Indigenous African Metallurgy Nature and Culture

Annu. Hev. Anthropol- 1993. 22:317-37Copyright © 1993 by Annual Reviews tm. Alt rights re.servfd

INDIGENOUS AFRICANMETALLURGY: NATURE ANDCULTURE

S, Terry Childs

Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560

David Killick

Departments of Anthropology and Materials Science and Engineering, University ofArizona. Tucson, Arizona 85721

KEY WORDS: technology, symbolism, ritual, trade, ethnoscience

INTRODUCTION

Western observers have comtiietiled oti the techtiology of mitiing and tnetal-lurgy iti sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 1) for over three hundred years, butWestern awareness of the cultural dimetisions of African metallurgy is tnuchmore recent. It was not until the looting of Benin City by the British expeditionof 1897 that the outside world learned of the West African traditions offigurative art in metal, and not until the late 1940s that these traditions werefirst investigated by archaeologists. Anthropological studies of the cognitiveand symbolic aspects of tnetallurgy in preindustrial African societies are evenmore recent. Although missionaries and colonial officials had drawn attentionin the early 1900s to the rituals associated with smelting metals in Africa (e.g.27, 120), serious anthropological studies ofthe conceptual and social aspectsof these technologies were not conducted until the late 1940s (e.g. 20, 28, 37,42).

Most of the early studies were written in French; comparable work inEnglish did not appear until the mid-1970s (93, 114). The last fifteen years

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318 CHILDS & KILLICK

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Figure I Map of Africa with the major sites discussed

have seen a marked surge in research on all aspects of tnetal production anduse in Africa, in particular, ethnographic studies of iron smelting. Interest inthis topic has grown in part because ofthe urgent need for "salvage ethnogra-phy," as these technologies are now extinct and the few surviving formerironworkers are elderly. This increased interest also reflects growing intellec-tual fascination in the West with the seatnless web of perception, social theory,social organization, and technical prowess that together constitute Africantnetal working.

INDIGENOUS AFRICAN METALLURGY 319

The anthropological significance of indigenous African tnetallurgy extendsfar beyond the economic importance of metals in warfare, agriculture, andtrade. Metallurgical processes in Africa were explained by drawing uponindigenous theories of natural and social order, and these beliefs had markedinfluence on the social organization of production. Studies of African metal-lurgy can, therefore, shed light on beliefs as remote from the forge and thecrucible as marital relations, witchcraft, and the obligations of the living totheir ancestors. Technologies, it appears, are also "choses a penser." Tbis ideahas been long understood in France, but is only now beginning to be appreci-ated in Anglo-American social anthropology (e.g. 83).

Although circulation of African metallurgy studies has been restrictedmostly to the Africanist community, they should be of interest to a wideraudience. They are particularly relevant to the long-established "An-thropologie de Techniques" group in France (57, 67), to the emerging "An-thropology of Technology" movement in Britain and North America (19, 66,83), and to the dominant "Social Construction of Technology" paradigm in thehistory of technology (6). Members of each group share the conviction thatsocial forces often determine which technologies are selected and how they areapplied.

In this review, we focus upon studies of the social significance of Africanmetallurgy. We first summarize the changing role of metallurgy through timein prehistoric and historic sub-Saharan Africa. Next, we look at ethnographicstudies that examine how metallurgical technologies were understood, and thenatural and supernatural forces that influenced these processes. We then re-view what is known ofthe social organization of metal production in historicaltimes, and the social roles that metals played in selected African societies. Weconclude witb thoughts on possible future directions for research.

We use sub-Saharan Africa in tbe conventional sense to exclude all ofpresent Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. We distinguish betweenhistorical dates, which are presented as years BC or AD, and calibrated radio-carbon dates, which are cited as a range of years cal BC or cat AD. Allradiocarbon calibrations were made with the computer program CALIB 2.0(101) at 2 S. For tbe uncalibrated radiocarbon dates and laboratory numbers,the interested reader must consult the sources cited.

METALS IN AFRICAN HISTORY AND PREHISTORY

Origins of metallurgy in Africa

The earliest reported evidence of metal smelting use in sub-Saharan Africa isfrom Nubia where small numbers of copper artifacts have been recovered fromsites dating after 4000 BC. These were probably imports from Egypt. The


technology for smelting copper appears, based on the present, meager evi-dence, to have been introduced from upper Egypt during the early Old King-dom period (ca. 2686-2181 BC). The principal evidence for this is an Egyptiancolonial outpost that was established at Buhen in 2600 BC lo smelt Nubiancopper ores (1). A crucible furnace for casting bronze, dating to 2300-1900 calBC, has also been found within the temple precinct at Kerma (II). The sourceof the tin in the bronze is not yet known. During the next millennium, Nubianartisans developed great skill in working copper, bronze, silver, and gold. Thegold deposits in the desert of upper Nubia appear to have been discovered byMiddle Kingdom times, ca. 2700-2200 BC, and were the major source of goldfor the Egyptian dynasties ofthe New Kingdom (1991-1633 BC)(1).

