Tag: Griaule

Animal Twins – Griaule et Ogotemmêli (3/3)

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“‘Animals,’ he said, ‘are superior to men, because they belong to the bush and do not have to work. Many animals feed themselves on what man grows by painful toil.’

He even went so far as to say that animals were more perfectly made than men, seeing that they lacked speech. It was an excellence in them to be without the power of speech” (Griaule 1965:126).

“‘When the eight ancestors,’ he said at last, ‘were born to the first pair, eight different animals were born in heaven’….

‘Up to this time they had no connection with the earth. When the eight men appeared, each of them shared a soul with an animal; but the man remained on earth, while his animal associate remained in Heaven’….

‘The animal,’ Ogotemmêli said finally, ‘is as it were, man’s twin'” (Griaule 1965:127)

Animal ties with humans can be found in many cultures across the world, and a new up-and-coming field of anthropology, called multi-species ethnography, explores human relations with animals. What I find interesting about the Dogon perception of animals, is that they are superior, whereas many Western cultures perceive animals as inferior. In both cases, speech seems to be the defining factor, but is evaluated differently.

Ogotemmêli goes on to explain how each of the eight families of the Dogon (descendants of the original eight) is connected to a twin animal, born at the same time. Each animal, however, also has a ‘prohibited partner,’ another animal, that is also born at this time. Thus, each family has a totemic attachment to a wide range of animals.

“‘When I was born,’ said Ogotemmêli, in illustration of his argument, ‘an equine antelope was born too. The antelope’s prohibited animal is the panther. A panther was also born” (Griaule 1965:128).

If interested in learning more about human/animal interconnections, I suggest looking into multi-species ethnography. Try Kirksey and Helmreich (2010), Ogden and Tanita (2013), Haraway (2007), or Kohn (2007) (Kohn’s work is some of my favorite – it is a bit tricky to grasp at times, as it is highly philosophical, but his theories really resonate with me.)

An example of margin notes and highlighting. All my books end up rugged and well used, but my notes make it easier for me to backtrack, years in the future, to the exact pages and excerpts I may need.

References:

Griaule, M. 1965. Conversations with Ogotemmêli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University press.

Haraway, D. 2007. When Species Meet. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Kirksey, S.E. & Helmreich, S. 2010. The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography. Cultural Anthropology 25(4), pp. 545-576.

Kohn, E. 2007. How Dogs Dream: Amazonian natures and the politics of transspecies engagement. American Ethnologist 34(1), pp. 3-24.

Ogden, L.A., Hall, B. & Tanita, K. 2013. Animals, Plants, People, and Things: A Review of Multispecies Ethnography. Environment and Society: Advancements in Research 4, pp. 5-34.

Migration Spurred by Clothes – Griaule et Ogotemmêli (2/3)

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“[Koguem] described how the desire for clothes was causing a number of young people to leave the country. Every year, he said, the Government deplores, here in the cliffs just as elsewhere, the mass emigration of workers in the prime of life, who go to the Gold Coast to earn money and often live there for years and sometimes die there.
These young people, he said, who go off to the Gold Coast or Bamako or elsewhere, go mainly for clothes. They make money there and spend it all, the day before they come back, on gewgaws, turbans or umbrellas, and peacock about in them on market days or at funerals. Dress helps them to get married. The more clothes a man has, the more elegant he is, and the more women go after him” (Griaule 1965:82).

In the 60s, young Dogon workers from Sudan headed to foreign lands to work hard, earn money, and buy clothes. They did this, because in their culture, clothes are valuable and will help them gain a wife. This goes to show that although many cultures across the world pursue money, this does not mean that everybody spends it in the same way. Globalization and the cash economy has allowed many people to access new commodities, but how they spend their money and what they do with purchased commodities often depends on their cultural backgrounds. In this example of the Dogon, we see consumer choices that are fueled by a strong cultural value – well dressed men are prestigious and catch the eyes of more women. Interested in this idea? I suggest reading works by Richard Wilk (see references for two articles), or perhaps Marshall Sahlins’s (1992) “The Economics of Develop-Man in the Pacific.”

References:

Griaule, M. 1965. Conversations with Ogotemmêli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University press.

Sahlins, M. 1992. The Economics of Develop-Man in the Pacific. Anthropology and Aesthetics, 21, pp. 12-25.

Wilk, R. (2006). ‘But the Young Men Don’t Want to Farm Any More’: Political Ecology and Consumer Culture in Belize. In Biersack, A & J.B. Greenberg, Reimagining political ecology (pp. 149-170). Durham: Duke Univ. Press.

Wilk, R. (2002). “It’s Destroying a Whole Generation”: Television and Moral Discourse in Belize. In K. Askew & R.R. Wilk (eds.), The Anthropology of Media: A reader (pp. 286-298). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Ethnographic Acceptance – Griaule et Ogotemmêli (1/3)

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“But the Dogon came to recognize the great perseverance of Marcel Griaule and his team in their enquiries, and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to answer the multiplicity of questions without moving on to a different level. They appreciated our eagerness for an understanding which earlier explanations had certainly not satisfied, and which was clearly more important to us than anything else. Griaule had also shown a constant interest in the daily life of the Dogon, appreciating their efforts to exploit a difficult country where there was a serious lack of water in the dry season, and our relationships, which had thus extended beyond those of ethnographical enquiry, became more and more trusting and affectionate. In the light of all this the Dogon took their own decision, of which we learned only later when they told us themselves. The elders of the lineages of the double village of Ogol and the most important totemic priests of the region of Sanga met together and decided that the more esoteric aspects of their religion should be fully revealed to Professor Griaule. To begin this they chose one of their own best informed members, Ogotemmêli who, as will be seen in the introduction, arranged the first interview” (Dieterlen 1965:xvi)

An anthropologist’s dream – after fifteen years of asking questions and getting evasive answers, the Dogon finally decided to reveal to Marcel Griaule the inner-workings of their cosmology and cultural philosophy, their ‘deep-knowledge’ as they called it. Fifteen years! Griaule began his ethnographic work in 1931, and finally in 1947, after building intimate relationships and showing consistent interest in the culture, the elders finally agreed to let him into their world. No matter how long it takes, I expect the feeling of accomplishment and humility is overwhelming when this ultimate form of ethnographic acceptance into the culture finally occurs. The interviews between Griaule and Ogotemmêli are recorded in a book called Conversations with Ogotemmêli (Original French version: Dieu d’Eau). I have just started re-reading this book, it was assigned to me long ago during my freshman year of college in a class called “Egypt the Cradle of Civilization.” I only read bits and pieces during the class, but now, some seven years later, I am excited to re-read and see how my understandings of the book have changed after all of these years of anthropological education. More from Ogotemmêli coming next.

References:

Dieterlen, G. 1965. Introduction. In M. Griaule, Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.