People	Language	Number	Resettlement (in Mali, unless otherwise specified)	Note
southern Dogon
doon	tomo-kan	178 000	168 thousand people in the southwest of Bancas, about 10 thousand people in Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso
Togo	tene-kan (togo)	92 232
tengu	tene-kan (tengu)	67 788
Eastern Dogon
diamsay	diamsay	164 000	between Koro and Bumbum
toro-tegu	toro-tegu	3654
central Dogon
Tomm	Tommo-so	75 852		speak dialects
toro (bommu)	toro-so	63 000
don	bottom-so	57 000	near Bandiagara
Western Dogon
mombo (colum)	mombo-so (colum-so)	24 000
ampari	ampari	6552
northern Dogon
bondum (dovoy)	bondum(-house)	31 000	north of the Bandiagara plateau, the main settlement is Borko
dogul	dogulu(-house)	20 000	northeast of Bandiagara
tiranige (duleri)	tyranige-diga	5292
	tebul-ure	3500
Nanga	nanga(-lady)	3150
Yanda	yanda(-house)	2500
will	bunoge	882
	ana	500
bangana	bangeri (bangime)	1512	in the northwest of Bandiagara	speak an isolated language
Total		790 102

Story [ | ]

Bandiagara Ledge

The Dogon trace themselves to the ruling groups of Ancient Mali. According to ethnogenetic legends, their ancestors, pressed by the Fulani, came in the 12th century from the upper reaches of the Niger - from the country of Manden, displacing the local population (or) and partially assimilating their culture and, apparently, adopting their languages. What remains of the bodies are cave sanctuaries and burial complexes in the rocky spurs of eastern and southern Bandiagara (the inventory includes ceramics, arrowheads and spearheads, bronze and iron bracelets, wooden sculptures, fragments of fabric, weaving, etc.). Tradition does not report direct contacts between the Dogon and the body. The connection with the Mandin peoples is confirmed by the social ties of clan groups, the proximity of art, dances, rituals, etc. In the 16th century, the Dogon were part of the early state formation of Songhai, in the 16th-19th centuries (to varying degrees of involvement for different groups) - in Masina. Contacts between the Dogon and the Islamized Fulani, which began at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, led to the latter's capture of Bandiagara by the mid-19th century.

Traditional culture[ | ]

Wooden Dogon statue, possibly an ancestor figure, 17th-18th century

The traditional culture is typical of the peoples of the Sudanese subregion of West Africa. Its study was monopolized in the middle of the 20th century by representatives of the school of M. Griaule, which led to the ignoring of previously established alternative views (L. Deplane and others). Culturally, they distinguish between the Dogon of the plateau and foothills approaching the Niger Valley (central, western and northern Dogon), and the Dogon of the chain of mountain ledges and the Seno plain to the southeast of them (southern and eastern Dogon). The isolated position of the Dogon country contributed to the conservation of archaic cultural elements or secondary archaization. The main occupations are manual slash-and-burn farming, terrace farming in the mountains, and in some places irrigation farming (sorghum, millet-eleusinum, beans; the main item of exchange and trade is onions). Cattle are grazed by the Fulani on an exchange basis. The Dogon have a relationship with Bozo.

In modern culture[ | ]

The Dogons are mentioned in the adventure novel Uruguru by Alexey Sanaev. There is a mention in the Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge, Volume 5.

Dogon and the myth of appear in the Tom Robbins novel Sleepy Eyes and Frog Pajamas.

The Dogon and their cosmology are also mentioned in Philip K. Dick's novel VALIS.

Notes [ | ]

1. Means African fox (lat. Vulpes pallida)
2. Marcel Griaule et Germaine Dieterlen. Le Renard pâle: Le mythe cosmogonique
3. M. Palau-Marti, La création du monde (compte-rendu). - “Revue de l’histoire des religions” for 1966, vol. 170, No. 1 p. 78-82.
4. Marcel Griaule, Dieu d'eau: entretiens avec Ogotemmêli. Paris, Fayard, 1975
5. Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano. The Dogon Revisited (undefined) . Retrieved October 13, 2007. Archived February 15, 2013.
6. Philip Coppens (author).

