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Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata
Tracing the Veins Of Copper Culture and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata Author:Janet L. Finn This tale of two citiesButte, Montana, and Chuquicamata, Chiletraces 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 com... more »munity, 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.« less