Marks of Identity: Potters of the Folona (Mali) and Their “Mothers”

Barbara E. Frank is associate professor of art history at Stony Brook University. Her primary research has been in Mali, West Africa, where she has worked with ceramic and textile artists, leatherworkers, and blacksmiths on artistry, technology, and social identity. Her major publications include Mande Potters and Leatherworkers. Art and Heritage in West Africa (Smithsonian, 1998, 2001) and an edited volume Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande (Indiana, 1995). bfrank@notes.cc.sunysb.edu