Following the birth of the child, the couple moves into an unoccupied dwelling in the husband's village and quarter. In the shadowy world of ancient warfare, one weapon stood out as a true marvel: Greek fire. Inheritance. The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso.The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. The colour white was a symbol of males. Dogon CultureProfane and Arcane . This was to prevent a being like the Jackal from ever being born on Earth again. Each district had its own recognized war leaders. Their eyes were red, their tongues forked, and their arms flexible and unjointed.[21]. Religious Beliefs. The blind Dogon elder Ogotemmeli taught the main symbols of the Dogon religion to French anthropologist Marcel Griaule in October 1946. They make music on a special instrument that is made of a rod of wood and calabashes that makes the sound of a rattle. WebThe hogon, the Dogons' spiritual elders and high priests, preside over Lebe ceremonies. Were theonlyPop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives. Nearby is a cave where music instruments are stored. Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy! Both sexes market, fish, and gather wild foods. Individuals with high status may own a small number of cattle.[30]. While the castes are correlated to profession, membership is determined by birth. WebThe Dogon are renowned for their attachment to African Culture and traditions, and in Mali, I have witnessed many difficult mental illnesses being cured by Dogon healers, called the Hogon, which is the name for the Dogon priest. He is elected from among the oldest men of the dominant lineage of the village. Griaule encouraged the construction of a dam near Sangha and persuaded the Dogon to cultivate onions. While the people keep chickens or herds of sheep and goats in Dogon villages, animal husbandry holds little economic value. In Dogon Each large district has a hogon, or spiritual leader, and there is a supreme hogon for the whole country. In his dress and behaviour the hogon symbolizes the Dogon myth of creation, to which the Dogon relate much of their social organization and culture. Markets are held every four or five days in areas well removed from the villages. Because of his solitary state, the first son of God acted as he did. Blood alliances frequently were contracted between the Dogon and other groups such as the Bozo. Identification. Ogotemmeli taught Griaule the religious stories in the same way that Ogotemmeli had learned them from his father and grandfather; oral instruction which he had learned over the course of more than twenty years. [citation needed][why?] The Dogon dialects are highly distinct from one another and many varieties are not mutually intelligible, actually amounting to some 12 dialects and 50 sub-dialects. A hogon is a religious figure as well as a temporal authority; the hogon may be hereditary or may be chosen from among the village elderscustom varies from place to place. Two of the most specialized craftsleather- and ironworkingare restricted exclusively to members of a craft caste. [19] What makes the record so important from a historical perspective is that the Dogon people were still living in their oral culture at the time their religion was recorded. Although Temple fails to prove its antiquity, the evidence for the recent acquisition of the information is still entirely circumstantial. A virgin who has not yet had her period takes care of him, cleans his house, and prepares his meals. Divorce is not uncommon; it occurs most often in polygynous households. The authority of the household unit is vested in the father, who controls both the economic and ceremonial functions of the family and demands unquestioning obedience from his offspring. The mausoleum was built during the reign of Timur, the ruler of the Timurid Empire. [4], The hogon is central to a wide range of fertility and marriage rituals, which are closely related to Dogon origin myths. Domestic Unit. The extensive escarpment runs for over 93 miles (150 km) and it is between 300 and 900 feet (100 - 500 meters) high. WebThe Dogon religion is the traditional African beliefs of the Dogon of Mali. The Mali landscape around Dogon (Spooner, J / CC BY 2.0 ). Location. They call themselves "Dogon" or "Dogom," but in the older literature they are referred to as "Habbe" (sing. Masked Dancers of West Africa: The Dogon. Top image: Cliff of Bandiagara Source: Public Domain, Bolland, R. (1991). Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The appealing factor lies in many raw, visual, fetishized pursuits and compelling cultural narratives. Palau Marti, Montserrat (1957). About 1,500 ethnic Dogon in seven villages in southern Mali speak the Bangime language, which is unrelated to the other Dogon languages and presumed by linguists to be an ancient, pre-Dogon language isolate, although a minority of linguists (most notably Roger Blench) hypothesise that it may be related to Proto-Nilo-Saharan.[38]. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there existcountless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts thathave yet to be discovered and explained. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ." At this time, new masks are carved and dedicated to the ancestors. Heaven on Earth? Mudlarker Finds Bronze Age Shoe on a UK Riverbank Dated 2,800 Years Old! Succession to office is patrilineal (by younger brother). One example: 'If a Sirius-C is ever discovered and found to be a red dwarf, I will conclude that the Dogon information has been fully validated. But after this generation, human beings were usually born single. In addition to agriculture, the women gather wild fruits, tubers, nuts, and honey in the bush outside of village borders. Dogon damas include the use of many masks, which they wore by securing them in their teeth, and statuettes. Minor regional dialectal differences exist. He wears white clothes and nobody is allowed to touch him. The Dogon people with whom French anthropologists Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen worked during the 1930s and 1940s had a system of signs which ran into the thousands, including "their own systems of astronomy and calendrical measurements, methods of calculation and extensive anatomical and physiological knowledge, as well as a systematic pharmacopoeia". The smallest country of mainland Africa, this small nation can seem quite unremarkable at first glance, being confined only to the length of