basic knowledge of astronomy and the ability to
track the risings and settings of familiar star groups.
Likewise, the use of these star groups to control the
agricultural cycle implies the establishment of at
least a crude agricultural calendar tied to the plant-
ing and harvesting cycles.
Knowledge of the Stars and the UniverseOne major curiosity of Griaule’s cosmology lies
with its suggestion of Dogon knowledge of subtle
details of the star system of Sirius, beyond what
might be reasonably observed with the naked eye.
These details include an understanding that Sirius
is a binary star system composed of a large, bright,
sunlike star (Sirius A) and a much smaller, darker,
dense, and heavy dwarf star (Sirius B). Griaule also
reported that the Dogon are aware of the 50-year
period of orbit of Sirius B around Sirius A—a value
that the Dogon assign as the interval between rit-
ual observances of an important festival called a
Sigui. These attributes of the Sirius star system
were confirmed by the modern scientific commu-
nity in 1915—almost 40 years before they were
reported by Griaule in connection with the Dogon.
Based on that fact, Carl Sagan proposed that the
Dogon most likely learned these astronomical facts
from some modern visitor and later chose to incor-
porate them into the body of myth they reported
to Griaule. Germaine Dieterlen disagreed with
Sagan’s interpretation and defended the indigenous
nature of the Sirius information by producing a
400-year-old artifact that carried a depiction of the
dual star system.
There are other speculative aspects of Dogon
cosmology that give the impression of a deeper
relationship between Dogon myth and actual sci-
ence. Griaule says that the Dogon myths describe
how a Dogon god named Amma created the
universe and matter. The Dogon conceive of the
unformed universe as a kind of primordial ball
that contained all of the potential seeds or signs of
the future universe. This ball is referred to as
Amma’s egg, and Dogon artistic renderings of it
take the same cone-like shape as the event horizon
of a black hole in science. Stephen Hawking
describes a black hole as the astronomical body
that most closely resembles what the unformed
universe may have looked like. Likewise, Dogon
descriptions of the formation of the universe from
this egg are distinctly reminiscent of the Big Bang
Theory in science. According to Dogon myth,
some undefined impulse caused this ball to open,
releasing a whirlwind that spun and scattered its
contents to all corners of the universe, ultimately
forming all of the galaxies of stars and planets.Knowledge of Matter
Dogon descriptions of the mythological structure
of matter are similarly reminiscent of science.
They begin with a primary unit of matter called
thepo, which the Dogon define in terms similar to
an atom. The Dogon priests say that all matter is
created by the continuous addition of like ele-
ments beginning with thepo.Likewise, the po is
defined as comprising smaller subcomponents
calledsene seeds, whose mythological descriptions
sound much like the protons, neutrons, and elec-
trons of modern science. According to Dogon
belief, these sene seeds combine at the center of
the po and then surround it by crossing in all
directions to form a nest. A Dogon cosmological
drawing of this nest takes a shape that is markedly
similar to one of the typical electron orbital paths
inscribed by an electron as it circles the nucleus of
an atom.
Like modern quantum theory, the Dogon myths
tell of the existence of more than 200 primordial
particles—described as seeds or signs—that are
said to exist as paired opposites. Like modern
string theory, or torsion theory, these particles are
said to be the product of the vibrations of primor-
dial threads. According to Dogon myth, each
thread passes through a series of seven vibrations
inside a tiny egg. These vibrations are character-
ized as seven rays of a star of increasing length.
The Dogon myths say that this last ray grows long
enough to pierce the egg, an event that constitutes
the end of the original egg and the initiation of a
new egg. Together these eggs in series are said to
form membranes, which the Dogon compare to
the thin covering that surrounds the brain.
The Dogon alternately characterize these seven
rays by the spiral that can be drawn to inscribe
their endpoints. This spiral may be the correlate to
a tiny vortex that is postulated to exist in modern
torsion theory.Dogon Religion and Science 219