Abstract
The author discusses fire as a concept, with an emphasis on traditional iron working and its links with bodily based experiences played out as material metaphors as well as mental conceptions. In East African iron using communities, iron smelting was cloaked in secrecy, seclusion and gendered sexual connotations. An elaborate use of bodily based metaphors guided the use of magic and medicines and created moral laws during periods of smelting. The article will attempt to explain how concepts of fire were related to this. Some preliminary comparisons are made between Greek, Norse and African myths and legends about smiths and their role as 'masters of fire'. Finally, by drawing on case studies based on fieldwork among Fipa and Pangwa blacksmiths and former iron smelters, the author will explore the interconnections between concepts of fire, bodily based metaphors and metal production.
Highlights
The smithy was a temple of the spirits of the earth and the fire; the smith was a priest who by certain rites could accelerate or cause the birth of metals, the furnace was an alter on which the rite was enacted
Fipa and Pangwa blacksmiths and former iron smelters, the author will explore the interconnections between concepts of fire, bodily based metaphors and metal production
In numerous African myths and legends, knowledge of fire making and metal production is brought to the humans at the same time (Burford 1972; Stirnimann 1979; Tew 1950; Willis 1978, 1981; Wilson 1958 Wise 1958)
Summary
The smithy was a temple of the spirits of the earth and the fire; the smith was a priest who by certain rites could accelerate or cause the birth of metals, the furnace was an alter on which the rite was enacted Norse myths and legends as well as African ethnographic case studies of iron working, I hope to illuminate how concepts like 'fire', 'heat' and 'magic' as discussed by Eliade (1962, 1964) may still be valuable analytical dimensions in studies of metallurgy. These concepts are entries into pre-scientific understanding of metal production and the imaginary world which came into being through the discovery of metals.
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