Metallurgy does not appear to have been practiced elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa until the early first millennium BC, except perhaps in Ethiopia.The early metallurgical history of Ethiopia i.s still obscure, but a fully devel-oped bronze- and ironworking industry with strong stylistic affinities to south-ern Arabia existed by the fifth century BC (26). The only other regions ofsub-Saharan Africa that have yielded evidence of copperworking before theadvent of iron are near tbe southern fringes of the Sahara in Mauretania andNiger.

Several small copper mines and a smelting site were excavated at Akjoujt,Mauretania, dating from tbe ninth through the third centuries cal BC (64). Tbeorigin of this technology is unknown, although some contact with Punic NorthAfrica is indicated by the recovery of a type of bronze fibula known to havecirculated around the Mediterranean in tbe sixth century BC. The scale ofproduction at Akjoujt appears to bave been very small; it ceased after the thirdcentury BC, but resumed in the late first millennium AD.

A large survey project in the region west of Agadez, Niger, also discoveredthe remains of numerous copper smelting furnaces and purported furnacesbetween 1977 and 1981. Several dozen of tbese were excavated and dated (54,55). On tbe basis of these data and chemical analyses of some associatedresidues, tbe excavator proposed the following metallurgical sequence:"Cuivre I" began with the melting of native copper before 2000 cal BC,followed by smelting copper from oxide ores by 900 cal BC in "Cuivre II," andiron smelting by 500 cal BC in "Fer I" (54, 55). A subsequent and morethorough technical study of these residues, however, found no definite evi-dence for copper metallurgy in Niger before the early first millennium cal BC(63).

Elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, iron is the first metal to appear in tbearchaeological record. Iron smelting furnaces have been radiocarbon dated totbe interval 500-1000 cal BC in Nigeria (81,99), Niger (55, 84), Tanzania (93),and Rwanda (109). These dates have fueled the long-running debate about theorigins of ironworking in Africa. Before the first of these dates were published


in the mid-1960s, it was widely accepted that iron smelting had been transmit-ted from Egypt to Nubia, and then to West and East Africa (115), witb possibleindependent transmission from Phoenician North Africa across the Sahara(71). The early radiocarbon dates for West and East Africa imply, if taken atface value, that iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa may be as old as that inEgypt or North Africa, and older than that in Nubia. Trigger (105) showed thatthe earliest known occurrence of iron in Nubia dates from tbe reign of Taharqa(689-664 BC), even though presently there is no evidence of iron smelting inNubia before the sixth century BC (106). Iron smelting in Egypt was notknown before the eighth century BC. There is no material evidence for earlyironworking in North Africa, but it is presumed to have been introduced byPhoenician settlers in or after the ninth century BC(IO7).

This lack of evidence led some scholars to suggest an independent inven-tion of iron smelting in sub-Saharan Africa (2, 39, 95). There are, however,technical objections to this suggestion. The smelting of iron requires strictcontrol of fumace temperature and gas composition. Most historians of metal-lurgy find it difficult to believe that such control could be developed withoutsome prior experience with high temperature pyrotechnology, such as kilnfiring of ceramics or copper smelting (16, 107). A second technical caveat isthat the few radiocarbon dates before 500 ca! BC for metallurgy in sub SaharanAfrica may be tbe result of the "old wood" effect. This effect has been foundwhen prehistoric peoples burned heartwood from long-lived trees in tropicalforest regions, or when they used long-dead wood or charcoal in arid regionswbere the mechanisms of decay were suppressed (63,74).

The question of origins is therefore still unanswered. Claims for iron metal-lurgy before 500 BC must be supported by radiocarbon dates that are notsusceptible to the "old wood" effect (i.e. by dates on annual plants) or by dataproduced by other methods (archaeomagnetism or thermoluminescence). Wealso must know more about the history of metallurgy in Ethiopia and the Horn,and should consider the possibility of introductions from other regions, such asthe Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. Iron metallurgy in Africaprobably has multiple origins.

The subsequent spread of ironworking technology to central and southernAfrica was linked for many years to the spread of Bantu languages. The theorythat the dispersal of ironworking was achieved by the spread of Bantu-speak-ers originated with Sir Harry Johnston in a series of papers written between1880 and 1920 (111). The Bantu expansion was recast in the late 1950s as a"package" of language, agriculture, and metallurgy carried south by a new(Negroid) racial group who spoke Bantu languages. This remained the domi-nant theme in the later prehistory of Africa until the the mid-1970s, wben itbecame increasingly difficult to reconcile the linguistic and archaeologicaldata (112). In particular, the linguistic reconstruction tbat iron metallurgy was


carried from the proto-Bantu cradle in present-day Cameroon through the rainforest of the Congo Basin and into the savannas of Central Africa or furthereast seems to be refuted by excavations in Zaire and the Congo Republic.Although there is evidence of iron smelting by the late first millennium cal BCin present-day Gabon (38) and along the Congo coast (33), iron does notappear in northeastern Zaire until much later (44). It is increasingly likely thatironworking technology arrived in Central Africa from the interiacustrine areato the east (113). Only in southern Africa is it still plausible to see irontechnology arriving as part of a "package" with cereal agriculture, Bantulanguages, and permanent architecture. The knowledge of smelting was appar-ently never acquired by the pastoralists and hunter-gatherers of southern Af-rica, although they did forge traded metals (34). In the Central African wood-lands, stone-using hunter-gatherers coexisted with iron-using farmers withinthe last five centuries (e.g. 76).

