The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power, and Art in West Africa (Traditional Arts of Africa)

ISBN: 0253207983

Author: McNaughton, Patrick

Condition: New

" . . . finely crafted scholarship. Elegant and graceful, yet packed with knowledge and information, it embodies the aesthetic qualities which it describes and explores." -American Ethnologist"The text is detailed and informative, and enjoyable reading . . . " -Choice"The Mande Blacksmith is an important book . . . sensitive, sympathetic, multifaceted, and thorough . . . " -African Arts"McNaughton's Mande Blacksmiths is undeniably the most profound study of African artists yet published." -Ethnoarts" . . . penetrating . . . McNaughton boldly grapples with the thorniest issues related to his subject and articulates them with clarity and precision." -International Journal of African Historical Studies" . . . a work in the best tradition of ethnographic research. . . . critical reappraisal, innovative inquiry, and fresh observation . . . make this book an invaluable fund of new material on Mande societies . . . " -American Anthropologist"McNaughton . . . provides an important interpretation of these artists' conceptual place as members of a complex culture." -Religious Studies ReviewExamining the artistic, technological, social, and spiritual dimensions of Mande blacksmiths, who are the sculptors of their society, McNaughton defines these artists' conceptual place as extraordinary members of a complex culture.