Renee Rose Shield

Shield provides an anthropological study of diamond traders - and the trade itself - in New York. She spent time largely at the Diamond Dealers Club (DDC) on 47th Street in New York, or with those with connections to the club. As she states at the outset, she has relatives in the industry, and they were her in for the study. These personal connections opened up doors and enabled her to meet and talk to a wide variety of those involved in the industry - from buyers and sellers and brokers, to those in the cutting and polishing end of the business.

She looks at the history of the industry, how the industry works, the roles and influences of family and women in the business, how modernization is affecting the trade, etc. While the focus is on the DDC and its members, there are inevitably stories and information from around the world, especially Belgium and the Netherlands, but also Asia (especially Japan and India) and elsewhere.

While sometimes a bit repetitive, this was a really interesting read. The descriptions of and stories about the arbitration process revealed the reliance on traditions in the industry, the ways in which Jewish traditions are very much the norm in the business, and also how the trade has been forced to adapt to new ways. For example, with arbitration, the arbitrators now have to have more formal training, and lawyers are sometimes involved.

This is one of those books where I feel like I could go on and on with tidbits I picked up from reading it. There are some funny and educational stories about the diamond cutting process (how they can shatter in the process, how you can try to bring out the best features and rid of the flaws, how they can go careening across a room, how you can go into utter panic when you think you've lost one). I'd never realized how much control De Beers had on the diamond trade; how much trust there is in the exchange and sale of diamonds; how an agreement to a sale is made on the uttering of the Yiddish 'mazal und brucha' (luck and blessing'), or just 'mazal' - and that this is a binding contract. It is a business that, in the late 80s to late 90s when she did the bulk of her study, was already seeing the passing of a generation vital to the trade; it was not uncommon for some of the men (for it is still largely male dominated) - especially often orthodox or Hasidic Jews - still to be actively working in their 70s, 80s, even 90s.

Let me say, too, I've never understood the whole thing with diamonds - never been anything I felt any need to have or want. While this book didn't change that, I will see them differently. I'll think of the stories of the traders, cutters, and brokers and imagine the passing back and forth of folded envelopes as they mix examining the goods, bargaining, and schmoozing until a deal is 'mazal'.… (meer)