Urbanization, state formation and the long distance trade inmetals

The most significant developments in sub-Saharan Africa during the first andearly second millennia AD were: 1. the collapse ofthe Nubian and Ethiopiancivilizations, 2. the Islamization of North Africa, 3. the establishment of long-distance trade routes, and 4. the rise of towns and states in West and SoutheastAfrica. Metals figure prominently in the last two developments. Long distancetrade in both West and Southeast Africa exported African gold to the Islamicworid and India and imported brass and copper to West Africa. Elite metalgoods refiect early political stratification.

The eariiest historical records of West Africa are in Arabic, dating to theninth century AD. The trans-Saharan gold trade was well established by thistime, as were towns and at least three states (68). These documents led histori-ans to view both urbanism and political stratification in West Africa as prod-ucts of the gold and slave trade (74), but thi.s conclusion has been contestedrecently.

The first revelation was the archaeological discovery at Igbo-Ukwu, Nige-ria, (eighth to tenth centuries cal AD) of a royal burial, whose wealth pointed topolitical stratification (98). Igbo-Ukwu is famous for its corpus of over ahundred copper and bronze objects that are triumphs of artistic virtuosity andunique styling (45). The site is not in a gold producing area and lies deep in therainforest, a zone that was essentially unknown to the Islamic world until thefourteenth century. These facts have led to heated argument between thosewho see social stratification and craft specialization at Igbo-Ukwu as an indig-enous phenomenon and those who see external stimuli at work. Recent scien-tific studies of the objects (17, 24) support indigenous development. Thesubsequent association of art in metal with royal status in Nigeria is now fairly


well understood (40,46), but no precursors to Igbo-Ukwu have yet been foutid(117).

The only thorough archaeological study of the chronology and process ofurbanization in West Africa is that established for Jenne-Jeno, Mali (73, 74).The Mclntoshes have shown that a substantial town existed at this site by ca.250 cal AD and a large walled city by 800 cal AD (the beginning ofthe Islamicera in West Africa). No gold and very few imports from north of the Saharahave been found at Jenne-Jeno dating before 850-900 cal AD (72). The originsof urbanism on the middle Niger appear, therefore, to be unrelated to thetrans-Saharan trade. This does not rule out the possibility tbat the gold tradeplayed a part in state formation further to the west in the Senegal River valley,where the earliest states known to Islamic writers were located. Intriguingevidence from records of North African mints also suggests some importationof West African gold by the end of the Roman era, around 400 AD (50). Amajor program of archaeological fieldwork in the middle Senegal is nownearing completion and will undoubtedly provide some answers to these ques-tions (S. Mclntosh, personal communication).

The presence of brass, the alloy of copper with zinc, is the most sensitiveindicator of the beginning of trans-Saharan trade in West Africa. The Romanswere the first to make brass in quantity (23), but it does not appear to havebeen produced in sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that there is not a single brassobject among over a hundred analyzed objects from Igbo-Ukwu (24) is strongevidence that the metal used was mined locally rather than imported fromacross tbe Sahara. The earliest brass recovered at Jenne-Jeno is from contextsdated to 900-1000 cal AD (72), similar to recent findings in the Senegal Rivervalley (S. K. Mclntosh, personal communication). The scale of metal importsin later years is suggested by the discovery in the Mauretanian Sahara of a lostcaravan load of two tons of brass rods, dated to 1030-1280 cal AD (77).

While the role of the trans-Saharan gold trade in the origin of West Africanstates is still uncertain, the link between long distance trade and state forma-tion in southern Africa is more clear. Islamic, Persian, or Chinese importedceramics occur at coastal sites between Kenya and Mozambique from theeighth century AD; by the ninth century, glass beads of probable Indian originare found in Botswana and the Limpopo valley. The commodities first ex-ported from this region by the coastal trade were ivory and skins; gold is firstmentioned in Arabic documents by the tenth century (49). The oldest goldartifacts yet recovered from an archaeological site come from Mapungubwe(floruit 1220-1270 cal AD), the largest and richest site in what was a very largechiefdom or, possibly, southern Africa's first state (61).

The richest sources of gold lay on the Zimbabwean plateau where a muchlarger state grew in the thirteenth century. Its capital. Great Zimbabwe, isdated to ca. 1275-1550 cal AD, and is estimated to have bad a maximum


population of between 11,000 and 18,000. This site and many smaller, lower-level elite residences have yielded gold, imported glass, ceramics, and metals,and are spatially associated with gold mines. There is now little doubt thatmuch of the state's power flowed from taxing the gold trade (61). Since noexamples of true tin bronzes yet exist from soutbem Africa before AD 1000, itis possible that local tin mining was also stimulated by external demand.

