Elizabeth Emma Ferry traces the movement of minerals as they circulate from Mexican mines to markets, museums, and private collections on both sides of the US-Mexico border. She describes how and why these byproducts of ore mining come to be valued by people in various walks of life as scientific specimens, religious offerings, works of art, and luxury collectibles. The story of mineral exploration and trade defines a variegated transnational space, shedding new light on the complex relationship between these two countries and on the process of making value itself.

Elizabeth Emma Ferry explores how members of Guanajuato's Santa Fe Cooperative, Mexico's only remaining cooperatively owned silver mine, give meaning to their labor in an era of rampant globalization and neoliberalism. Ferry analyzes the cooperative's practices and the importance of "patrimonio" (patrimony) in their understanding of work, kinship, and morality. More specifically, she argues that patrimonio, a belief that certain resources are inalienable possessions of a local collective passed down to subsequent generations, shapes and sustains the cooperative's sense of identity.

In addition to descriptions of the miners' lives and views, Ferry examines patrimonio's influence on other aspects of Mexican life. Patrimonio, which both challenges and coexists with contemporary capitalist practices, draws close connections between collective identities, rights to resources, and social obligations throughout Mexican society. Ferry's ambitious, groundbreaking study opens up new ways of understanding modern Mexican history, the idea of property, value, and exchange in capitalist society, and current debates in Mexico over the ownership of resources, land, and historical artifacts.

Elizabeth Emma Ferry traces the movement of minerals as they circulate from Mexican mines to markets, museums, and private collections on both sides of the US-Mexico border. She describes how and why these byproducts of ore mining come to be valued by people in various walks of life as scientific specimens, religious offerings, works of art, and luxury collectibles. The story of mineral exploration and trade defines a variegated transnational space, shedding new light on the complex relationship between these two countries and on the process of making value itself.