DO YOU OWN A DIAMOND?

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DO YOU OWN A DIAMOND? HOW AND WHY DID YOU
ACQUIRE IT? HAVE YOU EVER GIVEN SOMEONE A
DIAMOND? WHAT DOES THE DIAMOND YOUVE GIVEN OR
RECEIVED MEAN TO YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW THATS
WHAT IT MEANS? WHERE DID THAT MEANING COME
FROM?
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WAR COLONISALISM IMPERIALISM APARTHIED LAND
CLAIMS ENVIRONMENT GOVERNANCE
MARRIAGE FEMINISM MYTHOLOGY RELIGION SEX-ROLE
STEREOTYPING CLASS CONSUMPTION SOCIAL VALUES
GLOBALIZATION MONOPOLY INVESTMENT MARKETING ADVERT
IZING COMMODIFIATION UNDERGROUND
ECONOMY LABOUR ECONOMIC VALUE
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
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Are Diamonds A Commodity?
Commodities are things of value, of uniforn
quality, that are produced in large quantities by
many different producers the items from each
different producer are considered
equivalent. Marx says that a commodity is simply
any good or service offered as a product for sale
on the market. It has a use value, and exchange
value and a price.
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History of Diamonds
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History of Diamonds
Louis IX
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History of Diamonds
Vasco da Gamma
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History of Diamonds
Hope Diamond
Koh-I-Noor
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
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History of Diamonds
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History of Diamonds
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Expression of Betrothal
1477 Mary of Burgundy received a diamond
engagement ring from Maximilian I
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Famous Diamonds
Hope Diamond
Cullinan I
Koh-I-Noor
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How do you come to value a thing?

• Human values
• Institutional values
• Psychology
• Advertising

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A Structural Analysis of Conspicuous Consumption
Behaviour 2006 Chaudhuri and Majumdar
Social Structure Primary Objects of Consumption Drivers of Behaviour Consumers Principal Behaviour Dimensions
Precapitalist-Feudal Slaves, Women, Food Military and Political Powers Nobility Pure Ostentation
Modern Capitalist Very Expensive Products, e.g. Diamonds Social Power and Status Nobility and Upper-middle Class Ostentation, Signaling and Uniqueness
Post Modern Image and Experience Self-expression and Self-image Middle Class and the Masses Uniqueness and Social Conformation
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Interviews

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2tQ3fZkTcaA

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Class vs. Status
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Diamonds A Focal Point
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The Diamond Myth Enter De
BeersA diamond is lost without its mythology
it becomes nothing but a chunk of clear carbon
polished to a high sheen, no better than a piece
of common quartz picked from a streambed during a
summer picnic. We thirst for diamonds because we
believe them to be rare and because they are
perceived by others to have a certain power
power from wealth, power from love, power from
crackling sexuality, power from kinship with all
of the above. The belief in a diamonds power is
its power(Tom Zoellner )
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A Diamond is Forever

• Capitalisms ultimate trick had been pulled off.
  Somebody had finally learned how to sell rocks
  (Tom Zoellner)
• "The true genius of De Beers lies in having
  created a connection, and sustaining in the
  popular imagination a connection between
  something that has no value at all. You can't eat
  it, you can't drive it home, you can't make
  clothes out of it, you can't build houses out of
  it, and creating a connection between that
  valueless item and something that is extremely
  valuable, which is human love. They created that
  connection they made it up and they've
  sustained it. (Matthew Hart)

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The Central Selling Organization A Benevolent
Monopoly?

• Whether the CSOs measure of control amounts to
  a monopoly I would not know, but if it does it is
  certainly a monopoly of a most unusual kind.
  There is no one concerned with diamonds, whether
  as producer, dealer, cutter, jeweler or customer
  who does not benefit from it (Henry
  Oppenheimer)
• 17 Charterhouse Road The Sights

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Marketing Strategies
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Targeting Perceived Markets
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Implicit Messages of the Ad Campaigns

• Diamonds are something that men do for women
  (Koskoff)
• The male-female roles seemed to resemble closely
  the sex relations in a Victorian novel. Man plays
  the dominant, active role in the gift processit
  permits the woman to pretend that she has not
  actively participated in the decision. She thus
  retains her innocence and the diamond.
• (Epstein)

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Critique of the Ad Campaigns

• But the fact that the parody is that obvious,
  because it lies so close to the reality, is the
  most damning indictment of the sheer misogyny and
  contempt for healthy relationships that the
  diamond industry has based its marketing upon.
  (Anil Dash)

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The End of the Monopoly?

• Enter the Canadian, Australian diamond producers
• Selling diamonds online
• Synthetic Diamonds
• Anti-trust action against De Beers
• De Beers as a private company
• The New Image of De Beers

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Pricing

• gem diamonds are of no use, but as ornaments
  and the merit of their beauty is greatly
  enhanced by their scarcity, or by the difficulty
  of getting them from the mine. Wages and profit
  accordingly make up, upon most occasions, almost
  the whole of their high price (Adam Smith)
• "Diamonds are of very rare occurrence on the
  earth's surface, and hence their discovery costs,
  on an average, a great deal of labour-time.....If
  we could succeed at a small expenditure of
  labour, in converting carbon into diamonds, their
  value might fall below that of bricks." (Karl
  Marx)

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More than marketing

• Complex and multi-faceted intersection of several
  factors
• Breach of promise
• Victorian Culture
• World Politics
• Establishment of GIA, 4 Cs criteria,

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How Diamonds Are Mined
PandaPit, Ekati Mine, NWT
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How Diamonds Are Mined
Artisanal Mining
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Where Diamonds Are Mined
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Where Diamonds Are Mined
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Whos There Already
Dene NWT
Aboriginal, Australia
San Bushmen, Botswana
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Impact Benefit Agreements

• preferential employment for aboriginals,
• community-based recruitment,
• training and support programs,
• preferential contracting with aboriginal
  businesses,
• and funding arrangements whereby the company
  provides the community with money to mitigate any
  negative impacts on hunting and fishing as a
  result of mining.

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Environment
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Blood Diamonds
Amputation is Forever

http//www.amnestyusa.org/diamonds/d4.html
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Kimberley Certificate
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WAR COLONISALISM IMPERIALISM APARTHIED LAND
CLAIMS ENVIRONMENT GOVERNANCE
MARRIAGE FEMINISM MYTHOLOGY RELIGION SEX-ROLE
STEREOTYPING CLASS CONSUMPTION SOCIAL VALUES
GLOBALIZATION MONOPOLY INVESTMENT MARKETING ADVERT
IZING COMMODIFIATION UNDERGROUND
ECONOMY LABOUR ECONOMIC VALUE
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
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Living with the Tensions

• Re-visiting course concepts
• Kanye West example
• Meaning is multi-faceted and complex

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