Political stratification and the intensive exploitation of metal resources inAfrica were not always the result of external demand. Ancient cemeteries inthe Upemba Depression of soutbeastern Zaire provide evidence of emergingsocial stratification by the late first millennium cal AD. Marked variation in theabundance and quality of grave goods in over 300 burials is well documented,and some artifacts suggest direct continuity from these peoples to the emer-gence ofthe Luba state by the eighteenth century (18, 31). Many ofthe moreelaborate graves contain copper, presumably smelted some 200 km to thesouth in the Katangan/Zambian Copperbelt. Control of the distribution ofcopper, as well as local sources of iron, was critical to the vitality of the Lubastate (88). The distinctive cross-shaped ingots produced in the Copperbeltbecame general purpose currency in Central and Southeast Africa after thefifteenth century (30). It was not until the sixteenth century, when the Portu-guese established trading posts in present-day Angola, that this region wasconnected to a world system.

Indigenous metallurgy from the sixteenth century to the present

When da Gama's fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 it marked thebeginning of a profound reorientation of patterns of production and trade inmetals. The caravels of the Portuguese and their competitors provided moredirect access to the rich Akan goidfields of present-day Ghana, and the meansto fiood the market with copper and copper alloys, hitherto restricted by theperils of the Saharan crossing and the carrying capacity of the camel. Thetrans-Saharan caravan trade persisted into the late nineteenth century, but itsimportance in the metal trade was much diminished. The greater abundance ofcopper alloys gave rise throughout the West African rain forest to a floweringof metal casting traditions, of which those of Benin and Owo are best known(45). The kingdom of Ashanti, which controlled the major goidfields, is wellknown for the quantity and exuberance of its royal regalia in gold.

The arrival of Europeans led to a sharp increase in the production of gold inWest Africa, but had an opposite effect in Southeast Africa. There, the Portu-guese failed to understand the dispensed nature of the industry and the laborintensive form of production. Their greed and persistent interference in thepolitical affairs of the kingdoms that succeeded Great Zimbabwe led to a sharpdecline in gold production (3).


The scramble for Africa from the mid-nineteenth century onward alsobrought European metal imports, which gradually drove out the more expen-sive local products. Indigenous copper and tin mining and smelting ceased bythe late nineteenth century, except in present-day Zaire, Angola, and Zambia,where they lingered into the present century. Iron smelting was extinct inmany parts of Africa by Worid War 1, but survived in remote areas of WestAfrica until the 1960s. The last indigenous furnaces used to smelt for themarket went out of production in tbe northern Ivory Coast in 1983, bringing toa close a technological tradition spanning some 2500 years. Forging andcasting scrap metal by traditional methods continues in rural and urban Africa,and has expanded to incorporate new materials, notably aluminum.

MODELS AND METAPHORS IN METALLURGY

All social behavior, including technology, is grounded in a conceptual frame-work that imposes order on the world and lends structure to buman existence.These beliefs guide the choices made in all facets of life. In the context oftechnology, these choices include the organization of labor and the selection ofresources, tools, and the sequence of acts that constitute a technological pro-cess. Technologies in tbe industrial world are explained through the sciencesof thermodynamics and kinetics. In the preindustrial world, however, compli-cated technologies like iron smelting are made comprehensible by analogy toother natural or social processes. Metallurgical technology in Africa is ex-plained by analogy to human physiology and to theories of social structure andsocial process (32, 59,78, 93).

The processes of transforming ore into metal and unrefined metal into anobject through the control of fire are widely conceived in Africa as dangerousand uncertain acts of creation, subject to interference by ancestral spirits andby acts of sorcery from fellow mortals (21,58,59). Secret rituals and symbols,along with various rules and taboos, were viewed as essential to counteractsuch supernatural forces, and as important to a successful smelt as were the oreand fuel. Smelting operations were carried out far from villages, requiredspecial protective charms and medicines, and were restricted to specific indi-viduals, usually those with particular kin ties and specialized training (21, 58).While mining and smithing were more public enterprises, they also oftenrequired special precautions and rituals (29, 32). The cosmological founda-tions of these rituals have been topics of study for the last several decades.

Herbert (59) argues that two axes of fundamental human experience, gen-der and age, provide a framework that structured behavior in the production ofiron and, quite likely, other metals in Africa. Gender involves an interplaybetween males and females through the buman life cycle. The critical differ-ence is that females experience a stage of potential reproduction and creation.


offset by monthly periods of sterility, which males do not. The relationshipsbetween women, production, and reproduction are readily apparent. In therealm of iron smelting, men bring iron into the world by appropriating,through symbol and metaphor, the reproductive power of women.

