the anthropology of turquoise by ellen meloy

This paradoxical comment comes at just about the half-way point in Ellen Meloy’s poetically adroit book, The Anthropology of Turquoise, a vast, exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) account of adventures in the cultural, scientific, and personal history not just of a stone, but of the color blue in its many global manifestations. The colors come forth for their own sheer ecstasy. This exotic, wholly liquid place lies outside words but well within the realm of the sensual. I do not care if I am mute or it my tongue is useless for everything but the taste of salt.

( 2 Comments ) Ellen Meloy combines the contemplative life of meditation with being fully engaged in nature: I no longer want to know the names of things.Knowledgeable and lyrical, Meloy's meditations should resonate with those who find sustenance in the natural world. In a restaurant her husband seats her near the door so she can 'see the night sky and stars and be less likely to shriek with panic and bolt.' She needs solitude so she can contemplate the things she considers essential-steep-sided canyons and their swift rivers a basket woven by a Yokuts Indian woman an ancient rock maze in the Mojave Desert a pair of placid old mules spending their retirement in a field. She finds contact with civilization jarring. But for Meloy, all colors are captivating, from the red-gold in the spines of a prickly pear glowing in the sun to the clay-red of 'waterfalls cascading down lavender and crimson sandstone.' Her reactions to the natural world are so intense they border on pain.

The Yucatán's turquoise Caribbean coast enthralls her, as does the turquoise sea of the Bahamas.

In another, she reflects whimsically on California's turquoise swimming pools. In one chapter she muses on the history and mystique of the blue-green gem. Color figures prominently here, especially turquoise, the hue of the signature stone of the region. Meloy ( Raven's Exile: A Season on the Green River) takes the reader through landscapes of pure sensation in these contemplative essays that are part Southwest travelogue, part memoir and part naturalism.

The anthropology of turquoise by ellen meloy