RS VIII Dogon +

Eli’s first baseball glove, which I picked out for him from a Big 5, was too large and heavy. He used a smaller glove that his uncle bought him. After one season he grew into the larger glove. But since he became a catcher his uncle bought him a catchers mitt. I used to warm him up before games and we used the large glove and the catchers mitt. I enjoyed that very much.

From Broca’s Brain by Carl Sagan, published by Random House, Inc. in 1974, beginning page 69:

“With one apparent exception, there are no stories sufficiently detailed to dispose of other explanations and sufficiently accurate to portray correctly modern physics or astronomy to a prescientific or pretechnical people. The one exception is the remarkable mythology surrounding the star Sirius that is held by the Dogon people of the Republic of Mali.

The most striking aspects of Dogon astronomy have been recounted by Marcel Griaule … while there is no reason to doubt Griaule’s account, it is important to note that there is no earlier Western record of the remarkable Dogon folk beliefs …

In contrast to almost all prescientific societies, the Dogon hold that the planets as well as the earth rotate about their axes and revolve about the Sun … They hold that Jupiter has four satellites and that Saturn is encircled by a ring. … the Dogon are said to depict the planets moving correctly in elliptical, not circular orbits.

More striking still is the Dogon belief about Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. They contend that it has a dark and invisible companion star which orbits Sirius once every fifty years. They state that the companion star is very small and very heavy, made of a special metal called “Sagala” which is not found on earth.

The remarkable fact is that the invisible star, Sirius A, does have an extraordinary dark companion, Sirius B, which orbits it in an elliptical orbit once each 50.04 years. Sirius B is the first example of a white dwarf discovered by modern astrophysics.”

Sagan then goes on to speculate how the Dogon came about having this knowledge. He states that Bessel, an astronomer, in 1844 deduced a dark companion for Sirius in a 50 year orbit due to a 50 year wobble in the sinusoidal motion of Sirius A. Sirius B was later observed and the observation was confirmed in 1915. Identifying Sirius B as very heavy was not proposed until the mid 1930’s and at that it was met with considerable skepticism. In an attempt to rationalize this remarkable Dogon knowledge he speculates that Griaule may have been aware of this discovery and that may have influenced his research.

To my mind, this seems an unlikely mistake for a seasoned cultural anthropologist. Furthermore, in the late 1960’s Dieterlen was interviewed for a television show and she stated that she has seen carving estimated to be 400 years old that depict the Sirius myth. Sagan’s examination of the Dogon myth was limited to their astronomical observations from a third hand source, Temple, and apparently he never examined the original or second hand source from Griaule. If one speculates the myths were actually derived from their contact with the Nummo, it would stand to reason that they might have other unique, detailed knowledge.

Ironsmiths hold a special status in Dogon society. And, until recently, they were required to make an annual pilgrimage to Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. Lake Bosumtwi is considered a sacred place and the location where the first ironsmith initiate learned ironsmithing from the Nummo. The lake is considered equally sacred by other groups including the Bambara and the Maliniki tribes who, according to the Dogon, originated with them from the same group.

The Dogon knew, in the 1940’s, that Lake Bosumtwi was formed by a meteor impact and they described it in great detail including the direction and angle of entry of the meteor. Modern geologists, however, did not even seriously speculate that the lake was formed by a meteor impact until 1979 largely because it is situated in a dense jungle forest that limited access to the lake. (see http://omzg.sscc.ru/impact/ab33.html ). The debate went back and forth for years as to whether or not the lake was formed by an impact until recent evidence positively confirmed its meteor origins dated to 1.07 million years ago.

RS VII Dogon

On the 20th I was sitting in my car at a Target in Pasadena when someone yelled, “Byron.” I turned around to look and at first didn’t recognize who was calling me. He yelled again and I realized it was Eli in the passenger seat of his mother’s car. Eli does not live in Pasadena. One strange coincidence that we would both be there at that instant.

How does one distinguish written or verbal information from disinformation? Disinformation commonly lacks detail. Rather than state simple facts that led to a conclusion, emotions are elicited using defamatory statements. In the absence of these statements there is little fact to substantiate a purported conclusion. A wonderful example, and more to the point, can be found in a book titled, “Dogon: African People of the Cliff,” written by Walter E. A. von Beek published in 2001 by Harry Abrams. It is an oversized book with glossy photographs.