The axis of age structures the social relations between elders and youth, aswell as between the living and the dead. Individuals in many African societiesaccumulate power, experience, and wisdom with age, giving elders the right toappropriate the labor and reproductive powers of the young. Elders, for exam-ple, held the esoteric and practical expertise required to work metal, whileyouths provided much of the labor. The oldest and most powerful of all inmany societies are the deceased ancestors, who have the power to assuresuccess or failure in any enterprise, such as the productivity of a mine or aniron smelt, or the protective potency of a gold charm. The favor of the ances-tors was courted through specific rituals and taboos that were an integral andessential part of metal technologies.

Human gestation as a model for iron smelting

The dimensions of gender and age were sometimes made explicit in Africanmetalworking, although it was more often expressed subtly in ritual, dance,and song. Iron (and sometimes copper) smelting was most commonly seen asanalogous to gestation and birth (19, 21, 29, 59, 94).

Among the Eipa of Tanzania, for example, the construction of a fumacewas accompanied by tbe same rituals and decorations used to prepare a brideon her wedding day (119). The smelting process was not explicitly likened togiving birth, although analysis of the ritual strongly suggests an implicit asso-ciation (59). The Phoka of Malawi described their smelting fumace as a fertileyoung woman while under construction, and as their "wife" once smeltingbegan (108). Shona ironworkers of Zimbabwe, by contrast, made the associa-tion explicit by modeling their fumace as a fertile woman, with breasts andscarifications to indicate and activate her fertility, and sometimes with awaistbelt to strengtben her sexuality and guard her fertility (36). The bloomdropped from her stomach area into an opening between leg-like projections(5). Finally, among the Yeke of Zaire, the operation of the forced draft furnacefor copper smelting involved a chant with the words "a high fumace with alarge womb" (27 as translated in 58).

Explaining failure: infidelity, pollution, and sorcery

The obstetrical model of iron smelting could account for failure as well assuccess, though not all failures were explained as such. Failures due to poorchoice of materials or to mistakes in operation were also recognized, and somefailures were ascribed to acts of sorcery. One of the major explanations for


failure, however, was the displeasure of ancestral spirits, and a major reasonfor such displeasure was often a transgression of sexual and marital norms.

Strict sexual abstinence was usually mandated for all male ironworkers(21), and frequently for other metalworkers (e.g. 52), during smelting andsome stages of mining and smithing. In many cultures, such as the Phoka (108)and Chewa (62) of Malawi, the male ironworkers were the "husbands" of thefemale fumace during smelting operations. Sexual abstinence from his humanwife meant that the ironworker was fully available to his furnace "wife."Adultery by either marital partner during pregnancy was widely believed tocause miscarriage. Failure of a furnace to form a bloom, therefore, often led toaccusations that an ironworker was unfaithful to the fumace by engaging insexual intercourse with a human, even his own wife (e.g. 12, 62). Such behav-ior was thought to deeply offend the ancestors. To remove the ironworkersfrom temptation, smelting sites were often placed at some distance from vil-lages.

Sexual taboos for a smith were usually enforced when a new forge wasbuilt or new tools were made. The rituals associated with the latter involvedprocesses that anthropomorphized and genderized a new tool as a child amongthe Ondulu smiths (87), for example, or as a second wife among the Nyoropig-ironworkers (89). The potential fertility and productivity of these newsocial characters is clear.

Interdictions against the presence and participation of women in Africanmetalworking were widespread, yet highly variable. In some societies[Rwanda and Burundi (15), for example] women were not allowed in thevicinity of a smelt. Among the Bassari of Togo (59) and the Tumbuka ofMalawi (62), only prepubescent girls or postmenopausal women, who wereassumed to be sexually inactive, cooked and brought food to the male workersduring iron smelting. Women of all ages participated in iron, copper, and goldproduction as miners and porters where it had developed on a large scale (27,52,69), but were always excluded from smelting operations.

Even where the strictures against women in metalworking were relativelyloose, menstruating and pregnant women were always excluded. It is likelythat menstruating women posed the threat of temporary sterility and loss ofproductivity during a smelt (59) or in gold mining. The presence of pregnantwomen might increase the chance of a premature "birth" in a fumace (29).

Sorcery was often invoked as a cause of failure. Ironworkers were rela-tively wealthy in many societies and as a result, they felt vulnerable to spellscast by envious fellow mortals. The preparation of medicines to protect thefurnace from such spells was considered an essential part of the technology,often involving much effort to gather the ingredients required (62, 108). It ishardly surprising, therefore, that metalworkers were often suspected of beingsorcerers or shamans themselves. In fact, some took up their specialty because


of demands by spirits in dreams (e.g. 10). Many African metalworkers weresought out by the general public for their divining and healing skills (e.g. 48,75, 78). These craftsmen made protective amulets from the metal they pro-duced (e.g. 25) or from other materials; placed concoctions of secret medicinesin and around a mine, furnace, or forge (e.g. 104); and benefited from thespecial powers of their tools (e.g. 32,70).

