren't millennials buying diamonds?

link to original tweet @TheEconomist

Earlier this week, The Economist magazine asked the Twittersphere a question: Why aren't millennials buying diamonds?

Unsurprisingly, this question generated a lot of (angry) feedback.

If you actually follow the links to the different articles that The Economist has published, it becomes clear that the authors have a few answers to why "the diamond industry is being upended," as a later tweet explained. In one link, the threat to the diamond industry comes from the production of new synthetic and conflict-free diamonds. According to a similar story,

In 2003 the diamond industry responded to concerns that sales of illicit stones were being used to finance warfare in Africa by launching the Kimberley Process certification scheme. This was designed to make diamonds traceable, but focuses only on the ones that pay for rebel armies. Man-made diamonds spare millennials and others the headache of worrying that they are supporting human-rights abuses under repressive regimes such as Zimbabwe’s. Adding Hollywood glamour to the moral appeal is Leonardo DiCaprio, an investor in a synthetic-diamonds startup.

Yes, ethical consumption practices do play an important role in why millennials aren't buying diamonds. But, to think that ethical consumerism (and the new choice to purchase ethical synthetic stones) is the only reason, certainly does not provide a holistic answer. It also completely bypasses the question of 'value' that anthropologist Andrew Walsh has written about in relation to 'authentic' versus 'synthetic' sapphires...

What is interesting is that neither of The Economist's stories pick up on the threads that irate millennial tweeters rightly drew into the conversation. Such threads are picked up by an article for The Daily Beast (Lacking Sparkle: Why Have Millennials Fallen Out of Love With Diamonds?): Russell Shor, senior industry analyst at the Gemological Institute of America, said that the decline of diamond sales in the US

"is because of the different priorities of twentysomethings. “People in the millennial generation need to save more. If you’re a young person trying to buy a house in this market where housing prices have risen and wages still haven’t caught up, obviously you aren’t thinking about buying really expensive diamonds.”"

In the classroom, posing The Economist's question: "why aren't millennials buying diamonds?" might be a useful discussion question to open broader conversation about a number of important topics, such as: ethical consumerism, the idea of authenticity and value, or how the relative poverty of millennials compared to their parents is actually part of the same global economic system that has lead to the production of conflict diamonds.

Quick links and further reading:

• The Economist: Shine On (2016); In the Rough (2016)
• The Economist's provocative tweet and responses (via Twitter)
• Lacking Sparkle: Why Have Millennials Fallen Out of Love With Diamonds? (2016, The Daily Beast)
• Anthropologist Andrew Walsh's website and Academia.edu pages. Recommended reading: 
• 2010  The Commoditization of Fetishes: Telling the Difference between Natural and Synthetic Sapphires.  American Ethnologist, 37(1): 97-113.
• 2012  Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism, and the Global Bazaar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.