The Dogon people created a agricultural society derived from a collaboration of many tribes a thousand years ago in order to escape Islamization. Located in the district of Bandiagara in Mali, West Africa, the Dogon settled alongside a 90 mile stretch of cliffs known as an escarpment - with a population ranging from 400,000 to 800,000. Under a patrilineal society, the villages within this region of the Dogon are organized in kin-based family units.
Architecture
The Dogon built environment is based on the same principles of the natural surrounding in which they inhabit. In an environment mostly of vast dry surrounding with spiratic locations of trees, the Dogon people build in relationship and with harmony with the trees. Each family has its own compounds which includes houses for sleep, kitchen, yard (most of the time with trees as the main harmony of the plan), granary, toilet and in some cases, sheltered spaces, animal pens and storage spaces. To build their structures, the use of mud for walls is most common. The use of stone and wood is embedded in the mud for structural purposes, in some cases used for aesthetic flare. Cone-shaped brush rooftops cover up the top of these adobe mud structures In some cases, structures are elevated on stone and wooden structures to prevent mice intrusion in the precious items such as goods and foods in granaries.
Clothing
Textile production has been a tradition that is held close to West Africans even up until today. Made of cotton, textiles is spun by the women in Dogon culture and woven by men into long narrow stripes on double-heddle looms. Once sewn together, these pieces become clothing. These pieces are generally dyed indigo blue, extracted from the plant, Indigofera tinctoria, although it can often be left in its original white color or dryed black or brown as well. Sewn to become blankets, covers or personal dress items, the traditional male dress consisted of trousers and of large shirts, and often a head dress. Women wear a wrapper, a fundamental part of female dressing, and may often worn together with simple wide sleeveless shirt.
Diet
The Dogon remains on an agricultural lifestyle, cultivating pearl millet, sorghum, rice, onions, tobacco, peanuts and vegetables. Their surplus grains are stored in granaries. In terms of meat, they raise sheep, goats, chicken and occasionally, cattle. Hunting contributes little to the diet, since game in the area is limited. Fishing is rare and usually done once a year as a collective venture.
Education
The general education of a Dogon is through the daily lifestyle in which they live. With considerable amount of astronomical knowledge, the Dogon embed these principles into their developing knowledge.
Beliefs
The Dogon are known through their religious teachings about an ancient visitation from Nommos, amphibious beings sent to earth from the Sirius B star system for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink," and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers. Not until 1970, researchers at MIT confirmed that this star exists way after the Dogon had embedded these beliefs onto their culture.
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dogon2&page=15 link to below
The Dogon are an ethnic group located mainly in the administrative
districts of Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali, West Africa. Their territory
extends from approximately lat. 13 1/2 degrees-15 degrees N by long.
1 1/2-4 degrees W. This area is composed of three quite distinct topographical
regions: the plain, the cliffs, and the plateau. Within these regions
the Dogon population of about 250,000 (ca. 1965) is most heavily concentrated
along a 90-mile stretch of escarpment called the Cliffs of Bandiagara.
This provides a rather spectacular physical setting for villages built
up on the sides of the escarpment.
The Dogon language has been classified within the Voltaic (or Gur)
subfamily of the Niger-Congo language family (Greenberg 1966: 8, 162,
165). The people call themselves Dogon or Dogom (sing., Dogo), but
in the older literature they are most often called Habe (sing., Kado),
a Fulbe word meaning "stranger" or "pagan."
The Dogon are primarily agriculturalists, their principal crops being
millet, sorghum, rice, onions, beans, tobacco, and sorrel. They are
also arboriculturalists. The Dogon keep herds of goats and sheep along
with some cows and poultry. Hunting contributes little to the diet
since game in the area is scarce. Fishing is done once a year as a
collective venture.
According to their traditional history, ancestors of the Dogon migrated
to the area which they now inhabit some time around the tenth century.
These ancestors were four brothers, Dyon, Ono, Arou, and Domno. Inhabitants
of different regions claim kinship with one of these four brothers.
The Dogon have a system of social stratification similar to numerous
other societies of the West African Sudan. The distinctive feature
is a hierarchical series of occupational "castes" or status groups
consisting of workers in iron, wood, and leather, as well as the griots.
The griots function as lineage genealogists, musicians, and poets
and are evidently believed to be sorcerers as well. Caste members
live apart from the agriculturalists in either a special quarter reserved
for them, or outside of the village, or in villages of their own.
Each caste is endogamous and the members do not participate in the
common religious cults.
Dogon villages, usually in groups of about 5 or 6, are concentrated
around water holes and referred to as "cantons" or regions. Village
organization is kin-based within the overall framework of exogamous
patrilineal lineages (gina). The fundamental unit of Dogon social
organization is the localized patrilineage or lineage segment.