the Gambia River and Shambhala, which is a Sanskrit word meaning place of peace or place of silence, is a mythical paradise spoken of in ancient texts, including the Kalachakra Tantra and the ancient scriptures of the Zhang Zhung culture which predated Tibetan Buddhism in western Tibet. [15] These jihadic expeditions formed themselves to force the Dogon to abandon their traditional religious beliefs for Islam. Today, at least 35% of the Dogon practice Islam. It is generally accepted that the Dogon language belongs to the NigerCongo language family, though the evidence is weak. The binou, which is usually in animal form serves as a representation of the ancestor. Dogon society is organized by a patrilineal kinship system. Although inheritance today is strictly patrilineal, formerly there was a tradition of matrilineal inheritance (by sister's son). Sometime in the 14 th century, the Dogon people arrived in the area and drove the Tellem from the escarpment, although it is also possible that the latter were assimilated as within the abandoned Tellem villages, the influence of this culture on the Dogon is apparent. [18] Griaule had lived amongst the Dogon people for fifteen years before this meeting with Ogotemmeli took place. In a recent overview of the NigerCongo family, Dogon is treated as an independent branch.[3]. The escarpment is rich in archaeological discoveries both from the Dogon and the earlier Tellem society. ETHNONYMS: 'kKxou and related words; Mizo (same as Lushai), Zo, Zomi. Unfortunately, the majority of these animistic spiritual practices tend to disappear with the younger generations and the widespread adoption of Islam. Also regional and dialect group names: Chinbok, Chinbon, Dai, Kuku, Lai (s, Karen Craft specialization is determined by gender and caste. Each Dogon village may differ in the designs of the masks used in the dama ritual. But Islamic law classified the Dogon and many other ethnicities of the region (Mossi, Gurma, Bobo, Busa and the Yoruba) as being within the non-canon dar al-harb and consequently fair game for slave raids organized by merchants. Although the Dogon recognize the creator god Amma as the Supreme Being and address prayers and sacrifices to him, the core set of beliefs and practices focuses on ancestor worship. A younger brother is first in line to inherit all collective property, followed by the eldest son. Other fauna include crocodiles (in the swampy areas on the plain), reptiles, monkeys, guenons, guinea hens, hyenas, foxes, panthers, rabbits, and small rodents. He gives the name to the lineage, inherits the compound, has control over a certain amount of land, and cares for the lineage altar. Political Organization. "[46], More recently, doubts have been raised about the validity of Griaule and Dieterlen's work. ', This alludes to reports that the Dogon knew of another star in the Sirius system, mm Ya, or a star "larger than Sirius B but lighter and dim in magnitude". During the yincomoli ceremony, a gourd is smashed over the deceased's wooden bowl, hoe, and bundukamba (burial blanket). Dogon art consists primarily of sculptures. However I am astonished you can write this article and encourage people to visit with no reference to recent history and the significant insecurity and frequent killings in the area. Current Anthropology, Vol. The Kanaga masqueraders, at one point, dance and sit next to the bundkamba, which represents the deceased. The Dogon believes that the sacred serpent Lebe comes during the night to purify him and communicate wisdom to him. The vast majority of marriages are monogamous, but nonsororal polygynous marriages are allowed in the Dogon culture. In the past the Dogon were considered a warlike people; they often fought with other Dogon districts as well as with their non-Dogon neighbors such as the Fulani. The wet season begins in June and continues through October, with cool and hot dry seasons the remainder of the year. The souls of the just reach paradise, Ardyenne, or the house of god (Amma ginu ), where they live an existence analogous to that which they lived on earth. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dogon, Beierle, John "Dogon A secret language known as sigi so is used by members of the men's society (awa ) in connection with religious rites. ETHNONYM: Panjabi Universit de Paris, Travaux et Mmoires de l'Institut d'Ethnologie, 33. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Or, were the Romans protecting something even more valuable than silver? ); Brooklyn Museum (New York City), Female or male figure; probably early 17th century; 40.0 x 7.3 x 7.8cm (1534 x 2 7/8 x 3 in. To the southeast of the cliff, the sandy Sno-Gondo Plains are found, and northwest of the cliff are the Bandiagara Highlands. Beierle, John "Dogon This custom is repeated over and over, throughout a Dogon village, all day. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Ancient Chinese Earthquake Detector Invented 2,000 Years Ago Really Worked! Members of these castes are physically separate from the rest of the village and live either at the village edge or outside of it entirely. The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is a monument in Turkestan, a city in southern Kazakhstan. This led Mr. Temple to establish the theory that, according to Nommos, extraterrestrial inhabitants of Sirius travelled towards the earth at some point in the distant past, and one crossed to teach the old civilizations (the Egyptians and the Dogons) their Houses may never be sold because the sites on which they stand belongs to the descendants of the old inhabitants, who have control over who occupies the house. Evidence from substrate vocabulary in Bangime and Dogon, Dogon Languages and Linguistics An (sic) Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography, The Dogon People of Bandiagara, Mali, The Dance of Masks of the Dogon People, The Dogon People of Bandiagara, Mali: the Dogon Fish Festival, African worlds: studies in the cosmological ideas and social values of African peoples, Dogon images from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dogon_people&oldid=1139711208, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from December 2017, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Vague or ambiguous time from December 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Bedaux, R. & J.D. van der Waals (eds.) They have been linked to the Mande subfamily but also to Gur. 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