Reading the ideological basis of metalworking into prehistory

The ideological bases of behavior are difficult to detect in the archaeologicalrecord. The wealth and diversity of ethnographic information on African metalproduction, however, provide strong material clues for examining the ideasand concems that might have motivated prehistoric behavior. These are pri-marily features of furnaces, the most permanent remains of metallurgicalactivity.

The shape and decoration of the furnaces may provide evidence of a con-ceptual association between smelting and rites of passage such as marriage,gestation, and birth. Decoration of fumaces as brides by the Fipa (119), or asfertile women with breasts and scarification by the Shona (5, 36), Luchazi(60), or Luba (14) are ample evidence that furnace wails communicate import-ant information on belief systems. Many Early Iron Age furnaces have beenfound with vertical grooves, chevrons, and dot-like markings on some brickwall materials (e.g. 93, 96, 109). Collett (22) notes the similarities between thefurnace decorations and those found on Early Iron Age pots, and hypothesizesan ideological parallel between smelting and cooking. Not only is cookinghistorically considered a woman's role that promotes good health and produc-tivity in a society, but It is metaphorically related to sexual relations and theconception of children (see also 59).

We noted above that most recent smelting sites were built at some distancefrom villages to keep sorcerers and sexually active women away. Such rela-tionships between ancient smelting areas and villages should be evident inregional archaeological surveys. In central Malawi and southern Zambia, forexample, smelting sites dated before 1200 AD are often located within villages(62). This suggests that ironworkers before this time were less concernedabout isolating tbe smelting process from women than were their more recentcounterparts. Furnaces may also have been located on ancient smelting sites toexpress the linkage between metalworking and ancestral spirits, as among theUshi of Zambia (4). Reuse of the same smelting site over time has been notedin Tanzania (96).

Another continuity between the ethnographic record and tbe distant past isthe presence of one or more small pits, often sealed, in the furnace floor. In theethnographic record these are known to have been receptacles for the protec-tive medicines used to placate ancestors or deter sorcerors (e.g. 104, 108).


Although perishable medicines disintegrated over time, similar holes dating tothe first millennium AD have been found in prehistoric fumaces in East andCentral Africa (e.g. 96, 110).

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF METAL PRODUCTION

Systems of belief profoundly intluence Ihe organization of technoiogy. In thissection, we survey the ways that metaiworking was organized in the recentpast within politically unstratified and stratified African societies.

Metalworking in unstratified societies

Many metalworkers in unstratified societies, particularly ironworkers, werefree agents and part-time specialists. Their carefully concealed knowledgeensured their specialist status, but most only worked on a seasonal basisbecause of low demand. Since most were both smelters and smiths, thisusually meant working the fields during part of the year, smelting during thedry season, and forging intermittently. Some worked in small family unitssuch as the Kikuyu ironworkers of Kenya (90). Most, however, were membersof a clan that worked under the ritual and technical leadership of one master,who might be a father, an uncle, or, in Central Africa, often a village chief(29). Most metalworkers were also permanent residents of one village, exceptfor occasional fissioning because of competition (e.g. 70). Some itinerantmetalworkers in Nigeria (78) and Niger (43) have been documented.

Where metalworkers were highly respected, as in most Bantu-speakingsocieties, they might demand long service from apprentices before impartingthe essential technical and ritual knowledge (e.g. 87). Apprentices who werenot kin to the Ironmaster might also be required to present a large gift beforeobtaining knowledge of the secret rituals (e.g. 13, 62). The expense probablylimited the number of outsiders who became masters (59). Ironworkers mightalso demand some labor, usually the blowing of bellows, from individuals whosought their services at the forge (e.g. 90). The labor of women as miners orporters was exploited througb kinship obligations, usually without any directcompensation (59,62,91).

Metalworking in stratified societies

In many stratified African societies, tension existed between the metalworkers,who communicated with the spirit worid to create valuable metals, and theroyals, who also claimed empowerment by ancestral spirits. Rulers, therefore,sought ways to restrict some of the artisans' powers. Metalworkers in Centraland East Africa were often reminded of the political leaders' ultimate authorityduring ritual reenactments of forging during enthronement ceremonies (e.g.


32, 82). Many ironmasters had rights similar to those of the king, but as amongthe Fipa (118), regularly had to pay a tribute to the ruler.

A distinctive feature of many West African societies is that ironworkers(male) and potters (female) are segregated from the rest of society in endoga-mous groupings that often are wrongly called "castes" (20, 25, 75). Membersof these groups usually hold exclusive rights to perfomi other transformativeacts, notably circumcision and burial, and are feared for their powers as divin-ers and potential sorcerers. McNaughton (75) suggests that this segregationhas been actively promoted by smiths as a way to restrict access to a poten-tially lucrative and prestigious status, while Tamari (102) favors a politicalexplanation. She sees the social segregation of artisans as an active attempt bythe state to neutralize any material and occult powers that might threaten Itshegemony.

