Editor’s Note
This article explores the contested status of Greenland’s tugtupite gemstone, analyzing how its value is defined by different actors—from gemological standards to state ethics and artisanal practices. It frames the debate through the lens of resource “materialities,” offering a nuanced look at the intersection of geology, governance, and local markets.
When, in 2019, the Greenlandic government promoted the artisanal mining of gems, a controversy erupted about the status of tugtupite: was this local stone, which had long been mined, precious or not? For the three bodies involved, the evaluation criteria varied: in gemmology there are industrial standards, for the state an ethics, and for the artisanal market a practice. Approaching gems and other forms of tugtupite as resource “materialities” (Richardson and Weszkalnys, 2014), this article examines the industrial and political characteristics of gems, and analyses the social effects of the promotion of this stone in Greenland. In particular, it shows how the use of this resource category became an instrument of state representation.
In 2018, the purchase by the Smithsonian Institution of a faceted tugtupite for $10,000 from a Greenlandic artisan sparked a national controversy.
The following year, this transaction became the main argument for enacting legislation regulating twenty-seven minerals, including tugtupite, aimed at promoting gemstone exploitation. The Executive Certification Order, established by the Greenlandic parliament based on the usual standards of the gemological market (CIBJO, 2022), classifies these twenty-seven minerals according to their purity, weight, and cut, and requires the establishment of a certificate for sale to foreigners and for export (Inatsisartut [Greenlandic Parliament], 2019a). According to parliamentary texts, the political ambition is to guarantee a minimum selling price for artisans—about fifty nationwide—and to certify working conditions described as “ethical” to buyers (Inatsisartut, 2015).
However, the artisan community, which has been mining tugtupite since the 1970s, denounces an overvaluation of the stone. They argue it is more of an ornamental quality, as evidenced by its already established market. Thus, in the autumn of 2022, when I met about ten artisans in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and in Narsaq, the collection site…