Materialist and symbolic explanations of cultural institutions are weighed in an effort to determine which best explains the unusual status of master wood‐carvers in Ashanti. Technical skills and unique privileges mark the carver's position within the social order in a manner resembling the Western concept of professionalism. From an economic standpoint, these mechanisms limit competition and allow carvers to exploit existing markets with maximum efficiency. Yet such explanations fail to elucidate why certain peculiar features of this status assume the particular forms they do. The answer lies in “thick” description and analysis of the status's larger socioideational context—specifically in the analogous structural and symbolic qualities which carvers share with Ashanti noblewomen in their relationship with important chiefs. [symbolism, ideology, social organization, economics, ritual, art]
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