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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) Barbara Porter-Spaulding, now a successful veterinarian living and working in West Fargo, North Dakota, was formerly a graduate student of verterinarian medicine at MSU. She lived in Niger in 1980s as a Peace Corps Volunteer. During her sojourn she became very interested in the fine metal and leather work of the Tuareg and collected several examples of their work, primarily as souvenirs. Returning to the U.S., Porter-Spaulding came to appreciate the cultural value of the objects and wanted to share them with other people. In 1992, she donated some of her collection to the Museum. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s)s The Tuareg are nomads living in the desert and sahel regions of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Algeria, and Libya. Tuareg blacksmiths (inadan) are famous for their fine metalwork. Like many smiths in this part of the world, the inadan belong to an exclusive social group who only marry among themselves. The male members of this group carve wood implements and forge metal, the female members are leatherworkers and weavers. The dagger/scabbard ensemble may represent the complementary gender specialization of man and woman. A man would have produced the knives, fabricating them from three different metals, iron, brass and copper. The scabbards may have been made by women, who usually work leather, though because of the integration of metal into their designs, the scabbards on these two daggers may have been made by a man. Porter-Spaulding informs us that the daggers were produced in Agadez and that she acquired them from the Tuareg blacksmith, Moloule al-Rhameret. Tuareg men wear daggers like these on their forearms. Further Information Books and Articles Kristyne Loughran. Art from the Forge. Washington, DC: National Museum of African Art, 1995. Johannes Nicolaisen and Ida Nicolaisen. The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society. 2 vols. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Internet Resourcesnone
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