<P>"... finely crafted scholarship. Elegant and graceful, yet packed with knowledge and information, it embodies the aesthetic qualities which it describes and explores." —American Ethnologist</P><P>"The text is detailed and informative, and enjoyable reading... " —Choice</P><P>"The Mande Blacksmith is an important book... sensitive, sympathetic, multifaceted, and thorough... " —African Arts</P><P>"McNaughton's Mande Blacksmiths is undeniably the most profound study of African artists yet published." —Ethnoarts</P><P>"... 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</P><P>"... 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</P><P>"McNaughton... provides an important interpretation of these artists' conceptual place as members of a complex culture." —Religious Studies Review</P><P>Examining 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.</P>