Agriculteurs métallurgistes et forgerons en Afrique soudano-sahélienne

Bibliographic Data

ID2736809
AuthorsBruno Martinelli (0000-0002-8326-0419, corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume125
Issue1
Pages25-41
Publication date1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueÉtudes rurales (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-2182 • E-ISSN: 1777-537X
PublisherPERSEE Program (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3406/rural.1992.3351
OpenAlexW2158506814
LanguageFR
Citations received10

Metal-Working Farmers and Smiths in the African Sudan and Sahel Iron-Working in the Sudan and Sahel regions of Africa is linked to smelting and forging techniques and to the social relations having to do with the status of specialized workmen. By comparing some of the most representative systems of large-scale production that have survived till recent times - in the Basari (northern Togo), Dogon (Mali) and Mossi (Yatenga, Burkina Faso) areas - contrasting forms of technical and economic organization can be observed. Groups involved in working iron are either metal- working farmers who supply smiths or smiths who more or less autonomously acquire and smelt ore. Till present, little has been known about the first group. Why, in certain societies that have intensively produced iron for several centuries, have smiths been kept from smelting ? What does it mean to be a smith in a society that tends to be stratified ? Do blacksmiths "crystallize" as a social group as a result of technical and economic changes ? Traditional ways of working metal in West Africa raise historical, sociological and technological questions of far-reaching import

Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Geography · Metal working · Political science · Smelting · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Engineering · History

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