Title: Iron, gender, and power : rituals of transformation in African societies /
Authors: Herbert, Eugenia W.
Publisher: Indiana University Press,
Year: 1993
Subjects: Industries, Primitive Africa, Sub-Saharan.; Rites and ceremonies Africa, Sub-Saharan.; Iron industry and trade Africa, Sub-Saharan.; Iron Africa, Sub-Saharan Folklore.; Cosmology, African.; Power (Social sciences); Sex role Africa, Sub-Saharan.
Abstract: Examines African metallurgy and pottery from the concept of ritual, belief and taboo and discusses the gender implications of such a system.
Contents: Introduction: Techniques and Cosmology -- Pt. 1. Those Who Play with Fire: African Metallurgy as Epic Drama -- 1. The Actors and the Artifacts -- 2. Rituals of Transformation and Procreation -- 3. Rituals of Transformation: Exclusions and Taboos -- 4. The Smith and the Forge -- 5. Ironmaking and Belief -- Pt. 2. Symmetrics and Asymmetries: Power and Fertility -- 6. Le Roi-Forgeron -- 7. Of Forests and Furnaces, Anvils and Antelopes -- 8. Potters and Pots -- Conclusion: Anthropomorphism and the Genderization of Power -- Appendix: Reconstructions of Iron Smelting in Africa.