The rise of African states resulted in increased demand for symbols ofprestige and power, among which copper, iron, and gold were prominent.Bisson (7, 8) notes a marked increase over time in the number and output ofcopper mines in the Katanga Copperbelt of Central Africa. He interprets this asthe result of demand for copper, through trade and tribute, by the new chief-doms and states that arose after the tenth century AD. The strong growth ofdemand for this commodity may explain why many women mined copper inthe Katanga by the late nineteenth century (27).

The formation of stratified societies brought about other changes in theorganization of metalworking. For example, a new type of iron smeltingfumace was developed to supplant the small pit fumaces used in the Nyorokingdom of present-day Uganda (89, 103). The greater yield of this fumaceprovided the king with more iron and greater profits from trade in the iron.Metalworkers were also employed full-time. Nyoro ironworkers worked inthree month shifts each year at the royal court and had to meet productionquotas in exchange for certain privileges (89). Similarly, the hereditary guildsof brass casters worked exclusively for the royal court of Benin and enjoyedspecial privileges (46).

THE SOCIAL ROLES OF AFRICAN METALS

After a metal is won from ore, it is given social roles that may change duringits lifetime (14, 56, 58). An iron hoe, for example, may have multiple uses andmeanings, depending on the context of its use, whether as an agricultural tool,a currency, a burial offering, bridewealth or dowry, or political regalia. A goldnugget, quite apart from its potential economic value, might be sought as aprotective talisman (52). African art or artifacts cannot be understood withoutreference to their exact social context. This explains why historians of Africanart have almost unanimously rejected the aesthetic approaches that dominate


Westem art history. These historians have instead adopted anthropologicalapproaches that interpret artifacts as material expressions of ethnicity, status,religious affiliation, and wealth, the meaning of which is constantly manipu-lated and negotiated (e.g. 10, 58).

Three aspects of metals made them particularly useful for symbolic expres-sion. Eirst, copper and gold were rare and expensive, and therefore, wereuseful for conspicuous display of wealth or high status. Second, the mysterioustransformation from ore to metal, usually likened to the human processes ofgestation and birth, undoubtedly made metals especially appropriate symbolsof fertility and productivity. Third, the physical properties of metals—color,luminosity, malleability, and storability—greatly influenced their functionaland symbolic potentials (58).

Metals in production and trade

Several direct or indirect economic functions of African metals have beenrecognized and explored to varying degrees: I. agricultural production, 2.warfare, 3. trade over varying distances, 4. currency with values set for spe-cialized or general purposes, and 5. a means of storing wealth.

There has been remarkably little study of agricultural tools and weapons ofmetal in Africa (except e.g. 41, 47, 116). Much more attention has been paid tometals as items of trade, particularly in relation to the rise of African states(e.g. 48, 78, 88) as discussed above. The complex bistories of iron and coppercurrencies have also been researched in some detail (e.g. 7, 30, 56, 58). deMaret (30) argued that some forged iron objects were used in Zaire's distantpast for specialized purposes, such as bridewealth. Copper ingots then re-placed iron as special purpose currencies when social differentiation devel-oped in Central Africa from the tenth century AD. The copper ingots weremade smaller and more standardized through time, possibly reflecting achange from special to general purpose currency (7, 30). Guyer (56) found anincrease through time in the number of iron currencies and a decrease in theircraftmanship in Cameroon, but relates these trends to active negotiations andchanges in the local politics of marriage.

The replacement of iron currency by copper may have resulted from therelative ease with which copper could be cast into standardized forms. Herbert(59) suggests that the introduction of currencies for marriage payments, first iniron, then in copper, also had symbolic associationsâ material producedthrough the fertile success of a fumace was used to appropriate the fertility ofwomen. Herbert also suggests that the change in metal did not involve anideological conflict because copper was equally or more scarce, durable, andstorable as iron, and its production was often attributed to a fertile fumace.

At another level of meaning, copper and gold, in particular, symbolizedaccumulated wealth. This may have been mostly because of their luminosity.


corrosion-resistance, and ability to be displayed and stored. Schweinfurth (97),for example, was overwhelmed by the quantity of copper worn by the King ofthe Mangbetu, while the opulence of the Asantehene's gold jewelry in Ghana(85) is still stunningly impressive today.

Metals and rites of passage

A common use of metal objects in many societies is to mark major changes ina person's life cycle. Age and gender were often critical determinants regard-ing the type, form, and number of objects u.sed. The Tamberma of Togo, forexample, use elaborate iron jewelry at the naming ceremony of a newbom tosymbolize the connections to the infant's ancestors, as well as familial conti-nuity through rebirth (10). Young women in some areas receive or removemetal jewelry, particularly of copper, at first menses, marriage, or the birth of achild (e.g. 15), probably because of its symbolic correspondence to fertility(58). Among the Loikop of Kenya, the age grade and ethnic affiliation of aman can be read quickly from the shape of his spear (65). Special objects ofmetal were sometimes buried with the deceased, as in tbe Upemba Depressionof Zaire in the first millennium cal AD (31).

