The Colour of Paradise

There is no doubt that Kris Lane did his research to write The Colour of Paradise.  This book was very easy to read while it provided useful resourceful information. He chose to write about emeralds, but I am not convinced that this book is only about it; however he used emeralds as the vehicle for transmitting his argument.  Looking from the aspect of commodity chain his focus was mainly on the production, consumption of the commodity through trade.  As seen in the other books we read in the class, the Europeans are still main players factor alongside Native Americans. However with this commodity, there was a new elite from East who valued emeralds.  Similar to last week’s reading the author spends time on the ritual importance of the commodity and how it was given to indigenous Gods. 

            It was interesting to read about the Far East cultures and their uses of emeralds. I agree with Tim, he did not explore enough the art of gift giving, since it is very important in the Islamic cultures. Also it was fascinating to learn about how emeralds were valued by Muslim elites since green was the preferred color of prophet Mohamed (PBUH).

            Even though I enjoyed reading this book, I was not convinced it addressed the aspects of commodity history definition or chain we have discussed in class.  I am not sure if I will use this book as one of my final books, I don’t think it will fit well with the book I already selected.