Walter E. A. von Beek, PhD. Utreck University, is a professor of cultural anthropology at Utreck University, The Netherlands, and a research fellow at the African Studies Centre in Leiden. A first clue to his motivations is found when examining other material he has written. A quick search of the Internet found he has written: “Quest for Purity, Dynamics of Puritian Movements,” “Pathways to Fundamentalism: The peculiar case of Mormonism,” a review of “A Comparative Exercise in Mormon Theology,” and various writings on John Smith. His review of “A Comparative Exercise in Mormon Theology ends by von Beek stating, ” …This book is not only a must for everyone who takes Mormon studies seriously, but also for anyone interested in Mormon theology …” Not exactly the kind of thing a professor of cultural anthropology ordinarily writes.

In Chapter Five of “Dogon: African People of the Cliffs,” page 103, paragraph three he states, “The Dogon have no creation myth, no deep story relating how the world came into being. (An anthropologist some decades ago probed his informants for creation myths so insistently that the Dogon, polite as ever, obligingly produced them. Some of his publications still in print tourist guides perpetuate this mistake.)”

Vague details and defamatory. The unnamed anthropologist referred to by von Beek was Marcel Griaule. Griaule never wrote a “tourist guide.” He was a dedicated and serious anthropologist who dedicated his life to anthropological research. After working in Abyssinia from 1928 to 1929, and Dankar and Dijbouti from 1931 to 1933, he made three expeditions between 1935 and 1939 to Mali, Cameron and Chad. Between 1946 and 1956 he continued his research in Mali studying the Dogon accompanied by a fellow anthropologist, Germaine Dieterlen.

The Dogon are believed to have originally come from Egypt. They migrated west to Libyia and afterwards south to Ghana. In 1050 Islam was introduced into West Africa. Over time large populations were converted to Islam, but the Dogon resisted and as a result were probably persecuted. The Dogon, according to Griaule, claimed responsibility for protecting a secret knowledge.

In 1240 the Dogon ended their vassalage to the powerful Empire of Ghana. Between 1307 and 1333 they were driven westward to central Mali where they finally settled in the Bandiagara Cliffs. The Bandiagara Cliffs stretch for 120 miles with adjacent savannas. From 1330 until the early 20th century the Dogon were isolated from neighboring peoples. Their language Dogon, is classified a Voltaic of the Niger-Kordofanian Family, subgroups Niger-Congo. The Dogon have never claimed special status and they have never proselytized their beliefs, nor have they been negatively influenced by their beliefs. Their special knowledge must be earned and even the average Dogon is not allowed total access to this knowledge.

In 1903 Louis Desplagnes, a French anthroplogist briefly studied the Dogon. It was not until Griaule began his research in the late 1930 and especially between 1946 and 1956 that they were studied seriously. In October 1946 Griaule was summoned by a Dogon priest (Hogon)named Ogotemmeli of Lower Ogol to his house for 33 consecutive days. In those 33 consecutive days he was told much of the secret Dogon knowledge. In 1947 Griaule published “la parole de face,” (the pale fox), “the simple knowledge of the Dogon.” In 1965 Griaule and Deieterlen’s “Conversations with Ogotemmeli, An Introduction to Dogon Ideas,” was published by Oxford University Press and in 1967 it was published in English.

According to Ogotemmeli, stars came from pellets of earth like material flung into the space of the God, Amma. The sun, like other stars is in a sense a pot raised to white heat and surrounded by spirals of red copper with 8 turns. The sun was heated 1/4 at a time.

The earth is like a human body and compared to a termite mound, female below and male above. Amma threw off the male (cut the top of the termite mound) and had intercourse with the female. From the union came the jackel. The earth was scorched and barren.

Amma had intercourse with the earth a second time and water, which is the divine seed, was able to enter the womb of the earth and normal reproduction began. From that union came twins. They are spirits called Nummo. (also known as Nommo and Nomo.)

Nummo are born of water and the Dogon word for water is synonymous with Nummo. Nummo are described as 1/2 human from head to loin and 1/2 fish serpent below that. They have red eyes, forked tongues, sleek shinning bodies and an unpleasant odor.

According to Ogotemmeli the Nummo came down to earth in a vessel along with fire and thunder while a red star appeared in the sky emitting red flames. They came to earth as 4 sets of twins to put an end to disorder with fibers pulled from plants already created in heavenly regions, ten bunches of fibers corresponding to ten fingers. They settled their craft in a swamp since they preferred to lay in water.