ABSTRACT

Many myths compare stones as the ‘bones’ of Mother Earth. Extrac-

tion of minerals in most cultures has been accompanied by complex

rituals and rites, undertaken as carefully as possible by, amongst other

things, filling up the holes and passages into the mine when extraction

was finished. A Sioux Indian smallholder expressed this spiritual

attitude thus:

There are three main categories of stone:

* Igneous rocks.Consolidated areas of rock that have forced their way

up through splits in the crust of the earth, these are the hardest types

of rock, such as the granites, syenites and dolerites. * Sedimentary rocks. Petrified and disintegrated stone which has

combined with organic materials. In this group are sandstone, slate

and limestone. * Metamorphic rocks. Formed by exertion of pressure and the action

of high temperatures on igneous or sedimentary rock types, which

transforms their structure. Examples of these rock types are

crystalline slate and quartzite.