num_pages: 336
description: In this invigorating mix of natural history and adventure, artist-naturalist Ellen Meloy uses turquoise—the color and the gem—to probe deeper into our profound human attachment to landscape.From the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Bahamas to her home ground on the high plateaus and deep canyons of the Southwest, we journey with Meloy through vistas of both great beauty and great desecration. Her keen vision makes us look anew at ancestral mountains, turquoise seas, and even motel swimming pools. She introduces us to Navajo “velvet grandmothers” whose attire and aesthetics absorb the vivid palette of their homeland, as well as to Persians who consider turquoise the life-saving equivalent of a bullet-proof vest. Throughout, Meloy invites us to appreciate along with her the endless surprises in all of life and celebrates the seduction to be found in our visual surroundings.
language: English
title: The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky
titlecomplete: The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky
genres: Essays, Art, Environment, Science, Travel, Nature, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Anthropology
ratings_count: 1666
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: General Nonfiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Utah Book Award
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Vintage