including the Bozo and the Bambara. Griaule and
Dieterlen’s studies are also reflective of minor
opinions that were drawn from elders of these
related groups.
The Dogon religion expresses itself outwardly
through ritual observances that are seemingly
quite ancient and that bear strong resemblance to
classic religious traditions found in ancient Egypt,
in Judaism, and in Buddhism. For example, the
Dogon traditionally circumcise their young, wear
skull caps and prayer shawls, and observe a
Jubilee Year. Likewise, the Dogon observe cultural
traditions that are distinctly reminiscent of ancient
Egypt, including the practice of establishing dis-
tricts and villages in pairs, one calledUpperand
the other calledLower. Griaule’s Dogon cosmology
is also couched in keywords whose pronunciations
and meanings bear a strong resemblance to words
and meanings found in the ancient Egyptian hiero-
glyphic language. For example, the name of an
important Dogon festival, called thesigui, may
relate to the ancient Egyptian wordskhai, mean-
ing “to celebrate a festival.” The Dogon myths are
also illustrated with cosmological drawings that
often take shapes that are similar to written
Egyptian glyphs.
The religious rituals of the Dogon are one public
expression of a much more complex underlying cos-
mological tradition that, according to Griaule and
Dieterlen, pervades all aspects of Dogon life. Griaule
perceives cosmological symbolism in each of the
daily acts of Dogon life—for example, the method
that the Dogon use when weaving a cloth or when
plowing a field, the number of threads that hang
from a fiber skirt, the number of years between rit-
ual observances, or even the way that sound rever-
berates as it leaves the mouth of a Dogon person.
These symbolic aspects of daily life support and
reinforce what Griaule and Dieterlen see as an orally
transmitted cosmological tradition founded on a
kind of societal system of mnemonics.
The GranaryIt is important to note that Griaule and Dieterlen’s
view of an esoteric Dogon cosmology based on an
aligned structure called agranaryand centered on
the stars of Sirius has been specifically disputed by
Belgian anthropologist Walter Van Beek and others,
who studied the Dogon people several decades after
Griaule and reported finding no evidence of this
secret cosmology. However, the system of cosmolog-
ical structures and symbols documented by Griaule
runs precisely parallel to a similar system of esoteric
symbolism found in Buddhism, which has been
exhaustively documented by Australian scholar
Adrian Snodgrass. The Buddhist system is based on
the matching architectural form of an aligned ritual
structure called thestupaand so could be legiti-
mately reflective of a closely held secret Dogon
tradition such as the one described by Griaule.
Griaule’s view is that the Dogon cosmological
tradition begins with a world system or plan that
is expressed symbolically in the architectural form
of an aligned ritual structure called agranary. The
classic form of the granary, as described by
Griaule, is roughly pyramidal and includes a round
base and a square, flat roof with an inscribed cir-
cle, four flat sides, and a 10-step staircase up the
center of each side. Like the base plan of the
Buddhist stupa, the plan of the granary begins
with a circle divided into four equal parts by two
intersecting lines (oriented north–south and
east–west, respectively) that correspond to the
four cardinal points of the Earth. These are said to
symbolize the axis munde. In the finished granary,
these lines are supplanted by partitions, along
with a depression or small cup, which is placed in
the ground at their point of intersection at the cen-
ter of the original circle. For the Dogon, the four
segments of the circle symbolize the primordial
elements of water, fire, wind, and Earth.
As Snodgrass also asserts with regard to the
Buddhist stupa, Griaule states that the round base of
the structure (which, along with its central cup,
takes the same shape as the Egyptian sun glyph)
symbolizes the sun, much as the smaller circle
within the square roof symbolizes the moon. The
mythological implication is that the granary struc-
ture, which falls between the sun and the moon, is
meant to symbolize the Earth. The entire structure is
conceptualized as a woman lying on her back, and
so gives the overall impression of an impregnated
womb. Griaule says that the Dogon associate the
four faces of the granary with four important star
groups whose risings govern the Dogon agricultural
cycle. The Dogon associate the rise and tread of
each of the 10 steps in the four staircases with dif-
ferent families and orders of the plant and animal
kingdoms. The interior structure of the granaryDogon 215