The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy

Sometimes the sheep are completely boring, sometimes their animation moves me beyond words. 'Attention, fierce or dreamy, affixes my butt to sheep country, to long hours on bare limestone slabs in chilly wind. Meloy believes that if we don’t 'witness other species in their world,' it will lead to 'an estrangement that leaves us hungry and lonely.' Meloy is eloquent, passionate and convincing in conveying how the close field study of bighorn sheep leaves her less lonely. The gifted writer, illustrator and environmentalist leaves behind an impressive canon of nature writing that includes Raven’s Exile, The Last Cheater’s Waltz and The Anthropology of Turquoise, a book short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize.Įating Stone, completed just before her death at the age of 58, recounts Meloy’s close observations of a nearby band of desert bighorn sheep she names the Blue Door Band. by the author not seen by PW.Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of theĪuthor Ellen Meloy died unexpectedly at her home in Bluff, Utah, last Nov.

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