ABSTRACT
Even though traditional iron-working is still an honoured profession in Madagascar, there has been no detailed ethnographic study made of this tradition and its practitioners. Yet such studies could help resolve many enigmas concerning metallurgy that are facing archaeologists more and more frequently in their investigations of Malagasy prehistory, as shown in a recent compilation of the evidence (Radimilahy 1988). This chapter assembles and presents a résumé of what information is currently available from various sources on this subject. These sources include historical, ethnographic and technological information and a series of unpublished results from recent archaeological work in the southern region and the central highlands area of Madagascar.
