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Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule [and Comments andReplies]

Author(s): Walter E. A. van Beek, R. M. A. Bedaux, Suzanne Preston Blier, Jacky Bouju, PeterIan Crawford, Mary Douglas, Paul Lane, Claude MeillassouxSource: Current Anthropology, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), pp. 139-167Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for AnthropologicalResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2743641 .

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CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 32, Number 2, April I99I? I991 byWenner-GrenoundationorAnthropologicalesearch. ll rights eservedOII-3204/9I/3202-0002$3.00

Dogon RestudiedA Field Evaluationofthe WorkofMarcelGriauleby WalterE. A. van BeekThis restudy f the Dogon of Mali asks whether he textsproducedby Marcel Griaule depict a society that is recognizable to the re-searcher and to the Dogon today and answers the question moreor less in thenegative. The picture of Dogon religion presented nDieu d'eau and Le renard pale proved mpossible to replicate inthefield, ven as the shadowyremnant of a largelyforgotten ast.The reasons for his, t is suggested, ie in the particularfield itua-tion of Griaule's research, ncludingfeaturesof the ethnographer'sapproach, thepolitical setting, he experienceand predilectionsofthe informants, nd the values of Dogon culture.WALTER E. A. VAN BEEK is Associate Professor f Anthropologyat theUniversityfUtrechtK.i222, P.O. Box 80.I40, 3508 TCUtrecht,The Netherlands).Born in I943, he received his Ph.D.from hat university n I978. He has conducted research amongtheDogon ofMali and among the Kapsiki/Higiofnorthern amer-oon and northeasternNigeria. His publications include The Kap-sikiof theMandara Hills (ProspectHeights:Waveland Press, 987),(withS. Pernand B. Alexander)Masked Dancers of WestAfrica:The Dogon (New York: Time-Life, 982), (withJ. an Baal) Symbolsfor Communication: Religion in AnthropologicalTheory,2d edi-tion Assen: van Gorcum, I984), and the editedvolume The Questfor Purity:Dynamics of Puritan Systems (Berlin: Mouton, I988).The presentpaper was submitted n finalform 5 IX 90.

It has become a commonplace that ethnographiesre"doublymediated," haped bythe deas andpreconcep-tionsofbothethnographernd informants.heyare "ataleof two cultures-the fieldworker'snd the other's"(vanMaanen988:I38). Restudies,owever,epresentmorecomplexcase. They commentexplicitly pon anexisting ccount andprobably nrich hecorpusof data.A restudymay give a differenteneral mpressionofaculture-openinga new vista,allowingfor pluralandmorebalanced nterpretation."Societiesareso complexthatmorethanonemodelofanalysis s neededtorevealall these intricacies"[Beidelman 989:2I5].) But a re-studymayalso show thatan earlier tudywas flawed.Thoughthis latterpossibility s more or less ruled outby the extremes of the postmodernist pproach, ampersuaded hat some views on a culturecan indeedbemore productive, nsightful,or plausible, in short,"truer,"hanothers. oth i989:567) has argued ordistinction etweenrhetorical evicesandepistemolog-ical significance:no one perspectives privileged,ven

though some are demonstrably etteror worse." In asimilarvein, Beidelman i989:265) concludes n his re-view ofClifford'sI988) The Predicament of Culture,"Some accounts areof ess value thanothers, itherbe-cause thedata are unreliable r thinor because theanal-yses are inept." I will argue here that all three kindsof fault can be identified n the classic studies of theDogon.It s a restudy fthe Dogon ofMali that presenthere,setting offmy data against one particular and quitewell-known) therview, that of Marcel Griaule. Giventhe constructed ature of culture, he fieldcritiqueofthedata has to be performedn terms frecognizabilityand productivity: o the texts producedby Griaule de-pict a society hat s recognizable o the researcher, fferproductivensights nto Dogon thinking, r provide se-fulguidancefor he reproduction fDogon culture? AreGriaule's cultural constructs ecognizable n the field,either to the anthropologist r to the Dogon? Do theDogon, when presentedwith (elementsof)the Griauletexts, recognize them as a meaningfulpart of theirthinking nd way of ife?Myanswersto thesequestionswill be more or ess inthenegative,depending n whatpartof Griaule'sworkis in question. I will firstpresenta shortsynopsisofGriaule's ethnographynd some of the problems itposes; then I shall presentsome ofmy own findings,analysetheir ifferencesromGriaule's, ndfinally on-struct model ofhow the Griauleanethnography asgenerated.

Griaule'sDogon EthnographyGriaulepublishedon theDogon from heearlythirties(the Dakar-Djibouti expedition of I93I-33 [GriauleI9331) until his death in I956, and a majorwork co-authored by Germaine Dieterlen appeared posthu-mously n I965. Forpresent urposes, is Dogon ethnog-raphymay be divided into three major periods. FromI93I till I948 he published descriptive ccountsof Do-gon life, concentrating n material culture.His thesed'etat,Masques dogons Griaule 938, hereafter D), isthehigh pointofthisperiod,whichCliffordI983:I38)calls Griaule's "documentary hase." My critique s notdirected t hisworksofthisperiodor those ofhismanycollaborators; ndeed,theirvision ofDogon cultureco-incides to a significant egreewith mine. It is the laterpresentation f Dogon culture with which it is con-cerned.The second period is dominated by a book thatsparkedtremendousnterest n many circles,not onlyamong anthropologists, nd made Griaule world-fa-mous. InDieu d'eau: Entretiens vec Ogotemmeli Gri-aule I948, hereafter E) Griaule uncovered a Dogonworldview, cosmology, nd philosophical systemof acompletenessand sophistication unparalleled in anyotherethnography.he old man Ogotemmeli,who isthe pivotof this book, initiated Griaule into a Dogonworld dominatedbya splendidcreationmyth, howing

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I40 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 32, Number2, April 99Ithe "Nazarene"-as Griaule liked to call himself s awhite man-how in Dogon culture he story f creationserved as a blueprint or ll facets of society,from heway to cultivate a field and build a house to weaving,potterymaking, drumming, nd smithing. n this ele-gantlywritten ccount of 32 initiatory essions, Griauledescribed n intricate hilosophicalnetwork inking heoutside world with Dogon society nd thought.A short summary: n the beginningAmma took alump of clay, squeezed it in his hand, and flung t fromhim. The clay spread out over the north the top) andthenthe south thebottom) f the world.This flat arthwas a female body,with an ants' nest' as its sexual or-gan, ts clitoris termite ill. Amma tried o have inter-coursewithherbut was thwarted y the termite ill. Heexcised t, thus creating he fox.2 ubsequent ntercourseproduced he originalNommo3 twins from he firstwa-ter.They gave theirmother, he earth, ibres or loth-ing, hus creating he eightfold piralsofthe sun, a vehi-cle formoisture,wind, nd tornadoes. he fox, eing heonly non-twin, ucceeded in having incestuous) nter-coursewith the earth, esulting n the flowofmenstrualblood. He was giventhe power of peech and prediction.Amma then created human beings from lay with thehelp of the Nommo, male and female; they begat thefirst ight ancestors of the Dogon, who were still bi-sexual.The Nommo proceededto create weaving,cultivatedgrains, nd a complicated tairway or escending o theearth,which was represented y thegranary guyo ya)and the basket. The ancestors, rees,wild and domesticanimals, reptiles nd rodents, irds and fishdescendedto the earth.Then the ancestral mith,with anvil, bel-lows, and hammer, eshapedthe granarynto a spindlewhorl nd stolefire rom he firstNommo. The latter'sretribution, thunderbolt,et the granary lidingdowntherainbow. ts collision with theearth roke he ances-tor'sflexible imbs ntohuman oints.A later nfractionagainstthe orderof the first ightancestorsproducedthecerealgrains, hechthonic erpent, griculture,ndthesmithy.Fromthereon, in a convoluted nd sometimes nter-nally contradictoryiscourse n whichOgotemmeli ndGriaulewere equal partners, he structuringf thehu-man body,totemicpriests, he cult ofLebe (the earth),themakingofdrums,weaving, and cultivation, loth-ing and finery,he architecture f the house and thetotemic shrineand the layout of the village,the cultof the binu, the intricacies of sacrifice, ircumcision,

excision, nd the appearance fdeath, ll are inkedwiththecreationmyth.Griaule, who, udging rom he textalone, exerted onsiderable nfluence n the contentofthe talks and on the structuringf the images into acoherent ystem, peculatively inked the Ogotemmeliexplanations o thesigns of thezodiac.Though portrayed t the time as the ultimate nsightfrom he Dogon elders,Ogotemmeli's revelationswerenot to be the finalword on Dogon thought.A new andquite differentorpusof myth nd cultural xplanationswas offered o Griaule and his close collaboratorGer-maine Dieterlen in subsequent years.The firstmajorindicationswere publications n Sirius, ymbolism,ndthe harp-lute (Griaule and Dieterlen i 9 oa, b; i95 ) andan attempt t synthesis Griaule and Dieterlen I954).However,it is Le renardpale (Griaule and DieterlenI965, hereafter P) that provides the crucial informa-tion. Here another, ven more elaborateand intricateview of Dogon culturalthought,based on a differentcreationmyth, s offered. cosmological story s giveninwhich Amma (God) through series ofminutelyde-scribed cts and movements reates theuniverse, tars,moons, and planets,and all aspects ofDogon culture.This account,even more thanOgotemmeli's, conjuresupa visionofthe Dogon as great hilosophers iving ndreliving heir wn creation, t ease in a world n whichthewarp of daily life is interwovenwith the woof ofmythical reation nto a marvelloustapestry f cosmicproportions.The text itself starts with an indigenous theoryofsigns pp.6i-87) differentiatingarious evels of visualrepresentation f mythical eality. his theorys highlysignificantor he book for wo reasons: i) The storynfacthingesuponvisual representations,fact cknowl-edged bytheauthors p. i io). (2) Theiraccountoperatesfrom n extreme cryptological" iew ofthenatureofsymbols Sperber 975) claimingtheidentity fsignifi-ant and signifie; orexample, Amma, retreatingo hisheaven afterhis creativework, retainsthe signs of thecreation, nd as longas he can destroy hesigns,he candestroy the earth (p. 507).The story s hardto summarize,for t is highlyde-tailedand lacks any ongoing tory ine.The creation nthisaccountproceeds, gain, n stagesand levels. Aftera first reationcentering n the acacia tree has beendestroyed, mmacreates he universe rom primordialegg, nwhich the first ightvibrations r creativemove-ments occur. The resulting piralmovement n theeggwill come torepresent heseven plus one) fundamentalseeds of cultivation nd, later,theorganization fmanand ofsociety. Central to thisaccount is the notion ofinvoluteddoubleness-each beingtwin, achpaircoun-terbalancedby half a placenta. In heaven the firstNommos arecreated Nommois theDogon water pirit[seebelow]) n theform forwith the double of catfish.A singleNommo of theoriginalfourpairsrevolts ndescapes fromheaven, creating pace and time (p. I75).His placenta becomes the earth,which is thereby e-filed.ThiswaywardNommo,calledOgo, s punishedbyAmma with the loss of speech. He triesto create ife

i. In theEnglishtranslationof DE, key (termitiere)has inevitablybecome "termite mound." This particular nt,however,makes itsnest in a hole in the ground,which is crucial to the sexual meta-phorOgotemmeli uses. Accordingto the Dogon, under theseholeswater can always be found.2. The yurugu s still called "jackal" in DE, to be corrected n RPto "pale fox" (Vulpes pallida).3. In spellingI shall conform o Griaule and Dieterlen's, thoughaphonologicallymore correct pelling s available through heworkof Calame-Griaule (I965, I968).


