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Rerhe: The Blacksmiths of the Kapsiki |
| Section: CULTURE / PEOPLES |
| Author: Walter E.A. van Beek |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 4/1/1989 |
| Size: 3,699 Words, 22,514 Characters |
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Throughout Africa, blacksmiths occupy a special social position. An important artisan group, they are often acknowledged to possess special religious powers and to be endowed with responsibilities for ritual duties. In several cultures, their professional specialization has resulted in their being assigned a castelike social position. Despite the blacksmiths' knowledge of medicine and magic, such societies consider them members of a lower social stratum and do not allow them to marry outside their own group. As manufacturers of agricultural tools and weapons, or as officiators in rituals destined to keep the supernatural world at arm's length, the blacksmiths mediate between ordinary men and the surrounding world. To understand the circumstances of these specialists, this article will dwel...
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...o deviant people (like witches or clairvoyants) are said to exist among the rerhe. These stereotypes, of course, tell us more about Kapsiki society than they do about the rerhe proper, but they are illustrative of the general role of the blacksmith in this society: The rerhe is the opposite of the melu, the "standard" Kapsiki, and embodies a counterculture within a close-knit village society.
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