Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism and the Global Bazaar - Essay Example

This is exactly one of the main reasons of writing this book, a book that is said to be written with a student in mind even though it has manged to capture the interests of scholars too. The book attracts a wide scope of readers because it contains all the aspects of an ethnographic study. Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism and the Global Bazaar by Andrew aims at capturing the attention of student readers. The book aims at elucidating on the effects of mining sapphire and ecotourism on the people and the land of Madagascar.

The book elaborates these impacts by making imminent points about the cultural build up of “naturalness”, and the astounding resemblances between ethnographic knowledge and the huntsmen of gem, of ‘nature’ (Walsh 37). The introduction of the book gives the readers the desire to understand more about Madagascar and other important terms that are used in the entire book. The first chapter of the book, introduces the readers to the place where the discussion happened in the northern region of Madagascar.

The chapter explains the links that can be formulated between ecotourist trade and the sapphire in northern Madagascar with a connection to the links relating to the people taking part in the trade with the foreign buyers served by their effort (Walsh 37). The chapter aims at showing what the anthropologists often try to educate about the relationship between the known and the unknown, to expose the unexpeted relations and the imprudent embarrassments. It aims at also explaining and encouraging the new ways of thinking about the things that bind or split people in a world that is shared.

The author adopts Google as a search engine in his bid to explain Madagascar and reasonate with college going readers. He does this through his introduction with several searches for Ankarana which is the site sapphire is mined and Madagascar. The searches also involve googling about the anthropology, the sapphire, and the ecotourism themselves. According to the author, the ‘global bazaar’ links every other aspect with the concept that people constantly seek information and that they will always trade goods.

His concept is basically to show that the global bazaar is the same independent of the place. For instance, how the global marketplace is percieved from the pavements of Ankarana is similar to the prementioned trade show in New York City, which is also the same as viewing sapphires or ecotourism from an internet search engine (Walsh 37). From the summary of the book above, it is noticeable that the language used, the choice of words, and the terminologies in the book is dorminantly to catch the attention of a student, even though it draws the attention of the general audience.

Ankarana has different ways to be percieved depending on who is making that perception. This can be the locals, the anthropologists, or the tourists visiting Ankarana. The author describes Ankarana as the ‘place of rocks’ according to the various perspectives. The locals of Ankarana percieve it as a sacred place and as a place they call home. However, the same place has different perception according to the tourists who come to visit Ankarana. The tourists view Ankarana as a place full of ‘wonders’ termed to be natural.

They also look at it as one of the grand natural places in the world, but they also view it to be under threat (Walsh 37). The miners also have their own perception of Ankarana as a place where one can make a lot of fortune if the necessary effort and craftiness is exercised. The author dwells his argument on where these different perceptions can be related. Mining has a culture as it is termed by the author as “