Die Metalle bei den Naturvölkern

A systematic survey traces how so-called primitive societies obtain, process, and use metals, focusing on iron, copper, tin, and bronze and their relevance to prehistoric interpretation. It compares geographical regions—Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Americas—using traveler accounts, museum specimens, and interdisciplinary evidence from geology, ethnography, chemistry and linguistics. The work weighs independent invention against diffusion, outlines traditional smelting and smithing practices, and notes regional patterns in metallurgical sequence and alloying. European and Semitic metal traditions are set aside to emphasize largely self-contained metallurgies among non-European peoples and the urgency of documenting vanishing indigenous techniques.