tent post, unrecorded Tuareg artist

Within the highly stratified and nomadic Tuareg society, artists historically formed an endogamous class, meaning that members of this class married exclusively within it. Known as the Inaden, these families of ritual specialists controlled the technologies and esoteric knowledge of artistic production. As mediators between human and spirit realms, the Inaden occupied a powerful, if feared, position of ambiguity in Tuareg society. Defined gender roles further divided artistic production into female and male activities. For example, male Inaden produced silver jewelry, metal tools, weapons, and most wooden objects; whereas, female Tinaden created intricate leather works and some wooden objects. This male/female binary complemented another important oppositional relationship: the inhabited domestic space of a the tent, versus “wild” space. Carved wooden tent posts created spatial divisions according to gender and beliefs in an uncontrolled spirit world.