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.