This is outstanding advice Ed! and shows the kind of organization and discipline which you carried out in the excellent work on the kaskara and edged weapons of the Sudan.
These kinds of studies in this kind of ethnographic sphere which cannot be well defined geographically are expectedly difficult. With like items of material culture the weapons tend to be called by various terms depending on region and dialects spoken. I was once told a specific type of weapon might be called different names almost by the villages!
It would be easy to become overwhelmed by these matters as the focus of the work expands with these variations and exceptions.
The literature on these areas is pretty sparse, and as I mentioned earlier, there is a great periodical called "Tribal Arts" which deals in articles on ethnographica. To be sure, much of this involves the arts dealers who clearly have quite a different agenda in many cases to serious students of the arms of these fields. However, the articles on the subject matter is done typically in a very scholarly manner, and provides excellent insights into many of these esoteric areas.
Probably perusing the index of articles in the issues over the years might offer a good game plan as far as the beginning core of the project as far as areas. This could be expanded later as more material became known on other areas. I subscribed to this for a while and still have the issues but stored for now as not presently involved in such studies......I sense my interest piquing!!
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