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VAN BEEK Dogon Restudied I4Ithrough ntercoursewith his placenta-an incestuousact that pawnsbush spirits.He ascends to heaven again,steals grains including he all-importanto [Digitariaexilis]), piece of the sun that Amma created as a de-fence formerly go's placenta), the teeth of his catfishdouble, and a piece of the placenta,which becomes themoon. Amma appoints he ant, the termite, nd the spi-der as guardsforOgo, grindshis placenta, circumciseshim, and reduces him to a fox renard ale), henceforthdumb but with knowledgeof the future.The highlight f he creation tory, s well as the focusofDogonritual ccording o this ccount, s thesacrificeand subsequent resurrection f one particularNommo,meant tobe Ogo's twin, n order o purify he earth ndredeem the wrongsof Ogo. It is this heavenly sacrificethat creates the central tar system round Sirius Gri-aule and Dieterlen I95ob) of which p6 tolo, identifiedas Sirius B, is central.Through he streamof blood andthedismemberment fthe corpse,this sacrificegener-ates the blacksmith,numerous altars, a multitude ofstars, divination, the main ritual trees, rain clouds,birds, the griots bards), he walu (antelope), etc. Thetotemic hrines estifyo Amma's feat ofreassemblingandrevivingheNommo,as do the ancestralhouses,theDogon statues, and indeed most visual representations(againaccording o Griaule).Finally, n ark carryinghe first ight ncestors, ener-ated by the Nommo, descends fromheaven and colo-nizes the now purified arth,bearing hepure seeds offoodplantsand treesas well as domesticated nimals.Still,thewrongswroughtby Ogo have rendered hemmortal, nd thecomplexworkofDogonrituals ndcere-monies is requiredboth to commemorate he creativeand redeeming acrifice nd to prolongtheir hort ifeon earth.Through transposition f this (muchmorecompli-cated) myththe human bodyitselfbecomes an imagenot onlyofthe creationbut also ofthe existing niverse,containing ll cultivated eeds, mirroringn itsdevelop-ment thedevelopment f the Nommo. Social organiza-tionfollowstheoriginal,mythicaldividing ines ofthefourelements. The same holds,Griaule and Dieterlenargue, or elationsbetweenkin,the territorialrganiza-tionofvillage,ward, ndhomestead, tc.As inDE, thesehappenings re said to reverberate n everynook andcranny f Dogon culture-in architecture, griculture,the main communal rituals, divination, acrifice, in-eage organization, he divisionof labouramongblack-smiths ndgriots, tc.A shortoverview uch as this can never do justicetothe richness ndversatility f themyth orpus butseePalau-Marti957, Lettens97I, Pelton980, deHeuschI985), but t must be evident hat hetext fRPpresentsa whollynew paradigm fDogon thinking. learlyen-visagedas the first fa longseries thesecond volumewas to deal with the first 6 days ofhuman existenceon earth), his has been theonlyvolumeto appearthusfar.Although aterpublicationsdrewupon this corpus(e.g., ieterlen95 9, I962, i989), the econd olume asnot yet come out.

Griaule'sEthnographys a ProblemGriaule's publications,especially DE, by far the mostcaptivating ccount, had an impactfarbeyondthebor-dersof anthropology. rthistoriansandartdealers), r-chitects,philosophers, nd historians of religion usedthese insights n theirwork. The generalpublic,espe-ciallythe French ntelligentsia,agerly vailed itself fthisrich reasure fprofound frican hought. sycholo-gistsbecame interested n the stirring fDogon soulsandundertook horoughn-depthnterviewse.g.,Parin,Morgenthaler,nd Parin-Matthey963). The book wastranslated nto many anguages, ncludingRussian andJapanese.Among otherthings t stimulated ourism othe Dogon habitat, heBandiagara scarpment. ddedtoa visuallycaptivating ultureand a stunning nviron-ment,this engaging ccount of Dogon philosophyre-sulted na continuous tream f"Nazarene" (white)vis-itorsto Sanga.RP also becamea source of nspiration ormanyotherdisciplines ndprofessions. much ess accessibletext,it has had a relatively estricted eadership, nd therehave been fewforeign ranslations.Nevertheless, hishighly soteric alehas had its own attractionndfasci-nation, nd the laterrevelationshave beenpopularizedby others who have tried theirhand at a general "de-scription" fDogon culture romGriaulean ources e.g.,Saccone I984, Beaudouin I984, Palau-Marti 957). Arthistorians ave drawnon it to interpret ogon materialculture ndby theirvoluminous writings nhanced themarket alue of thealreadymuch covetedDogon sculp-tures.The interpretationfDogon architecturepurredby Ogotemmeliwas stimulated anew (N'diaye I972).There has been a Freudianreinterpretationf Dogonmythology Michel-Jones978). Artistsof variousper-suasions have sought nd foundnspirationn these Do-gon chronicles, mongthemwritersSchierbeek),culp-tors Moore), rchitects van Eyck,Haan), and painters.Numerous filmshave been made, among which themanyproductions fRouch standout. Theweirdest on-nection is with the extraterrestrialddicts of "cos-monautology,"who have found specially n the Siriustales and the account of the ark some of their"defi-niteproofs"ofalien visitsto thisplanet VonDanikenhas drawnregularly pon Guerrier I9751 or Temple[I976]). Tourismreceived fresh timulus.Historians of religionhave often drawn the Dogoninto theircomparativeendeavours e.g., Pelton i980).Most of them have taken the texts producedby Griaule at face value, reveling n the intricaciesofmythology nd creation. In theirhands, the Dogonhave begunto exemplify he quintessentialWestAfri-can orSudanicreligion, reserved etter n the Bandia-gara escarpment han anywhere lse-a notionwhichechoes Griaule and Dieterlen.Anthropologistsave reactedmorecautiouslyto thiscontinuing eries ofGriaule-Dogonrevelations, houghmanyhave cited the material.A special conference nthis type of world view resulted in AfricanWorlds(Forde 954), which contains an articlebyGriaule and


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I42 1 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume32, Number2, April 99IDieterlen (I954), the first attempt at a synopsis ofthe "new Dogon cosmogony" nd still one of the mosteasily accessible. Reviews were cautious (GoodyI967, Jackson 984), attempting o maintain an aca-demic balance between cceptanceat facevalue and sus-picion.The general thnographic roblem osed by theDogonpublicationswas already becoming clear. As describedin the two centralpublications,DE and RP, the Dogonbearvery ittleresemblance ither o surroundingthnicgroups r to any other ulture n Africa.No comparableset of myths,no such intricateweb of associations be-tween myth nd institutions, as ever been found.Themain body of anthropologicalmonographs,predomi-nantlyBritish t that time and "Atlantic" n lateryears,had revealed huge number f ocal cultures pparentlyoperating n quite differentremises. Sociological, po-litical, and historicalfactorswere emphasized n theseaccounts, ideology and especially mythology beinggranted comparativelymodest role. Several commen-tators riticized he absence of a "material grounding"for he description f Dogon culture, he lack of socio-economic data, and the absence of ny ink between de-ology and social structure Tait i950). Douglas (I967,i968) analysed this glaringgap between French read:Dogon) and English anthropologyn terms of a differ-ence in academic culture. When direct confrontationswere arranged etween French nd English anthropolo-gists, each party showed clear lack of appreciationof the other's position.4The most thorough riticismwas formulated y Lettens I97I), who evaluated Gri-aule's work under the telling itleMystagogie t mysti-fication. Clifford i983) has analysed the fieldworkmethodology nd theoretical ssumptions rom decon-structivist erspective, roducing more sympatheticand sophisticated ritique.All in all, whathas emerged rom hecriticalreadingof colleagues is an enigma.The Dogon as depicted nGriaule's publicationsare an anomalyin African th-nography,ven amongthe otherproducts fFrench n-thropology.Griaule's many collaborators lso concen-trated nreligion s a crucialexplanatoryariable.ApartfromDieterlen,who had a special working elationshipwithGriaule and carriedthe torch,Zahan, Ligers,Le-beuf,de Ganay, Rouch, Paulme, Lifchitz,Leiris, andPaques made theircareers n African thnographyndlinguistics.Most of themparticipatedn the earlier x-peditions, eforeWorldWar I. Theirethnographic orkoften greedwiththatofGriaule n granting ymbolismand ideologya dominantplace in culturalexplanation,but most of themmoved in quite differentirectionslater.The main pointhere is thatGriaule's initiatorytrajectory,s Cliffordalls it,has neverbeenparalleledorevenapproximated y anyofhis students-not even,as we shallsee, byDieterlen.Notwithstanding riaule's

considerable nfluence, he revelationsof Dogon mythhave remained ui generis.Griaule often sserted hatDogon culture xemplifieda general Sudanic" culture nd predicted hat variantsof Dogon beliefs would be found among other groups.However, the Bambara (e.g., as described by Zahan[I9741 ndDieterlenI9571) ever roducedn Ogotem-meli to reveal thedeepermeanings nd correlations e-neath thesurface fpublic culture.The same holdsforthe work of other Griaule students e.g., Leiris I948,Paulme 986, Paques i964). Norwerethesedeep n-sights ver reproduced n any otherpart of Africa;Afri-can ethnography nows onlyoneOgotemmeli, nlyoneRenardpale.Dogon ethnographys anomalous not only n respectof other ulturesbut also internally. hougheach of thepublicationsdiscussed s reasonably oherent, he threelevels ofDogon ethnography-thepublications up tillI947, Ogotemmeli, nd the Renard pale-are quite in-consistentwitheach other.Palau-Marti I 957) addressesthisproblembut clearlydoes not succeed in reconcilingthe threeversions. Dieterlen i989) uses the initiationparadigmto explain this conflict:the different ythsrepresent arious levels of interpretation f and initia-tion ntoDogon "secrets." Still, even though ome the-matic continuities rediscernible, wo qualitatively if-ferent etsofmyths o operate.5 hus even fwe restrictourselvesto Griaule's work,we have not one Dogonethnographyut three.The Setting f theRestudyDogon ethnography ffers ne ofthe clearestexamplesanthropologyas to offer fa paradigm nomaly. t con-founds ven thehighly mbiguousmodelsanthropologyhas developedforWestAfrican ocieties; thedifferencebetweenGriaule'sconstruction(s)fDogon culture ndthe ones made in adjoining partsof Africabyhis col-leaguesis simply oogreat.A restudyn thefield, hen,may yield more than just another view by "otherscribes.A few caveats and considerations re in order: Anycomparison vertimewithinone culture tarts rom heassumptionsof recognizability nd continuity; ulturesare assumed to be recognizablebydifferentesearchersand participants s intersubjectivelyalid constructs.Produced n the triangular nteraction mong partici-pants ndbetweenthem nd the nterpretingesearcher,cultures will be recognizable to a limited extentonly-the stanceofpostmodernism-butstillrecogniz-able. This is mostapparentwhen nstitutional ccountsrather than general interpretations, ermeneutics, rfeelings reat issue (cf.Gartrell979), and Griaule doeswrite bout institutions.

4. The proceedingsof theconference n Voltaic cultures DieterlenI967) offer splendidexample of this paradigmatictowerofBabel,the Englishdelegates speaking about totallydifferentssues fromthe French.5. Only on a verygeneral evel can the two accounts be consideredtransformations f one another, s de Heusch (I985) has shown. Astructural nalysis such as his can, however, link any numberofmythsfrom ny region.


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VAN BEEK Dogon RestudiedI 43Culturalconstructswill changeover timebut will re-taincertainfeatures ither s such or in the shapingofthe transformation rocess. If the flow of time haschanged ociety, ome aspects will have changedmorethanothers,while in various ways the "same culture"maybe rediscovered n new settings nd forms.A de-scriptionof Dogon culture frombeforeWorld War IIshould ingomebells n 989 (or 979, theyear startedmy fieldresearch). he Trobriands re stillrecognizablefromMalinowski's publications,as are otherculturesthat have been restudied.As we shall see, the sameholds for the Dogon. Descriptionsdating frombeforeWorldWar I stilloffer valuable-if dated-introduc-tionto Dogon culture.There s, however, hecomplication hat some ofthecrucial informationwas secret. Griaule emphaticallystated that, thoughthe knowledgerevealed was notpurely ersonal-it was deemed to be at thecoreofDo-gonpublic culture-it was knownonlyto a few niti-ates. It represented ackgroundknowledgethat onlysome shouldknow and but a fewneeded to know. Thiswas theknowledgeof the initiated nd formed artofthefabric fDogon thought s a systemofsecrets.Re-discoveringhisknowledgewill notbe easy;yet tmustbe possible.The problem ofsecrecy n culture s a complex onethat has as yet received ittle theoretical ttention cf.Bellman 984). Of course, culturesdo containelementsthat re not readilydisclosed to outsiders. etails of ni-tiation ndrituals reoftennot fully ublicknowledge;in additionto these "official"secrets,the ubiquitous"skeletons in the cupboard"-the shameful ecrets ofthepast andpresent-are kepthiddenfrom heoutsider.Griaule statesclearly hatthe deeperDogon knowledgebelongs o the first lass of ecrets, iddennotonlyfromoutsiders but also from the majorityof the popula-tion.Only a small portionof the population-Griaule(I952:32-33) estimates5%, LettensI97I:55I) fromGriaule's textsuggests % -has these deeper nsights.The question then s how secretsecretscan be and yetbe partand parcelof a culture.As sharedmeaning s acrucialaspect ofanydefinition fculture, secretnotshared s not cultural,while one sharedbyveryfew sbydefinitionmarginal.More mportanttill,the question of ecrets aises theissue ofcultural ntegration. hough aspectsofculturecould well be at variance with each other, n a small-scale societysuch as a Dogon village some integrationof culture can be expected. n Griaule's texts, Dogonculture s representeds fully oherent nd integrated.Moreover, ultural ecretsmaycorrespond o elementsofpublic culture, haringways ofreasoning nd meth-ods ofclassification.More often hannot,therevelationof thesecret s the revelation f a symbol-of thewayin which esotericconcepts are materiallyrepresented(vanBaal and van Beek i985). Thus, if the secrets re-vealed to Griaule arepartofDogon culture, ne shouldbe able to retrace hemto some extent.Ofcourse, ecretknowledge s vulnerable, s its repositories inthis caseold Dogon men) have short ifeexpectancies.However,

this kindof knowledge, inkedin form nd content oongoingpublic knowledge, hould still be recognizablein its culturalformat ven if t is no longerbeingtrans-mitted.My field tudy fthe Dogon6 was partofa multidisci-plinarycluster of researches on the theme of humanecology n the Sahel. Carried utbymembers f variousdisciplines geography,hysical nthropology,ocial an-thropology,rchaeology), esearchwas concentrated ntwo zones: the floodplains f theNiger Delta, with theold cityofDjenne as the focus,and theBandiagara s-carpment.My own researchhad as its centraltheme acultural ecological concern,the relationbetween reli-gion and the survival strategies f theDogon. Forthistheme, n evaluationof theworkofGriaulewas a neces-sity.As it developed, t increasingly ecame an inte-grated estudy f the Dogon.The locationwas selected ccordingly. riauleand hiscollaboratorsworkedmainly n Sanga, a conglomerateof tenDogon villagesbuilt close together. n importantmarket s well as administrative entrefor he Dogonarea, Sanga is in severalways atypical. ts totalpopula-tion is quite large over6,500 at the moment), nd theearliest Christian nd Muslim influenceradiatedfromit. Thus, it offers t once a concentration f Dogon cul-ture nd a peculiarvariant f t. Further, angahas beeninfluenced y tourism nd in a lesser way by the tradi-tion of Griaule research. chose a villageof ,8oo people(fig. ) close enoughto Sanga 9 km) to share ts culturalvariant o a significant egree nd far noughfrom t toavoid excessive tourismand research nfluence). artoftheresearch, f course,had to be carriedout in Sanga,workingwith nformants rom oth withinand beyondGriaule's circle. The research tartedwitha reconnais-sance trip n January978 followed byfieldwork romApril979 toJuly980. I thenmade ight eturnisits,eachlasting rom ne to threemonths, verthe nexttenyears.7 hough I worked n the field with geographers,prehistorians, hotographers,ilm makers, nd writers,the datapresented ere derivefrommy own research.My personalviews on African ociety, s well as myexpectations n coming nto thefield, reappositehere.Culturalecologywas mycentral nterest, nd my gen-eral view of traditional ulture and religionwas (andis) characterized ya moderatematerialism. expectedDogon society ndreligion o be shapedto a significantdegreeby the exigenciesof survival n a harsh naturalenvironment,n whichdroughts nd locusts figured,swell as historicalprocessessuch as war, slave raiding,colonization, nd statepenetration. expecteda small-scale village societysuch as the Dogon to show someintegrationfmaterialbasis, social organization,ndre-ligion.To a certain xtent, foundwhat expected.His-6. For stimulating omments on earlier versionsof thetext thankmy graduate tudents as well as Kees Op 't Land, PeterStaples, andseveral Frenchcolleagues.7. The researchwas financedby two grantsfrom heNetherlandsFoundation for theAdvancement ofTropical Research (WOTRO)and bytheUniversityofUtrecht,the FoundationDapper, AgenceAigle, and Time-Life.


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1441 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 32, Number 2, April 1991

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..... ...... .. .

41~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~......FIG i The scree villageof Tireli setting ortheestudy~~~~~~~............

toricalprocessesand ecological pressuresdo influenceDogon society nd culture.However, foundDogonreli-gionmuchless focusedon environmentalssues thanhadexpected,muchmore a repositoryfhistorical nci-dents thana responseto historicalprocesses.Also, theintegrationf Dogon cultureturned ut to be less thancomplete; one example is the loose integration f themask complexinto the main bodyof ritualassociatedwith sacrifice.8

I also expected to find hatGriaule's creationmythswere highly onstructed ut not directly evelant o Do-gon daily life. However,realizingthat this expectationwouldbe sharedby the majority f theprofession,wasalso awarethatfinding he mythical nd ideologicalcor-pus in the fieldwould be a greater oup than"disprov-ing" Griaule, and I certainly xpectedto find at leastsome bitsand pieces of the myths.On the whole, wasable tofindmuch ess concretematerial ven than hadexpected.The ideas with which Griaule and his infor-mantsworked surfaced nly as allusions, fragmentsfritual xpression.Workingso close to and in Sanga was in a waya haunting experience. Griaule is still "present" inSanga,thoughmainly as the initiator f the first am.Research s considerednormal but superfluous: Whywrite this down? All the books have already beenwritten bout us!" Dieterlen's continued research,ofcourse, keeps the memory of Griaule fresh. n theCNRS research house, situated between the villageand a hotel, remnantsofGriaule's equipment are stillstored.

8. In otherrespects, oo,my findings id not corroboratemyexpec-tations. For nstance, relationsbetween villages and ethnicgroupsoccurredon a much larger scale than I had expected. My first e-search experience had been in the Mandara Mountains of northernCameroon, among theKapsiki/Higi vanBeek i987). There,histor-ical and social relations hardlyever extended beyond the smallmountain area. Though in manyways the two societies are compa-rable van Beek iggob), and though having ived in anothermillet-growing rea facilitatedmy personal rapportwith theDogon way oflife, had to grow accustomed to the overt harmonyof ntervillagerelations nd to thegreatdistancescovered nmigratoryraditions.Dogon culture provedto be much more open than I had expected,eager to incorporatenew techniques and to establishrelationswithcentersof power far away.


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VAN BEEK Dogon RestudiedI 45RestudyoftheDogon: Some ResultsIn order o set offmy findings gainst those ofGriaule,I shall concentrate, s he did,on Dogon religion. ssuesof social organizationwere on the whole not problem-atic. Paulme (1940) presents pictureofDogon socialorganization hat forthe most partcan still be found.She depicts a deeplyrooted, ineage-based patrilineal,virilocal societyin which seniority, exual division oflabour, nda strongworkethicholdsway. Thoughsomechanges have occurred n ceremoniesand rituals,theytoo are still there.Bouju (I984) could refer o de Ganay(I937) forherdescription f heenthroningfthehogon;after 3 years, ndeven na quitedifferentillage, herewas no need for newaccount. The same holds formostofthe marriage bservances hat Paulmenoted n I940,though ome details have changedand individual devi-ance from he normshas increased.Most of thedescrip-tions of thebulu festival n Sanga (Paulme and LifchitzI936) are still valid,as are the standard ccounts of thehonorific itles deGanay I941), fox divination PaulmeI937), jokingrelationships Paulme I939), nd relationsbetweenthe sexes (Paulme I940, I948).Inmy research, ogon religion merged s elusive andcomplicated ut within herange f knownAfrican eli-gions. t has limitedrelevancefor verydayife: for x-ample,much of agricultures conductedwithoutanyreference o it. Ritualsmaybe grouped nto twomajortypes: acrifice, ersonalor communal, nd thecomplexofdeath, mask, and sigu rituals,which I shall call themask complex.The two complexes are partially nte-grated. he myths f mask andsigu origins uggest hatthe mask complexis morerecent; t does ignore omedistinctions overning ogon social life such as senior-ity esp.the sigu) and lineage organization, utof coursetheremaybe other xplanationsfor his.Sacrificefig. ) is performedt all levelsof ocial orga-nization: ndividual, amily, ineage,clan, ward,village,and evenclusterofvillageswith a tradition fcommondescent e.g., n thevillageof Arou [Dieterlen 9821). tfollows pattern finvocation, mmolation, nd com-munal consumption (van Beek I983b) familiar fromotherpartsofAfrica.All kinds of sacrificesmay alsobe madeby special-interestroups uch as blacksmiths,weavers, nd goatherds.n principle ach typeofsacri-ficehas itsownaltar, alled Amma after heDogonhighgod. Ammayewe s a lineage altar;a clan altar s calledwageu, n age-groupltarmuno,anda villagealtar ebe(Dieterlen 941). An important istinction btains be-tween ndividualorgroup ltars and villagealtars. Thelatter, ntrusted o the care ofspecific lans, servespe-cificgoals and purposes:they guard against ntrusionsfrom hebush, promote hegeneralhealth and fertilityof thevillage, heal, and solemnize oaths. Some altarshave gained regionalrenown and are visitedbypeoplefrom thervillages.On thewhole, thesystemof altarsis a very open one; new forms f altarsand sacrificeshave been introduced egularly hroughout ogon his-tory. hus in a villagesuchas Tireli at least40 differenttypes f altars can be found.

V~~~~~

.... - .

The timing of sacrifices is determined primarily bytheyearly alendar, houghdivinationmayindicatead-ditionalofferings.he sacrificial alendar s governed ythe onset of the rains and the subsequentcountingofmoons. The main sacrificial vent is the greatannualfestival, he buro6fig.3), held just before he onset ofthe rains Pemu, lexander, nd van Beek i982z, Paulineand Lifchitz1936); a smaller one is held after hehar-vest. n thesecommunal festivals he variouscategonieswithinthevillage population-old andyoung,menandwomen,casteand non-caste-reinforce heirmutualde-pendency nd complementarity.Closely linked to the use of individual altars are thenotions ofsorcery nd witchcraft. he generalvalue ofovert harmonypreventsmanifestations f this kindfrom rupting ublic!ly,s anyaccusation shamesbothparties nd an unfounded ne results n serious oss offace vanBeek I98 3a). Nevertheless, othaltars ndspe-ciallymade objects may be used for nti-socialprivaterituals, nd witchcraft,n its specificDogon definitionas the use ofrealorsupernatural poison," s a consider-able counterpointn Dogon culture vanBeek i 99ob).9

9. The absence of any referenceo witchcraftn thewritingsfGriaule nd Dieterlen s therefore ot due to any peculiarityfDogon culture.


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I46 | CURRENTANTHROPOLOGYVolume 2,Number ,April99I

*,a,_ Ns; -._&_ .s'SEd_

{0E_ ____ < it3Sg.tFi's_! | ] l:ES __ _: ;' ......... l_^ ' _Zi . .,,R

_ __ _E LJi_ _. v r __ s_ _s!-|_ S= l__- I_ m I_m_ __l l _ l .| I | -* l Ls

tM__l ji iE,2:w.: ..............................'S11X_=was I _w_ , - ]_ _ | i' * swI IU . .K - _ _ .X - __ __ I__ i .-- | _11111 X}3

_ sN N :.sFIG. 3. Twoshamansnfrontftheward'sbinuhrine uringhe nnualceremonyustbeforeherains.Witches re people-men or women-with innatetend-encies to poison other people. Preventivemeasuresagainstwitches are common and easy to obtain. Still,the importanceof overtharmony and the notion ofshamepreclude he voicingof suspicions.As a counter-pointwitchcrafts well hidden-one of the real secretsof Dogon society.The mask complex, with its grand rituals of firstburial nyiu ana),mask festivals dama),and the 60-yearfestival igu, has been widely reportedGriaule I938,Dieterlen nd Rouch I97I). It centres roundquestionsof death,fertility,nd complementarity. ask festivals(figs. , 5) function s secondburials resituatinghede-ceased as ancestors.At the same timethey ffer venuefor theatrical performances uring which the villageyouth an compete indancing)withtheir eers-behav-iour normally rowned pon.The symbolic nterpretationf the maskshas shiftedthrough he variousrevelatorytagesofDogon ethnogra-phy.My interpretationf these rituals,especiallythedama and the sigu,draws on variousoppositions ppar-ent in Dogon thought.The village/bush pposition sfundamental. he bush olu) s the sourceof ll strengthand wisdom, fearedfor ts unpredictabilityut needed

for a constant flow of energy nd knowledge nto thevillage van Beek and Banga 990). Masks may beviewedas elements ofthe bush introduced nto thevillage. Inthe igu,the men of hevillagereturno t from hebushwith additional wisdom and fertilityvan Beek i99i).The conceptual world of the Dogon is complicated,inhabitedbymany beings. Amma, thehigh god,calledthe maker of the earth, s the most important, ivinglife,fertility,nd rain. nvocationsaddresshim first fall, along with his "emissaries," the stars nd thebirds.His counterpart,hechthonic ,be, is often epresentedas a serpent nd is closely inked withthe gerontocracyin the village. n additionto these two gods,conceivedas individuals, here re collective spirits f greatritualandcognitive mportance. he first f these s the waterspiritNommo, often epresented s one but then as anexample ofhis kind:manyNommo people the waters.Nommo is feared s none other, ommanding penwa-ter notrain)and lightningwith his following ffamil-iars-crocodiles, turtles,water serpents, nd sheatfish.Less personalized nd also less visualized are a numberofcollectivespirits,never named individually:yeneu,yebd, tuwunu (inthe iterature ndoumboulou),binu,and jinu. None of these collective spirits re ancestors.


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VAN BEEK Dogon Restudied 147

.5 .. .

* . ' : . . . ' } ' i ; .

..........

FIG. 4. A mask festival:arrivalofthemasks.Theyrepresent ariousaspectsofthebushand ecologi-cal featurese.g., he scree), ndthemaincharacteristicsof the mask complex are thought o be derivedfromthem: the masks from he yenezu, he rituallanguage(sigu o) from he inu.The oldestman in thevillageservesas hogon,ritualofficiantDieterlen 94I, Paulme 940, Bouju I984).Eachclanhas a similarfigurefig. ).The ward, ontain-ing two or threeclans,mayhave a shamanicpriest inthe literature totemic priest" [de Ganay I942]), whoofficiates t a binu shrineon behalfofmembers.Thefunction fhealer or herbalist jbjongunu)dependsonknowledge nly.The maskcomplexhas itsownspecial-ists,amongwhomtheolubaru arethemost mportant.They are the ones who know the traditions nd textsin theritual anguagebetter hananybody lse,havinglearned hemduring three-month-longnitiation tthetimeofthesigu festival. t is theirdutyto recitethematthefunerals f oldmen.Womenbornduring hesiguhavea specialfunction s "sistersofthemasks" (yasig-ine),andin contrastwiththeotherwomenthey renotsupposed ofear he masks.Finally, hecastesofDogonsociety-the two groupsof blacksmiths,the leather-workers,hedrummers,nd thesegeu (makersofserv-

ingbowlsforfood)-have special niches in Dogon reli-gion, uchas themaking nd preservingfpublicpeace.The same holds in a different ayfor he manycollec-tive jokingrelationsthat characterize ntervillagendinterethnic elations n the region Paulme 940).Summing up, Dogon religion is moderately nter-twinedwiththe ecologicalsituation nd changes n thesocial andphysicalenvironment,s it is with thesocialstructure f Dogon villagesand its changes. n generalit has proved obe highly daptable-incorporating ewelements, addressingnew problems and changes instatus.The historicalelement is pertinent, s changesin the recent s well as in the remotepast have foundtheirway intoritual,but considerable ultural ntegra-tion s evident n boththe publicand themalign,moresecret, spectsofDogon religion.This,ofcourse, s justa sketch nddoesnot do usticeto thegreat nternalvariationwithinDogon religion afull-scaledescription s in preparation). t is obvious,however, hatalthoughmuchoftheold ethnographysclearly till valid,there s a gapbetweenmyresults ndGriaule's. The differencesetweenhis (later)data andmine entail a greatnumber of ethnographic etails,whichmay be subsumed nfive tatements umming p


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CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 32, Number 2, April I99I

* 4L~ 4s p

4 . I _L i'

-0'i.'.:'..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...

5. The "grandmask," the centralobject ofmask FIG. 6. A lineage elderconferring ithhis clan eldestat the ward's central men's house.but I could not replicatedespite

i. The Dogon know no proper reationmyth;neitherof Ogotemmelinor that of the Renardpaleo informants. he figure f Ogo (RP) ishe fox s a divining nimal has noprivilegedn mythology. hat Sirius is a double stariss ofvery ittle mportancen reli-Dogon societyhas no initiatory ecretsbeyond hemastery fpubliclyknown texts.2. The "supernatural"world of the Dogon is more di-

nd much more vague,ambivalent, nd capriciousrepresentedn DE or RP. The role of ancestors nthey are not identifiedwithother "supernatural"beings. The binu cannot bend do not occupya centralposi-mythologyr ritual.The water spiritNommo isa centralfiguren Dogon thought nd has none ofstics f a creator r a redeemer.3. SymbolismnDogon religion s restricted ndfrag-by ideas and objects sometimesquiterom he ones mentionednGriaule's writings.s not the basis ofhouse plansor of theof fieldsorvillages. Cosmological symbolism s

not the basis of ny Dogon cultural nstitution. umeri-cal symbolism s present n a very imited form threeformale, four or emale, nd eightfor he binu),mainlyconfined omedico/magical ituals.Classification fob-jects, animals, and plants does not followfixednumeri-cal categories.No sign system or hierarchical rderingofdifferentaroles (sd) or levels ofknowledge can befound.4. The crucial concept of nyama, allegedly "vitalforce," s irrelevant o Dogon religion.The etymologiesgiven n DE andRP are notretraceable nd seemhighlyidiosyncratic.5. Dogon society s not pervadedby religion; n fact,much ofDogon social life bears little reference o reli-gious matters. wins have limitedritual mportance ndarenot central n Dogon thought r ritual.Blacksmithsdo notfunction s cultureheroes, ndneither o griots/leatherworkers.The first oint,ofcourse, subsumes most of the oth-ers. Confrontedwith parts of the stories providedbyOgotemmeli rgiven nthe Renardpale, my nformantsemphatically tatethat theyhave never heard ofthem;they re notpartoftheir em ("found"), heir ollectivecustoms.This holds for he creation s such and also for


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V A N B E E K Dogon Restudied I 49. . .. . . M,. . . . . .Uwi Mu,U z. . . zk . ........

-tvx FE... ...... .....W 2M

2tMM . .. . . " i " i " I i i ik yNiE

WmgI iEEjt 24 t-m

MM

. . .. . . .

. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . .

. . . .. ."ss -M4.... .. . .. . .

T

. . .IM;ifilMt

& Mfflw\MR, 24

SR

m

. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

woW k,Am 4 W4. .. . ......

. . .. . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . .

. . . . .

FIG. Tracks of the pale fox in divination plots.

its parts, uch as the "eggofthe world" RP),theSiriustale (RP), the originalgranaryDE), the creativerolesof thebinu, Nommo, and Amma, and numerousotherdetails.Withthe demiseof the creationmyth hewholestructurefexplanation ndcorrelationn the twotextsdissolves.The same holds forthe pair constitutedby foxandOgo, theprincipal ctorsin the cosmologicalRP. Notonly are the myths totallyunknownto Dogon infor-mants,but so is thefigure fOgo as a supernatural e-ing.The term go is very mportantn Dogon, implyingwealth, eniority,nd power Paulme 940, Calame-Gri-aule I968). The oldestman in the village is theogo (inthe iterature ogon)ofthatvillage, heritual ntermedi-ary between the village and the supernaturalworld.Traces of sacred kingship ingerroundhis person deHeusch i985), but he is neverconceivedto be in anyway relatedto a supernatural eingofthat name. Theold man s infact loselyrelated o another pirit hat soffarmore mportance otheDogon,Lebe,thechthonicearth pirit whodoes not feature t all in RP and DE).The fox, s a divining nimal, s not considered he in-carnation f ome other rimalbeing.A myth xplaininghisdivinatoryowersrefers imply o a long-drawn-outwagerbetweenhim and Amma, neverto any formofpreexistencefthefox s such.FortheDogon,the divin-

atorypowers of thefox are not all that remarkable: ntheir iewany animalof the bushknows the future. hefox s onlyone of these,and not even the "strongest."If anything, he key (black ant,with whom the masksoriginated Griaule I9381), and the ta (hyena) "knowmore"; the ant,however, s too small for ts trackstobe interpreted,nd the hyena acks "governability"vanBeek and Banga 990). Moreover,historically onsciousas the Dogon are, they nsist thatdivinationwith thefox fig. ) is a relatively ecentpractice,havingreachedthe areabyway of he villageof reli n the second half fthe igthcentury. owry-shell ivination, till routinelypractised,s considered he olderform. he general ermfor divination (armanga) primarily ndicates cowryshells,not thefox.Is Sirius a double star? The ethnographic acts arequite straightforward.he Dogon, of course,know Si-rius as a star (it is after ll the brightestn the sky),calling t dana tolo,the hunter's tar thegameand thedogs arerepresented y Orion's belt). Knowledgeof thestars is not important ither n daily life or in ritual.The positionof thesun and thephases ofthe moon aremore pertinent orDogon reckoning.No Dogon outsidethe circleof Griaule's informants ad everheardof sigutolo or p6 tolo, norhad any Dogon even heard of emeya tolo (according o Griaule in RP Dogon names for


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I50 I CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume32, Number2, April 99ISirius ndits star ompanions).Most important, o one,even withinthe circleof Griaule informants,ad everheardor understood hat Siriuswas a double star (or,according oRP, evena triple ne,with B andC orbitingA). Consequently, he purported nowledge f themassof SiriusB orthe orbiting ime was absent.The schedul-ing of the sigu ritual s done in severalways in YugoDoguru,none of whichhas to do with the stars.10Of course,the Dogon do have myths.These were re-ported n the pre-i947 publicationsand consistof theDogon variantoftheMande myth Dieterlen 94I), re-lating he trekfromMande to theescarpment,hedivi-sionofauthoritymongthe differentogon groups, heprimacy fArou, the orderof seniorityn their rrivalon the escarpment, nd their ater dispersal.Anothercorpusofmyth xplainsthe separation f rainy nd dryseasons (as the outcome of a struggle etweenAmmaand Lebe [Griaule I9381) and otherspecificfeatures fthe physical environment uch as rocks, springs, ndspecific liff ormations. he most mportantmyth or-pus consistsofthoseconnectedwith themasksand thesigu; the versionsthat can be heardnowadaysformvariant of the ones recorded n MD, with some omis-sionsand additions.Theytell how themasks werefound(bya woman) and became an integral artof male)Do-gonlife.The story fthe first iguinitiate s importantand is retoldon ritual occasions in the ritual anguage(siguso) that s partofthis complex."1By far the largestcorpusof tradition, owever,con-sistsofsongtexts, speciallythesongcyclesthatformpartof funerals.The baja ni and sembee ni, whichmake for en solid hoursof continuous singing, ormsplendidexample.This collectionoftexts s attributedto a blind itinerant ingerwho roamedthe area in thesecondhalfofthe igthcentury. he textsmaybe semi-mythical rquitedown-to-earth,nd singings an inte-gralpartofritual.'2Neitherthe mythsnor the songtexts-though theyare sacred-are secret. n fact, hetem s publicknowl-edge.When confronted ith Griaule's tales,Dogon el-dersremarked, We have seen the sigu,andwould wenotknow t?"or,facetiously,The peoplewhosaidthat,were theyby anychance present t thecreation, r didtheycome before t?" Every Dogon knows themythsand partsofthe songs,thoughnot everyone an tell orsingthem n full. n any case, noteveryDogon is enti-tledto tell myths, s thismaybe reserved ither o theold men ofthe ineageor to a special initiateofthesigu(olubalu) (fordetails, see Griaule I938, Dieterlen andRouch 97I). As boys, hese nitiates re nstructedver

a periodof threemonthsnot in secretsbut n traditionseverybody nows. Their task is to recitethe relevantmyths in the ritual language on special occasions(mainly he funerals f ineageelders).Theirknowledgedoes not go beyond public knowledge.As informantsstated, If it is in the tem,everybody nowsit." How-ever, hese specialistsknow thecorpusofpublicknowl-edge verbatim,by heart,more "correctly"and com-pletely than other people, and can recite the mythswithoutfaultorhesitation.They receivetheir nstruc-tion not from heir predecessors who, being 6o yearsolder, re eitherdead or too old to give any nstruction)but from hoseelderswho because of their wn interestand motivation xcel in mastering oth the ritual an-guageand the relevant exts.Thus,the secrets fDogon society renot at all oftheinitiatory ind.The knowledgedefined ythe Dogon assecret s, infact, f the "skeleton n thecupboard"vari-ety.The best-guardedecrets n Dogon society pertainto facts thatshame them as membersoftheirfamilLsor lineages, such as divisive past quarrels,or to themechanismsand trappings f witchcraft nd sorcery.Shame (dogo)being a crucial concept neglected yGri-aule), the less wholesome aspects ofDogon culture recontinually wept underthe carpet n dealingswith for-eigners. ven amongthemselves heDogon hardly alkabout past quarrelsor present uspicionsof witchcraft.Itwould be shameful othfor hem ndfor nyaudienceto talk about undesirablethings van Beek I983a). Astheparamount ice inDogon culture s false ccusation,causingundeserved oss of face for thewrongfullyc-cused vanBeek iggob),peoplearevery arefulwith po-ken words.Ifthere reno creationmyths, differentiew of thesupernatural eings s required. n theDE the binu andNommo, in the RP Amrna,Ogo, Nommo, and the foxare the centralplayers n the creationdrama. The ab-sence ofsome important igures, speciallytheyene,atuwunziu,eba, and jinu (thevarious sortsof collectivespirits),s remarkable.The binu in Dogon religion respirits hatare referredo onlyas a collective thenum-bereight s indeed associated with them; n theirhonor-ific title theyare said to come and drink n groupsofeight), nd theyare highly mbiguous n nature.Theycan possesspeople (theshaman is binugeju)but cannotbe seen, only heard,and have no otherrelationwiththelivingthanthrough rance.They are definitely otconsidered ncestors.Nor are thebabinu,thetotemsofvillages,wards,orcastes,and in factthese arenot evenspirits utanimals forbiddens food.The most mmedi-ately relevantaspect of these highlyambivalent"be-ings" is thatnobodytraces descent from hem. More-over,they re fairlymarginal n ritualand in daily ife.The shamans, theirrepresentatives, ave a similarlymarginal tatus nvillagesociety; hey re neither earednorsoughtafter nd are subjectto subtleridicule.An-cestors re indeed of some importance ut do not sharetheir dentitywithanyofthe other piritbeings.Nommo, thewaterspirit, oes have some associationwith the binu but is a farmoreformidable haracter.

io. In Yugo Doguru a trace ofGriaule's starhuntingstill lingers.Informants ay that in olden times people knew about a starthatappearedduring heyear ofthesigu,butfurthernquiry gain leadsto Griaule.iI. These mythsemphaticallystate that this mask-sigucomplexis derivedfromYugo Doguru. There is no feason to reject thistradition s does Griaule (I 938),who insists on tracingt toMand&.I2. Griaule's tendencyto restricthis informationon masks andfuneralsto themythicaltexts or expressions in sigu so mayhavepreventedhim from eeingthe relevanceof this-as he called it-'-'Dogon amusement."


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VAN BEEK Dogon Restudiedl5IEach bodyof surfacewaterhas its Nommo, often pair,male and female, nd they re feared s is no other uper-natural being. For a Sahelian people the Dogon have aremarkable earofdrowning, nd tales of "the Nommowho grabs people" abound. Yet it is Nommo whofigures as the central character in DE, where-astwins-he createsmost ofDogon culture. n RP hisrole,though uite different,s at least as important. hereheis a redeemer, primemoverwho through is deliberatesacrifice edeems he sins andtransgressionsfOgo,thefirst reatedbeing. After is immolation,Nommo, res-urrected, erves as a culturehero. These two aspectsof the Griaulean Nommo-the creator and the re-deemer-are nowhere to be found.What can be foundis a fascinationwith danger mbodied n the Nommo.It may be that thisfascination ave rise to the elabora-tion ofthisfiguren creative nd redeemingmoulds,butin present-day ogon culture round Sanga, the notionof the Nommo as the key to creation s totally bsent.Symbols re the hallmarkof both creation exts. Gri-aule evokes a picture f people surroundinghemselveswith the symbols of theirmythology, eliving theirmythical ast through lmost every bjectthey abricateoruse. This is incorrect. he Dogon tend o makesingle-purpose artifacts,nd this results n an elaboratearrayofhousehold objects; ethnoarchaeological esearchhasuncoveredmore than i,ooo (Lane I986, Bedaux I987).The symbolic ontent f these artifacts aries, nd onlya minorityre used in ritual.Moreover, hespecific b-jectsdescribed n the Griaule texts s symbolic ontain-ers are often uite differentrom hoseactuallyused inritual.A numberofsymbolic objects are missingfromthetexts, nd some items crucial tohis symbolic naly-sis have no symbolic value whatsoever. temsmissingfrom he texts include cotton,the plants pedinge andsade1e, specificpottery,nd clothing, speciallymen'strousers.The reportedly uge symboliccontent of thebasket (taju), the loom, one typeofgranaryguyoya),and the split drum/wooden rough kbrb) s absent inmy data, despite my prodding f informants.What isevident n both RP and DE and indeed can be found nthe field s the generalfascinationof the Dogon withthings-a traitGriaule commentsupon in DE but doesnot consider n his analysis. Of course,thesame holdsforGriaule, a museum anthropologist imself.)Simi-larly, he body or its partsmaybe invoked n some in-stances n reference o objects, .g.,the ocks on granarydoorsare said to have "arms." However,this is not apervasive ource ofmetaphor.On thewhole, body sym-bolismplaysa very imitedpart nDogon religion om-paredwithmanyotherAfrican eligions.Drawingsand diagrams, o prominentn the RP text,are in fact of limited importance n Dogon religion.When drawing,the Dogon primarilypicture masks,supplementedby drawingsof animals or-sometimes-crops, while some decorationshave no recognizablesignificationwhatsoever.Drawingsof masks are oftenhighly tylized.Reptilesand amphibians hatbelongtothe Nommo are frequently rawn but are not repre-sented n masks. Griaule writes hat the Dogon discern

various levels of pictorial representation, onsonantwiththe various levels of initiation.As I have argued,these levels cannot be retraced,nor can the differentlevels of initiationbe found n the differentiagrams.The termsGriaule uses for hemsimplymeandifferentthings. n his view bumo,yala, tonu,and toy representstagesof deeperknowledge;formy nformantsumo isa continuous rack n the sand (made bya serpent), alathe intermittentrackof a bird,fox,or ant,and tonuadrawnpicture,while toymeans "truth." As with hisnotions of differentaroles, Griaule, with his infor-mants, constructed hierarchy f significations hathave no hierarchical elationship o one another.The same can be shown with respect o numbers.Gri-aule's texts are repletewith numbers, s if the Dogonwere thoroughly abbalistic, calculating everymove.Some numbers do function s symbols,the principalones being 3 (male) and 4 (female).Other numbers rerelevant, oo, in theircontexts, and i2 among them.However,the 22 + 2 symbolism hatGriaule posits ascrucial s not retraceable, or s the 66 of RP. In short,no "system" of correlatednumbersymbolism can befound.The scope ofthe number ymbolismpresent svery imited, vident n onlypersonal nd"magical"rit-ual. Finally, osmologydoes not serve s a symbolic ef-erenteither. n fact,the cardinal directionshave beende-cosmologized: East" and "West" refer ot to the di-rectionsof sunrise and sunset but to the orientation ftheescarpment in factnorth-east/south-west).Among the analyticalconceptsused by Griaule,thetermnyama is a special case. According o Griaule itmeans "vital force,"parallel to the Melanesian mana.His earliestwritingsxpresshis conviction hat mana-like concept will be relevant. t surfaces n MD and be-comes more substantial n laterwritingsI940, i952) aswell as in DE and RP. The problematic haracter ftheterm s notedby Calame-Griaule n herDogon-FrenchdictionaryI965). Morphologically he worddoes not be-longto the Dogon lexicon andmaybe Bambara norigin.Dogon languagedoeshave a similarword,ngawa, mean-ing "polluted," "rotten, or "spoilt," implyingdangerand decay. Though Griaule's definition fnyama doesinclude an aspect ofdanger,t s supposedto be positive,something ought after, life-givingorce.My Dogoninformants o notrecognize t in the form r definitiongiven n the texts.For them a parallelconceptwould bepanga (force), word also used forphysicaland espe-cially muscularforce.However, s an analytical onceptthenotion ofpanga is not mportant orDogon religion.Altars,when used for long time,dogather omepanga,but that s not thegoal of sacrifice.Rather, t is an an-noyance, ven a reason to abandon a particular ltar vanBeek i988).DE and RP arerepletewithetymologies fDogon lex-emes. Associations such as the ones in DE of "four"with "sun" and "lizard" or "big" with "mother" and"cow"/Dr "seven"/with "cloth" and "the word"arenotretraceable t all. Throughout,my Dogon informantswerevery eluctant o reduceDogon wordsto anythingother hantheirhabitualmeanings; nfact, heseDogon


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I52 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume32, Number2, April 99Iexplanationstend towardsprecise and individual ex-emic identification, ot fuzzy etymologies.Moreover,mostGriauleanetymologies esultfrom thorough e-gationof the tonal system,which on the contrarys acrucial exemic and syntactic onstituent.Dogon religion s not all-pervasive.Most of agricul-ture,most ofdaily nteraction etweenpeople,be it atthe family evel or elsewhere, s lived outwithoutanyreferencewhatsoeverto religiousmatters. There is atendency o define eligious ssues as an occupationforold men: they ake care of therelationship etween theliving nd the otherworld, nd both other ategories fadults,womenandyoungmen, simplydependon themfor hatfunction. urthermore,eligion s verymuch anopen optionforthose who are interestedn it and canbe relativelyneglectedby those who choose to do so.The same sortof "secularization" pertainsto the twocategoriesGriaule deems of crucial importance, winsandblacksmiths.Ofcourse, s in any African eligion, wins re consid-ered pecial, but they re not the essence ofhuman exis-tence Griaule makes them out to be or the original ormof creation. Twin festivals are held and twins are re-spected,but after he festivities o unusual attention sbestowedupon them. No myth f theiroriginhas beenfound.They do function, owever, n several folk sto-ries, one of which has mythical qualities (the one ex-plaining the origin of thunder).Characteristically, hetwins n that tale exhibitmonumental tupidity, ighlyamusingfor he Dogon, who, indeed, consider wins tobe intellectually lightly nferior ince the same intelli-gence has to be dividedbetween two.Blacksmiths, long with the other castes, do have aspecific ocial niche. They are chargedwith dampeningconflicts, elping to maintain at least overt harmony.They also have specificritual functions n the case ofstillbirths nd on some otheroccasions, but theirritualrole s restricted.n no way do theyfunction s the cul-tureheroes ofRP and DE.The Originof theDogon Myths:An Attemptat ReconstructionThoughtheprincipal lementsof theGriauletexts arenot tobe discovered mongthepresent-day ogon,evenas shadowyremnants fa largely orgotten ast,never-thelessGriaule and Dieterlen did gather ome confir-matorydata duringtheirfieldresearch n the Dogonarea, mainly n Sanga. My expose byno means impliesthat the texts are to be regarded s forgeries; or aretheythe result of an overly ctive imaginationon thepartoftheauthor.The data as recordedn both textsdidstem from particular ield situation.The questionishow thesetexts wereproduced. n this tentative econ-struction, accept that an anthropologicalccount is astory, tale about tales,constructed ytheanthropolo-gistand his collaborators-the productof a biculturalinteraction.The quest for the originof this particulartale about tales, then,falls nto twoparts:What s spe-

cific about the field situation of Griaule's researchamongthe Dogon, andwhere, fnot from ogon knowl-edge, do the elements of thetales come from?The fieldworkituation fGriaule's research as beenanalysed by several authors: Lettens (I97I), Clifford(i983), and Saccone (i984), to name just a few.Thoughtheydisagree n some fundamental ssues, all are moreor less critical ofGriaule, pointing t some easily ob-served haracteristics f his work.What s lacking s anexaminationofthe interaction fthese characteristicswithDogon norms and values.As hintedabove, Dogon culture s oriented owardsovertharmony.People may debate with greatpassionbuthave to reach consensus n theend; a lastingdiffer-ence is intolerable.Dogon arevery low to correct achother, eaving the other o his opinionsrather hanfur-nishingthe correct nformation. heir internal socialstructures hierarchical, ased on seniority;he old menarethe ones who knowandconsequently hould notbecontradicted. espectfor geand for elativelymall agedifferencesuch as those between consecutivesiblingsis essential n social interaction. his respect or enior-itycombinedwith the tendency owardsharmony e-sults in a "courtesybias" towardshigh-ranking eopleand a tendencyto restrict he flow of information othe owerechelons. nferiorsre denied nformation;heapparentwishes ofa superior onstrain he nformationgivento him.A secondpertinent spect of Dogon culture s its his-toricalpunctuation.A newitem,be it a newagriculturalinventionor a new explanation of a hithertounex-plainedphenomenon, s easily acceptedand integratedintothepreexistingmould. New agriculturalechniquesare quickly adopted vanBeek iggoa), new tools appro-priated agerly ythe ocal blacksmiths,whilenew etio-logical talesfind heirway nto accepted ore. Forexam-ple, in explaining hedifferences etween whitepeopleandDogon thefollowing ale was told:A father,ncestor fus all, once drank oo much beer,and in his intoxication, leptwith his genitalsex-posed.Of his two sons, theyounger neridiculedhim,while the olderone,walking backwards, overedhisfather. s a blessingtheolder, espectful,onbecamewhite andrich, heyounger oorand Dogon.

Thus the story f thedrunkenNoah (Genesis9:2I-27)has found tsway into the storiesoftheseDogon,whoemphatically enied that thiswas a "white" story. ra-ditionalists nd Christiansunanimouslydeclared t tobe Dogon: it belongedto the te?m. n many other n-stances the same processwas discernible:foreign le-ments were adoptedand in a single generation ecame"traditional." hus thealms festival fthe Muslimshasbeenadapted oDogon culture, esultingnthe"purely"Dogon ritual ofsadaka, in which almsgivinghas beenchangedinto the distribution f beer,kola nuts, andblessings.The Dogon arequiteaware ofthegaps ntheiretiological ales,eagerto fill hemwith newstories, ndsee noparticular easonfor nyfundamental istinctionbetween hingsearnedfrom heirDogon forefathersnd


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VAN BEEK Dogon RestudiedI 53fromnewcomers. n theirview, hierarchy nd seniorityare based not upon the contentof the tales or upon theamount of knowledge but upon the historyof settle-ment.Consequentlythe arrivalof new techniquesandtales can in no way upset the fundamental elationsontheescarpment.To this culture ame Marcel Griaule, nd after xten-sive surveys e settled n Sanga. A museum anthropolo-gist, he was oriented o the study of material culture,thoughhis real fascinationwas with religion.One ofhisgoals, already stated n his earlier works,was to showthatAfrican ultures, ontrary o current uropean andespeciallyFrench) pinion, nshrined hilosophies qualto thebest found n classical Greece or ndia: "this con-ceptual structure . . reveals an internal coherence,secretwisdom, nd an apprehension fultimaterealitiesequal tothatwhich we Europeansconceive ourselves ohave attained" Griaule and Dieterlen 954:83).Otherpreconceptionswere partofhis baggage, oo.One had to do withthe intercultural alidity f the no-tionof mana, which among the Dogon he identifiednthenotion of nyama. Mana was an important opic ofdiscussion n French nthropology henGriaule set outfor he field.Mauss, his teacher, sed it as a ubiquitousexplanatory oncept, ndGriaule expected o find t. Hewas convinced hat herewas a coherent nddeep expla-nationfor acrifice, nd he did not contenthimselfwiththeexplanationsgiven byhis informants.The processofprobing an be illustrated yhis battering uestion,"Who comes to drinktheblood of the sacrifice?", neof his crucial leading questions in the interviewswithOgotemmeli.)His interpretationf sacrificehingesonthenotion ofnyama. The use of this conceptenabledhim to develop a pseudo-emic heory n which sacrificewas hardlyinkedwithsocial structure r nterpersonalconflict, et alone with change, but directed o the ac-cumulation ofa supernatural rinciple,Mauss's mana.Another eading idea was his view of a culture as acryptological ystem. Surfacephenomenahad to be in-terpreted,made to yield ever-deeper evels of under-standing. ymbolsweresignsofa hidden anguageopenonly othe nitiate Sperber 97 5), and he evolved mul-tilayered heory f ymbolism oaccommodate he awk-wardfact hat herewereseveral ultimate" revelations.InGriaule's view, any cultureharbours ecrets hatmaynot berevealeddirectly oan observer; ulturaldefenceshave to be breached.One consequenceoftheseassumptions s thatGriauleperceivedfieldwork s a military operation (Cliffordi983:I32) with the explicit goal of "penetrating" ul-turaldefences, orcing he revelationofmysteries ndtheunraveling f the codes of the adversary. ike anyassault,fieldwork as to be total, nvolvingmany ndi-vidual attacks on the cultural stronghold.His DE isquiteclear on this: n theopening haptershe describesthefieldworketting s a military ampwherehisvari-ous subalterns ngagethe "enemy" each in his or herfashion nd withappropriate actics. Griaule's dealingswith the Dogon ofOgol (notwithOgotemmeli) oundhigh-handed oday-correcting nformantsnmistakes,

supplementing heir informationwith data fromhisown notebooks,dismissingthemwhen they failedtocomplete theirtasks. Of course,much ofthis is moreidiom than field reality.ThoughGriaule describedhisdealingswiththe Dogon in this way,thisdoes notpre-clude his havinghad relations ofa different indwithsome of them,notablywith Ogotemmeli. n DE the an-thropologists the student, o be taughtby the master.Yet even in the "seriesof meandering alks" thatmakeup the core ofDE, Griaule is verymuch present s anactive agent.Cliffordogently rguesthat for Griaule both theserolesarepartof an encompassingdefinitionf the fieldsituation,that of the theatre Clifford983:I39). Thenotionsof nequalityof roles,offorced nteraction e-tweenpartners,nd of concealmentof trueselves andpurposes ie at thevery oreofGriaule'sfieldwork ara-digm.Here, Clifford'srgument an be supplemented.The Dogon, too, have a greater han average sense oftheatre.Their culture, specially n themask complex,is very much a performativene, in which the publicpersonadominates heprivate ne and themain sourceofsocial recognitions a splendidperformancen rheto-ric or dance. So,for heir art, he Dogon blend well intothis definition f the fieldworkncounter, laying heirpartwith creative ntelligence.In those days, nevitably,Griaulewas partof a colo-nial presence, nd thewhite man,endowedwithpowerandprestige, ankedhigh n Dogon eyes. In contrast omanycolonial anthropologists riaule in no way triedto diminishthis ascribedstatusbut rather apitalizedon it. Collectingmasks and otherobjectswas easy: theobjections ftheir wners ouldbe overridden. is viewof the white man's mission civilisatrice,which pro-voked a conflictwith Leiris (Leiris I934), must haveserved s a rationaleforboth his fieldworknd his col-lecting practice. His position of power was comple-mentedby a strongpersonality,with firm onvictionsand clear preferences;Lebeuf, though hardly criti-cal, mentions "son opiniatreteau travail" (Lebeufi987:xxiii).Dogonwhoworkedwithhim or houldonesay "for"him?)still commenton his impatience:"Gri-aule was always n a hurry,llowingneither imselfnorus anytime." Thoughthe stories hatcirculate n SangaofGriaule's hitting n informantre probably pocry-phal,theydo characterize hewaymanyDogon see himeven now: as a forceful ersonality,n a situation ofundisputedpower,with a clearlyexpressedpreferenceforspecific nformationnd his own ways of gettingat it.Griaule'sfieldworkrganizationwas characterized ya longseriesofshortfieldtrips, ntensiveuse of a lim-ited number f nformantsnd one "informateurrinci-pal," limited command of the Dogon language,and amultidisciplinaryr at least multiperson pproach.Hisresearch was a matterof "expeditions,"focusedfieldstayswithteams,each lastingup to threemonths.Heexplicitly efends hispractice Griaule 9 57) as a meansof catchingone's breathforthe informantss well astheethnographer.ieterlenhas followed he sameprac-


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I54 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 32, Number2, April 99Itice to this day. nformants ere usually paid, andthere-fore heygainednot onlyprestige rom lose associationwith the white man but also a sizable income in theslack season. The research eam operatedfrom venueclose to the touristhotel of Sanga, formerly govern-ment rest house, later a researchhouse owned by theCNRS, and now the home ofMadame Dieterlen. ts situ-ation outside the village perimeters f Ogol (one of thelargest illages of the Sangacomplex)does allow for n-terviewingnformants ut s not well suitedto participa-tion n village ife.But then participationwas not the model of Griaule'sfield pproach.His confrontationaltyle, vident n bothDE and his fieldworkmanual (I957), not only probablybetter uited his personality nd the colonial situationbut also was an integralpart of his definition f thisformof cultural contact: a mutual theatrical perfor-mance, with inevitablebackstagemanoeuvres nd hid-den agendas. Clifford's nalysis s confirmed y the in-formation receivedfrommembersof his Dogon crewof ong standing. or them Griaule was-and still s-afigure f slightlymore than human proportions, ith anuncanny nsight nto the hidden thoughts nd motivesofpeople and-especially-the whereabouts f caverns,masks, and statues. "Like a binuge'inu (shaman) hewentthrough he mountains traight o the place whereit was hidden," a Sanga informant old me.This confrontationaltyle, n a moreepistemologicallevel, rendered is approachmore "etic" than "emic."He confronted is informants ithitems,be theyarti-facts,plants, animals, or stars,and expectedthem toprovide adequate information mmediately. For in-stance, n his research nto nsectclassification,nsectswere collected andpresented ohis informants ith theexplicit expectationthat theywould have a differentname for ach and every pecies.One of his informantstoldme, "He thought ach keke' cricket)had its ownDogon name, andhe did notstop."And that s whathegot,one name for ach and every nsect:not usta bojokeke' (dungbeetle),with two varieties,red and black(these are indeed differentiatedy the Dogon), but a"horse dungbeetle,"a "donkeydungbeetle,"anddiffer-ent beetles forthe dungof black monkeys, lephants,hyenas, turtles, and-closer to home-chickens andgoats. Creativity annotbe deniedto these nformants,as theydistinguished etweena "beetlefor hedungofbulls" (na jinu bojo keke), a "big horsedung beetle,"and a beetlewallowing only n thedungofgreyhorses(so purugu ojokekel)Griaule96I:222-3).13This kind of overdifferentiation-andaming24 dif-ferent pecies of dung beetles can surely be calledoverdifferentiation-cannlybeproduced andbelieved)if there s a strongconvictionon the partof the re-searcher hatDogon culture s virtually imitlessanddisposesofuniversalknowledge.Ofcourse, t s also theproduct fthe nability o take no for n answer nd,forthatmatter, n unwillingness n the partofthe infor-

mants to disappoint he researcher. omething imilarhappenedto me when I was looking nto colour terms.Using a standard colour chart, had my informantsname the variouscolours. Though pointedout to themthat was looking for single lexemes, "simple colourterms." heyregarded t as theirduty o name each andevery ne ofthe400-odd oloursonthechart.This insis-tence stemmed from wo sources. Given theirgeneralfascinationwith objects, there s a Dogon convictionthattheyshould in fact be able to name and classifyanything hatcomes theirway, a kind ofmild culturalhubris hatmay ure them nto ridiculously etailed de-scriptions. he otherreasonis thatnaming becomes agame:it is funto try o find ngenious-and sometimescorrect-names for new objects. Afterwards hey ac-knowledged o me that t was not at all necessary, uttheydid have a good timedoing t.Such a game must have been especially interestingwhen tbecame a secret anguage mong nformants er-sus theforeign esearcher. ere the nformants' heatri-cal definition f fieldwork, s ofDogon culture tself,reveals tself.Judging rom he reactionsof the old Gri-aule informants,ucha situation,nwhich they ventu-ally gainedtheupperhand,hada strong ppealfor hem.In the days ofcolonial supremacy, he chance to controlthe nformation low balanced the scales ofpower.Using performanceo ridiculethewhiteman, bytheway, s not at all uncommon n Dogon culture.Forex-ample, there is a mask representinghe white man,clothed n pantaloonsand shirt, he head coveredbyahuge woodenmask painted a fiery ed withlong wavyhair,a wild flowingbeard,and a hooked nose. In thedance in Griaule's day a colonial officerwas imitatedwritingmallmoneynotesfor he audience andsalutingwhenhe receivedhis "taxes." In ourpostcolonial daysthetourist s imitated;the same mask operateswithawooden "camera," forcing ts way through rowdsinorderto get a good shot. Especially interestings theSanga variant MD, p. 583): here the whitepersonsitson a chair,withtwoDogon sitting n thefloor;wavinga notebook, he "Nazarene" asks the silliestquestions:themask oftheanthropologist!This is nottosaythat-in the case ofthe nsects-theDogon informantswillfullymisled Griaule, just thatthey ouldengage nharmlessgames nwhich nforma-tionwas produced hat did not existbeforehand,ll thewhileclearly onformingo thewhiteman's wishes.Hislist of nsectnames, I cannot help feeling, hould havealertedGriaule towhat was happening; n fact,he him-self n his manual assumes that nformants re habitu-ally lying nd that theresearcher as to breakthroughthis resistance (Griaule I957). Yet, not a shadow ofdoubtclouds his pages either bout thevalidityoftheinformationr about his own nterpretationsndcabbal-isticarrangements.his field echnique-presentingn-formantswith as completean array s possibleofeticdata in orderto elicit a presumably ndlesslydetailedculturalresponse-was also used to investigateDogonknowledge bout astronomynd humananatomy,Gri-aule deploying tarmaps and anatomical models.I 3. In a semantic analysis of this very article Calame-Griaule(i987:9) calls it a "forme de compos6e extremementproductive."


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VAN BEEKDogon Restudied| Ii55

Griaule'scritical nformation,ncluding ll of DE andRP, came from few informantswith whom he hadworked ntensively nd for a long time. For Ambara,withY6b6n6 he main source ofRP,this s clear enough:he was firstecruitedn 93I (RP,p. 2og),workedwithPaulme I940:I3) and forLeiris I948:ix), and continuedto workforGriaule.Ogotemmeliseems to be an excep-tion, s according o DE it seems as ifhe invitedGriauleto come to him without anyprevious contactbetweenthetwo.However, according o Kogem,his interpreterat thattime, Griaule had workedwithOgotemmeliforthree onsecutive tays over hreeyears)before he war,long before he famousconversations ook place. Otherinformantsre reported o have consultedwith Ogotem-meli in theirdealings withGriaule.As a consequence,Ogotemmeli knew very well what Griaule wanted tohear. Lebeuf (i987:xxv) as a consequence, comparesOgotemmeli to Hesiod. As Lettens has suggested, heintermissionf WorldWar I, which imposed a six-yearhiatus for the researchers,mighthave heightened hetensionwhenthey eturned o thesame informantsfterall thattime, expecting o findnew riches.The combination f the Dogon orientation o provid-ing nformationnd Griaule's research rganization, p-proach, and personality reated a fieldwork ulture ofthe"initiated,"both Dogon and "Nazarene." The prod-uct was a Dogon culture geared to the expectationsoftheprincipal esearcher, culturegoverned y myth ndcabbala,whose "real secrets" were known only to theveryfew. The result s neitherDogon nor "Nazarene"but a curiousmixture f the two, bearing he mprint fa Europeanview of African ulturewhile at the sametimetestifyingo the creativity f the African xperi-ence. t is definitely otan individualfraud.Most ofthepeople concerned-Griaule himself,Dieterlen,and atleast to a considerable extent his close informants-believed n itmore or ess implicitly.The interpreters ere crucial in thisprocess,as Gri-aule continued to work through them. Kogem andAmadingue were in the course of the inquiries trans-formed from translators nto informants.Kogem, ayoungboyat thetime of theOgotemmelitalks,did notremainan interpreterut with thehelp of Griaule en-tered hearmy nd eventually ttainedtherank ofcap-tain. n the atterpartofhis lifehe presented imself san initiate nDogon thought, onsidering gotemmeli'srevelations acred truth.He liked to view and presenthimself s one ofthe old men oftheDogon, one of theveryfewwholly nitiated he died in Bamako in i987).Thus, he neverfelt t ease withthe cosmologicalmythsrecorded nRP, which stemmedmainlyfrom r throughAmbara.Short ofcondemning hemas a construct, eexpressly onsidered hemperipheral t best. After ll,they id undermine isexpertise.Amadingue, erving sa young nterpretereforeAmbara,became nformateurprincipaland gradually lso developed nto an initiate;he used his considerable ntelligence nd knowledgetohelp Calame-Griaule with herdictionaryi968) and so-ciolingusticresearch i965) as a full-blownnformant,albeit with a superior ommand ofthe French anguage

(a situation facilitatedby his status as a lineage elderofOgol). Some of the most recent nterpretationsdeHeusch i987) stem fromhim; his death n I987 was asevereblow to theongoing esearch.Ambara, hecentralfiguren the RP as both nformantndinterpreter,s an-other tory. aulmementionshis ingenuity nddescrip-tive acumen and marvels at his capacity forcreativeinvention. Ambara'sinformation n customs was pre-cise, but the interpretation e spontaneouslyprovidedofthesecustoms hardly verfound confirmationromthe other nhabitants f thevillage" (Paulme I940:566,my translation).'4At the time of the RP information,I950-55, Ambarawas established s a mature ogonelder, whose French, thoughfar fromperfect, id al-low him to work with Griaule as an interpreter. c-cording o a later nterpreter,s an adult Ambarawasunwilling to share access to the Nazarene with otherDogon, refusing lso any translationhelp fromthe-younger-Amadingue.Despite the collective aspects of this creation of amystagogicalDogon cultureby the interactionof re-searcher,nformants,nd interpreters,riaule himselfis verymuch present n the analysis too. The closingchapter of DE, where Griaule-unaided by anyinformant-links hecosmological systemproducedbyOgotemmeliwith the zodiacal signsofWestern strol-ogy Griaule 948), may serve s an example.Dieterlen'sinformantsndinterpretersoday aythatGriauleexag-gerated, ven thoughtheyare on thewhole not overlyawareofthepublicationsnquestion. twould behighlyimprobable hatGriaule, rmedwithstrong onvictionsas hewas, would refrain rom tressing isown nterpre-tation nhispublications,which s, after ll, theright fanyanthropologist.ut thisaggravatedhe fundamentalproblemthateven the people most intimately ssoci-ated with him often do not recognizethese writingsas valid or as relevantdescriptions fpartsof Dogonculture.Griauledied in I956. Since then no new revelationshave beenforthcoming,houghGermaineDieterlenhascontinuedyearly esearch rips o thearea. The promiseofthe titlepage of RP ("Tome i, fascicule ") has neverbeenfulfilled. ieterlenas co-author ublishedRP afterGriaule's death.Her influenceon the book must havebeenconsiderable. he soughtnew revelations ut couldnot findanyone with the same "cosmological exper-tise." Just eforehis death,Amadingueconfided o methat twas impossibleto find nyonewho knew a cre-ationmyth.Discussing the situationwithDieterlen,hehad remarked hatgood informants ould not be foundbut had to be trained elve). He was quite right.Butwiththe deathof both the main sources ofmythcon-struction nd Griaule,the primemover,the corpusofmyth emained argely s it was in I956, thoughnot alltheAmbarataleswere ncluded n RP. Dieterlen s stillI4. "Les informationsd'Ambara concernant es coutumes etalentassez exactes; mais l'interpretation u'il fournissait pontanementdes ces coutumes ne trouvait presque jamais confirmation upresdes autreshabitants du village."


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I56 | CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume32, Number2, April 99Iworking n the second volume, n which the contribu-tions of Amadingu6 re added to the corpus. The mainpublications from the Griaule team since i956 havebeen either elaborations on the existing myths Die-terlen 962), attempts o integrateDE and RP (Palau-Marti 957, Dieterlen989), oradditional thnography(Dieterlen 982). It is worth emarkinghat n the atterbook Dieterlen has returnedto the pre-Ogotemmelimode of ethnography, escribing facet of Dogon cul-turenot fully ecorded efore.This book resemblesherearlywritingsup to 95 i) much morethanherhandlingofGriaule's revelations and is a solid piece of ethno-graphicdescription.The Myths as BricolageClearly he myths n the two textsdo not stem from nendogenousDogon tradition. et, even f heyhave beenconstructedn a peculiar nteraction etween hepartiesin the research, he question of wherethe tales comefrom emains.Whence did the creators f the texts de-riveat least the elements of the myths? n answeringthis typeof question, have to speculate.First fall, neitherDE or RP contains real text.Thisfact, ittle ppreciatedn thecommentaries,s of crucialimportance.Myths hroughout he world re stories oldto an audience. Not so here. DE is a discourse, n inter-change,not a mythical reation story. imilarly,RP isnota text at all-my account of t has simplymade itlook like one. In fact, t consists of a sustained ethno-graphiccommentary n signs, symbols,and drawingsinterspersed ith isolated statements rom nformantsandborrowings rom olktales.The authors hemselvesacknowledge he absence of a story ine (RP,p. I5) butdo not seem to realize its implications:without storythere s no myth.In any case, as bothDE and RP must have emergedfrom ustained bicultural nteraction, everalways ofconstructinghemandvarioussources must be consid-ered. On the whole the laterrevelations RP) seem tocontainfewerDogon and moreforeign lementsthantheearlierOgotemmeliones. DE is mainlyconstructedout of crapsofdiverse rigin. omeelements reclearlytraditional ogon: theants'nests, hecentral ole ofthekey (ant),twins as a special categorythoughnot thatspecial),the association of binu withthe number ight,the numbers three and fouras symbolsformale andfemale, tc.Moregenerally,hepreoccupationwith sex-uality nd thefascinationwithobjects regenuinely o-gon,as is theimportance fspeechand themetaphoricusage of "the word."Thoughthe gap betweenDE andRP is very arge,the methodofreasoning s much thesame. A continuedfascinationwith twins,an elabora-tion of numbersystems, nd the free-floatingssocia-tionwithany object n theDogon sphere hatcharacter-ize DE arefound hroughout P as well. It is significantthatthestyleof"bricolage" s verymuch thesame butthe net result,the "message," entirelydifferent.hecultural nteraction f Griaule and his informantson-

tinued to produce totallynew tales. One clear instanceis the Sirius story.The I950 article s significantly if-ferent rom he aterRP version.One major change s inthe drawings:very few of the drawings n the article,though rucial for heunderstanding f Sirius,recur nRP. Furthermore, hen comparable drawingsdo reap-pear theyreceive verydifferentxplanations.'5 t seemsthat remembering story and elaboratingupon it) ismuch easier for nformantsn an oral culture thanre-callinga drawingwith captions.An important source for Ogotemmeli's bricolageseems to have been the Dogon ewene (traditional to-ries).Dogon know hundredsof these stories Calame-Griaule 987a), which are either ited npublic speechesorrelated n their own right.Amongthemany Dogonstories hatmay have inspiredOgotemmeli rethe talesof thetwins thatgenerated herainbow, he miraculoustree, nd many others.A clear case is the story f Ogohiding n a woven (Mossi!) basket (RP, pp. I78, I79),which is a well-knownewene toldby theDogon withthe rabbit nstead of Ogo as its hero. As these stories reusuallydistributed arbeyond nyethnicborders, alesfrom thergroups Bambara, onray,Bozo,Mossi) havecontributed,oo. A few temsmaybe derived rom ongtexts.WithAmbara,new sourcesand inspirationsurfaced.First fall, his knowledgeof otherMalian cultures,no-tablythe Bambara and the Sonray,was important.Hespent considerable ime outsideDogon country, artlyin Bamako,the capital ofMali, and used some modelsthatmay be tracedto these cultures. ndeed,Griauleand Di

grialle sirius dogon

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