A study of the form and variety of Akan metal arts leads one to questions of origin and development. Do they form a homogenous group, characterized by an Akan sense of form and design, or do they reveal outside influence? Have they remained unchanged since their first creation by the ancestral craftsmen, or are they the products of a long period of evolution? The concepts of culture and cultural change need to be handled with care, for complexities appear as one delves beneath the surface. One may begin by reconsidering one basic matter, the quantities of metal available for use by the Akan.

The Akan of Ghana are noted for their craftsmanship in metals. Gold ornaments appear in spectacular profusion at public festivals, and brass was cast in myriad forms as goldweights, spoons, boxes, and vessels. In general, however, the Akan are not associated with silver; there are no lavish displays of this metal, which is seen only in scattered examples, usually overshadowed by the magnificence of gold. For this reason Akan ornaments of silver have attracted little attention and have never been the subject of comprehensive study The working of silver appears to have been a subsidiary aspect of the Akan goldsmith's craft. The rarity of items in this metal suggests that it was only a few craftsmen who produced the occasional article; it is unlikely that any Akan smith worked exclusively in silver. Most items of silver or silver alloy may have been produced in the coastal towns -  where the metal was more readily available from Europeans - and in the Asante capital of Kumase.

The Ghanaian lawyer J. B. Danquah once observed that "sex is not very important in the cultural expression of the Akan" (1956:5). This is borne out by a survey of Akan arts, for there is little that can be described as even mildly erotic. To this there is one notable exception: a small group of human-figure goldweights depicting a couple making love.

This subject is best known to seekers of Crowleiana through the tourist pieces that have been made in tens of thou- sands for many years. To judge by the avidity with which these are snapped up, they will soon be found in every junk shop from San Francisco to Singapore. They bear all the hallmarks of the genuine tourist piece: inferior workman- ship, total lack of artistry, and mass production of identical copies. I once spent an hour watching in horrid fascination as a small boy in the Asante casting village of Krofufurom deftly affixed the limbs and vital parts to a thousand identical wax models.