The most dramatic examples of such life changes were the investitureceremonies of some African rulers, as mortals were transformed into divinebeings (32, 59). Metal objects such as elaborate axes, anvils, and spears wereused as insignia of office to symbolize and legitimate the new authority (e.g.35, 79). More significantly, some items embodied the ancestral spirits whoprotected and gave power to the leader (e.g. 52, 80).

Other social roles were also symbolized and legitimated by metal objects.Special axes, spears, or jewelry were used by spirit mediums (e.g. 35), power-ful men in various occupations (25), or high-ranking members of secret orspecialized societies (e.g. 18, 40). Metal bells and drums were often requiredto activate the spirits who empowered leaders (e.g. 14), or to accompany thepraise of leaders.

The political roles of metals

Metal objects played other roles in African political arenas, besides embody-ing divine power. Political leaders, such as the Oba of Benin, commissionedbronze plaques and portrait heads of themselves to immortalize their achieve-ments (9). Ray (86) suggests that the Igbo-Ukwu corpus (eighth to tenthcenturies cal AD) should be read as material expressions of the authority ofelders, and of the cultural values and attitudes they espoused. Furthermore,some objects of metal or embellished with metal served as critical mnemonicdevices used in relating oral history or law (80), or in teaching moral values[e.g. the gold rings of the Akan (52)]. While some objects were the property of


the State to be used over generations, other insignia were personal property thatleaders carried into their new roles as ancestors (92).

Other key political roies of metal objects were for tribute and taxes. Metalswere highly valued all over Africa, some more so than others. Political leadersoften levied a tax on metalworkers by demanding a portion of their output (e.g.52, 94). In Central Africa, copper was demanded as tribute from conqueredgroups whose territory contained copper ores (8). Gold was collected as a taxfor the Zimbabwe state by a network of administrators dispersed across theZimbawean plateau (61). Gifts of precious metals were also used by mlers tobuild and maintain alliances, as well as to designate regional chiefs as localagents of authority. The Asantehene of Ashanii, for example, sent gifts of goldand silver to chiefs to maintain their allegiance to him, and he sent silver toMuslim religious leaders in exchange for their blessings (51).

Metal objects also functioned in rituals to benefit the society and the .state.The new moon ceremony of monthly renewal in some parts of eastem Africarequired the presence of the state leader with all his metal regalia (e.g. 92). TheAsantehene of the Ashanti still brings out the elaborate Gold Stool, the soul ofthe nation, at the annual yam festival (52, 85). It is likely that the remarkableheads, cast in copper or bronze, from Ife in Nigeria, were also used in annualceremonies of purification and renewal (40).

CONCLUSION

The late C. S. Smith, a founding father of historical metallurgy, always in-sisted that metallurgy is above al! an intellectual and social activity (100). Wehope this article demonstrates the tmth of Smith's insight. African societieshave used metals and many other materials, such as wood, cloth, and glass, toexpress their views of the stmcture of nature and society, in ways as complexand diverse as the beliefs themselves. Even tbe technology of smelting, con-strained as it Is by the invariant laws of thermodynamics, offers ample scopefor the expression of beliefs about the order of things.

Many scholars of African metallurgy, whether knowingly or not, have beenat the forefront of viewing technology as social process. Technology is not amonolithic force that is somehow separate from people, but is the product ofcomplex ideology, careful social negotiations and manipulations, and the va-garies of local resources. This insight has largely developed from ethnographicobservations of metal smelting processes, a line of research that cannot con-tinue for long. Most of the elders who practiced these techniques are alreadyancestors, and the remainder soon will be. We wish to pay tribute here to allthose who have enlightened us in our drive to record these processes beforethey pass from human memory.


One question needing further scrutiny is the role of metal production andthe metal trade in tbe rise of towns and states in Africa. How crucial was thecontrol of ore sources and metal production to state formation over the conti-nent? The work of the Mclntoshes at Jenne-Jeno suggests that too little atten-tion has been paid to the role of local and regional trade in agricultural produceand other staples. In this case, and possibly in others, the gold trade may haveintensified a process that was already well under way. Recent thought on therise of the Zimbabwe state has taken a similar tack, suggesting that the extemaltrade in ivory and gold may have amplified rather than initiated the process ofstate formation (61). In this, as in all other aspects, the role of metals needs bebe viewed in its full social context.

Finally, an emerging line of research concems the transfer of the Africanexperience with metals to the Caribbean and to the Americas through thetrans-Atlantic slave trade (53). What role did African artisans play in theproduction of metals in these regions? Did some of the symbolic and socialroles of metals in Africa survive the crossing, and if so, how were theymodified in their new social settings? As we have seen, Africans were in-volved in intemational networks of metal production and exchange for manycenturies. What we do not yet know is the extent to which they influenced theproduction and uses of metals in the New World.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are most grateful to Eugenia Herbert and to Susan Keech Mclntosh fortbeir careful reading of and constmctive comments on an earlier draft of thisreview.

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