The basic residential unit is the conjugal family household (gina),
usually composed of a polygynous family group (i.e., a man, his wives,
and their unmarried children). It is not clear from the data whether
or not these household groups are organized into extended patrilocal
families. Paulme (1940: 246) simply says that marital residence is
patrilocal in the village of the man's father, often within the same
village quarter. According to Palau Marti (1957: 58), the larger gina
(i.e., lineages) are divided into several tire togu, but it is ambiguous
as to whether or not these are sublineages or extended patrilocal
families.
In any event, there is some clustering within villages of patrilineally-related
households. The senior male of the local lineage group, who is called
the gina bana, occupies a larger-than-ordinary house (also called
gina), and houses of other lineage members are associated with his
household. Several family compounds make up a quarter or togu. All
villages have at least one togu na, a shelter where the men gather,
and a Lebe shrine.
The localized patrilineage (gina) owns houses and agricultural fields,
has its own altars and ceremonialism, and its own burial place. The
lineage head, gina bana, is the oldest living male descendant of the
common ancestor of the lineage. The primary responsibility of the
gina bana is to conduct ceremonies. In addition, he presides over
a council of elders made up of all the adult men of the group. The
council and the gina bana settle family disputes, administer the property,
and send representatives to the village council.
The region is an agglomeration of several villages which, according
to Paulme (1940: 25), share "a unity of a triple order, at once geographic,
linguistic, and ethnic." The geographic unity stems from the grouping
of the villages around water holes. Each region has its own distinct
dialect, some of which are considerably different from each other.
Ethnic unity derives from the fact that all members of the region
claim kinship with a common ancestor, who was responsible for founding
the first village in the region.
The oldest direct descendant of the founder is called the hogon. The
hogon is the chief of the region and, along with a council of elders
made up of the gina bana, rules over the affairs of the region. The
regulatory functions of this group include policing, the levying of
taxes, and the administration of justice. The hogon also has important
priestly functions.
There are age brotherhoods known as tumo among the Dogon. Initiations
into the brotherhoods are conducted every three to four years. The
most distinctive function of the tumo is the performance of the batono
rite. This rite takes place during the sowing festival and the same-age
brotherhood performs it 9 or 12 years in succession. Paulme states
that although the importance of the age brotherhoods was decreasing,
age as a status factor had always been and continued to be very important.
The men's society among the Dogon controls the cult of the masks (Awa).
The men's society is characterized by a strict etiquette, obligations,
interdicts, and a secret language. All young men are instructed in
the cult of the masks. Women and children are strictly excluded. In
addition, selected young men, the olubaru, are given additional instruction.
They are the ones who will have the life-time duty of preserving the
traditions of the masks. The olubaru are initiated in a Sigi ceremony,
which is celebrated once every 60 years. The masks perform every year
during the 4 weeks which precede the sowing festival, at the Sigi
ceremony, and during the preparation for a dama festival (the ceremony
for lifting the mourning period).
Besides the cult of the masks, there are three other principal cults
among the Dogon. In the public plaza of every village there is an
altar of Lebe. The Lebe cult is associated with the agricultural cycle
and its chief priest is the hogon. The cult of Binu is often referred
to as totemic. We observe it in the essential characteristics of this
institution: existence of exogamous totemic clans, the members of
the clan having the same name and respecting the same animal (or vegetable)
prohibition. ...The prohibitions are transmitted in the paternal line
and are in keeping with exogamy [Paulme 1940: 109].
The cult of Binu is also associated with the agricultural cycle, and
sacrifices are offered at cult altars during the agricultural season.
The cult of the ancestors is associated with gina. The purpose of
the rituals is to establish and maintain good relations between the
dead and the living. The gina bana is in charge of the ancestor cult.
http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc119.htm link to below
The Dogon people live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu. At the center of their religious teachings is knowledge about a star that is invisible to the eye and so difficult to obsevrve -- even through a telescope -- that no photographs were taken of it until 1970. The Dogon say they received their knowledge by visitors to the earth from another star system.
The star they describe is Sirius B. Its existence was first suspected by Western astronomers in 1844, when irregularites were noticed in the movement of Sirius. It was supposed that Sirius must be affected by a second star, and in 1862 a faint companion star was finally detected. Sirius B is a white dwarf that, although small and faint, is extremely dense and heavy enough to exert an influence on Sirius A.
The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star (tolo) and "po," the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness -- it is, they say, "the smallest thing there is." They also claim that it is "the heaviest star," and white. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principle properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white.
They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis (it does). The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called "Emme Ya" ("Sorghum Female"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been identified by astronomers.
In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun.
The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink," and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers.
The Nommos were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings."
The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters.
Dogon mythology is known only by a number of their priests, and is a complex system of knowledge. Such carefully guarded secrets would not be divulged to friendly strangers very easily. If the star Emme Ya is eventually discovered in the Sirius system, this would give considerably weight to the Dogon's story.
references:
http://www.necep.net/language.php?id_article=83.
http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/content/ethnologycollection/dogon (GOLD OF PHOTOS)