Iron, Gender, and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African Societies

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Indiana University Press, 1993 - History - 277 pages

"[Herbert] has constructed a model of power relationships structured upon gender and age, and derived from male transformative processes, and in so doing has written a notable, and most enjoyable, book." —African History

"Herbert examines with great care and thoroughness the relationships between gender and power and the rationales that give them social form. . . . [Her] analytical ability is outstanding." —Patrick McNaughton

"This book is a well-written and essential study of the place of belief in African material culture." —International Journal of African Historical Studies

Herbert relates the beliefs and practices associated with iron working in African cultures to other transformative activities—chiefly investiture, hunting, and pottery making—to propose a gender/age-based theory of power.

 

Contents

Techniques and Cosmology
1
Those Who Play with Fire
23
The Actors and the Artifacts
29
Rituals of Transformation and Procreation
63
Exclusions and Taboos
78
The Smith and the Forge
97
Ironmaking and Belief
115
ix
135
Of Forests and Furnaces Anvils and Antelopes
164
Potters and Pots
200
Anthropomorphism and the Genderization
219
Reconstructions of Iron Smelting in Africa
239
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About the author (1993)

EUGENIA W. HERBERT is E. Nevius Rodman Professor of African History at Mount Holyoke College and author of Red Gold of Africa: Copper in Precolonial History and Culture.