"... 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.