LaMar Gayles: Gemology- A Commercialized Science With The Potential For Social Justice

 From the Whole Earth Gemologists- To An Understanding Of Our Gems 
 By: LaMar Gayles


      Within the Whole Earth Catalog series is a section titled Craft and Industry, which features numerous examples of articles, texts, and exploratory written pieces various aspects of emerging DIY practices in the "Expansive 60's" (broadly defined as the decades span encompassing the 1960s-80s). This allowed for everyday persons (with the means of purchasing the book then) to infiltrate (or pay into) the complex worlds of certain vocations or technical trades not made apparent to the public, for instance Gemology. In a copy of The Whole Earth Catalog from 1960s are a set of advertisements for jewelry-making books and gemology/lapidary equipment. The inclusion of these advertisements (an example pictured below) invites persons participating in 60's American Counterculture and more broadly persons interested in gemological concepts (but who might not have the access to the training) to begin the process of learning these fields on their own in a "DIY" or "Do It Yourself" framework.

Image from the Whole Earth Catalog
First Day of Art 520 with Dan Peterman
Lapidary Advertisement from the 1960s-70s

Lapidary Vs. Gemologist: Misconception or Purposeful Communication? 
In the Whole Earth Catalog "gemology" and "lapidary" are used as synonymous or interchangeable terms. Yet, in today's culture which often rewards/values credentialism has distinctly separated these two words. Gemology is literally defined as the study of gemstones, while lapidary is an adjective meaning in relation to stone/gems and the act of reshaping them, or as a person who does work of manipulating gemstones through polishing, engraving, or cutting. Though, these terms are VERY similar,  in today's culture and in the world of gemstones they hold separate meanings.

However, in the Whole Earth Catalog was the positioning of these terms (together or as synonymous entities) done on purpose? Currently, the field of gemology has been globally monopolized by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America as well as its partner organizations), whom are dedicated to developing the field (of gemology) by constructing credentialed programs for students to learn the skills. needed. This has caused gemology to become a commercialized field over the past five decades or so, which is a major epistemological shift from how gemology was posited before the 20th century. Before the commercialization of gemology as the field which "studies precious stones" scholars or practitioners poised in studying gemstones came from a plethora of backgrounds and were often also, lapidaries. This is seen in numerous earlier gemological treatise branching all the way back to the earliest known by Pliny The Elder in his Natural History Book 36-39. Yet, in today's globalized world credentialed gemologists are the only persons recognized as the "officials" who can study previous stones. This is most likely due to the global impetus to legitimize and "credentialize" the field as a means of commercializing it to the mass public. Now you too can become a gemologist by paying the GIA (or one of its partners) over 15,000.00 USD to obtain a diploma which says you can. Most of these programs only introduce students to gemstones and their forming processes, and has a stronger focus on understanding fiscal market value attached to a gemstone, based on taxonomy developed by the GIA. However, today persons who work with gemstones (at any capacity) without connections GIA (or connections with their affiliates) are professionally considered hobbyists and the art of lapidary has been reduced to that of a hobby with no official or credential granting programs. 

The impetus to globally resonate with gemology as the sole discipline that can study precious stones, has excluded persons who do the same practice (in other words also studying gemstones) but under the guise of lapidary or "self-taught" gemologist versus an "accredited gemologist". By socially embracing "accredited" gemologists we have left behind the benefits of those who come to the discipline from another field as well as their respective insights. In other words often persons who are "accredited" gemologists far too often focus on only understanding the financial value of gemstones versus producing critical, social, or even historical, scientific, and visual scholarship. Often, persons who "study" gemstones through the lens of another field outside of gemology (the field which stones are meant to be studied) focus on cultural, social, scientific, historical, and visual concepts en lieu economic/fiscal concerns.

The Whole Earth Catalog provides a unique countercultural view on gemology as it pairs the field with lapidary as if they were symbiotic in nature of intersecting in interests. By doing so the catalog provides an outlet for persons who purchase it, businesses to procure gemological equipment in order to practice in the field themselves. Since these publications were produced during the time (1960s) when gemology is gaining more notoriety to the American public view and social distinctions are being made between gemology and "lapidarism".



Urging*** For "Social Gemologists" -  Representatives of Cultural Knowledge and Radical Thought around Earth Materials
This is something I hope to make the focus of my research for the course and to produce a series of visual projects that explores this concept. 

Next Steps: 
Using gemstones (for example the chalcedony pictured below) I hope to construct visual installations, wearable sculptures, and performance objects based on the practices of gemologists and their colleagues lapidaries. This will allow me to understand and visually clarify their distinctions and the potential social power of the both disciplines. I argue gemology and lapidary are two sides of the same coin or in other words truly one discipline which has been separated by the interests of specific practitioners and institutions. I will urge persons to understand that a "social" gemology (that also encompasses lapidary and other forms of gemstone research) deals with a multivalent stream of information namely cultural, economic, historical, social, and visual. 

Image of Botryoidal Chalcedony which will be used in one of the visual projects for this study.