The country of the mysterious Dogon is a bend of the Niger River, the heart of the West African Sahel. This is where the Sahara and the savannah zone converge. The Dogon live in Mali and Burkina Faso. Neither country nor any other country belongs to the category of “tourist” - they lack developed infrastructure, there are practically no good hotels outside the capitals, and there are few roads. So when visiting the Bandiagara plateau, where the Dogon live, you must count on a hiking or semi-hiking lifestyle. There are no direct flights to either the capital of Mali, Bamako, or the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, from Moscow. Flight via Paris with Air France, and then depending on circumstances. Before traveling, you need to take care of vaccinations, since the countries of West Africa are unfavorable in terms of epidemics and other diseases associated with food and drink.

Where the muddy waters of the Niger bend in a wide arc around the brownish cliffs of ferruginous sandstones, the Dogon live behind the dry Bandiagara plateau. The Grand Larousse, a comprehensive French encyclopedia, devotes only a few lines to this people: “The Dogons have preserved their specific ancient culture.” Then follows a few words about Dogon masks. But is there a tribe or nation in Africa that did not have them? And although experts consider Dogon woodworking a masterpiece of African art, the most interesting thing about this tribe is its spiritual culture. His amazingly coherent myths. His—may we allow this expression—“theory of the universe.”

Strange "pale fox"

There are three hundred thousand Dogons. Not the smallest and not the largest African nation, little known outside a narrow circle of specialists. Once upon a time, about a thousand years before our days, they lived in the upper reaches of the Niger, in the Mande region, the very center of the ancient Mandingo empire. Then their dwellings dotted the slopes of the Kurula Mountains. The Dogon, as their legends say, came to this mountainous region from the Diagu region, from where Niger begins its winding path to the ocean. Relocation after relocation, mixing with other tribes - this is the entire early history of the Dogon in a nutshell. In the middle of the tenth century, a wave of Islam reached Mande, the homeland of the Dogon at that time. Its onslaught was not so strong, as if it had lost its strength in the desolation of the Sahara, and people refused to accept new religion. One of the Dogon tribes, the Aru, went down the Niger to look for a new homeland. Gradually, all the relatives moved to the area of ​​the Bandiagara plateau, displacing the former inhabitants, the Tellem tribe, from there by the end of the 13th century. It was then, during the era of migration, that the division of the Dogon into four tribes arose: Dyon, Aru, Ono and Domno. Since each of them got to Bandiagara on their own route, they settled separately from the others, in their own area. Now everything has changed: often representatives of different tribes live in the same village, but the former isolation remains. However, communication is often hampered by a language barrier: the spoken Dogon language, Dogoso, is divided into many dialects, sometimes strikingly different from one another. The only thing that remains common is the ritual “sigiso” - archaic and now understandable only to initiates - the language of healers and sorcerers, the language of the priests of the ancient religion, the language of the “pale fox”.

The "pale fox" is a small light-colored animal, which the Dogon consider their ancestor, and is found in abundance in their mountains. The “Pale Fox” at one time knew how to speak the Sigiso language and told the Dogon their myths.

Two ethnographers

By the will of historical fate, the Dogon, like most Sudanese peoples, late XIX centuries were under French rule. At the same time, they were to some extent “lucky”: the colonialists were not too fond of their inaccessible, arid region. Perhaps that is why Bandiagara became an ethnographic reserve.

The road to these places was paved at the beginning of the century by colonial lieutenant Louis Deplane. The culture of the “savages” did not interest him, but when compiling a list of them, he noted the Dogons. Marcel Griaule should be considered the discoverer of this culture for Europeans. He was just over thirty when, as part of the Trans-Sudanese expedition, he ended up in Bandiagara. By that time, African sculpture was already well known in Europe: ritual and cult figurines made of bronze, ivory, and ebony. The young scientist was attracted by another side of the spiritual life of Africans. He was perhaps the first European to study ritual masks. He carefully probed for the semantic meaning of color, decor, ornament - every line, every protrusion on the mask. He made friends with many experts in ancient customs: Ogotemmeli, Onyonlu, Akundyo Dolo, with the priests Manda from Orosongo and Nommo from Nanduli, and many other Dogon. “Our relationship was truly cordial,” Germaine Dieterlen, Griaule’s faithful companion, would write many years later. Expeditions were sent one after another. Trying to become as fully acquainted with the life of the Dogon as possible, Griol came to them both during the rainy season and in the heat, when it became difficult even for his own residents in the country scorched by the merciless sun. And what can we say about aliens! