See alsoWaset
Further Readings
Asante, M. K. (2000).The Egyptian Philosophers.
Chicago: African American Images.
Brugsch Bey, H. (1891).Egypt Under the Pharaohs:A
History Derived Entirely From the Monuments. New
York: Scribner.
Lichtheim, M. (1980).Ancient Egyptian Literature:A
Book of Readings:The Late Period. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Morenz, S. (1992).Egyptian Religion. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press.
AMMA
Amma is the supreme creator god of the Dogon
religion, whose efforts initiated the formation of
the universe, the creation of matter, and the
processes of biological reproduction. The notion
of a creator god namedAmmaor Amenis one
that is not unique to the Dogon, but can also be
found in the religious tradition of other West
African and North African groups. It may be
reflected in the word Amazigh, a name that is
applied collectively to the hunter cultural groups
who preceded the first dynasty in Egypt.
Like other important Dogon cosmological key-
words, the wordAmmacarries with it more than
one level of meaning in the Dogon language. From
one perspective, it can refer to thehidden godof
the Dogon, and yet, from another perspective, it
can mean “to grasp, to hold firm, or to establish.”
Among the Dogon,Ammais thought of as the god
who holds the world firmly between her or his
two hands, and to speak the nameAmmais to
entreat her or him to continue to hold it.
Similar meanings can also be found in association
with the wordAmmaorAmenin the languages of
theMandeand theYoruba, among the sub-Saharan
people who were roughly contemporaneous with
ancient Egypt, as well in the ancient Hebrew and
Greek languages. In his Egyptian Hieroglyphic
Dictionary, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge documents word
entries with both of these meanings under the pro-
nunciation Amen, although the more recent and
academically preferredAltaegyptische Worterbuch
defines the Egyptianhidden godunder the pronun-
ciation ofImn, a word that is also found in the
Ethiopian language.
Although commonly referred to as male,
Amma is considered to symbolize both the male
and female principles and, as a result, is more
properly characterized as genderless or as being of
dual gender. This dual aspect of Amma’s character
is consistent with the broader cosmological princi-
ples ofdualityandthe pairing of oppositesthat
are expressed symbolically in all facets of Dogon
religion and culture. It is also consistent with the
male and female aspects of biological reproduc-
tion that Amma symbolizes.
The Dogon religion is characterized as aneso-
terictradition, one that involves both public and
private aspects. Although Amma could be said
to embody great creative potential, she or he is
in fact considered by the knowledgeable Dogon
priests to be small—so small as to be effectively
hidden from view—although this detail of
Amma’s character is generally not spoken of in
public among the Dogon. This perceived small-
ness of Amma is consonant with the instrumental
role that she or he is said to play in the mytholog-
ical processes of the formation of matter and of
biological reproduction.
Perhaps the first important creation of the
Dogon god Amma was the unformed universe, a
body that is said to have held all of the potential
seeds or signs of future existence. The Dogon
refer to this body asAmma’s Eggand character-
ize it as a conical, somewhat quadrangular struc-
ture with a rounded point, filled with unrealized
potentiality—its corners prefigure the four future
cardinal points of the universe to come.
According to Dogon myth, some undefined
impulse caused this egg to open, allowing it to
release a whirlwind that spun silently and scat-
tered its contents in all directions, ultimately
forming all of the spiraling galaxies of stars and
planets. The Dogon compare these bodies to pel-
lets of clay flung out into space. It is by a some-
what more complicated process that the sun and
the moon were formed, one that the Dogon
equate with the art of pottery. Consequently, the
Dogon priests compare the sun to a pot of clay
that has been raised to a high heat.
Amma is also credited by the Dogon with hav-
ing created life on Earth. According to the Dogon40 Amma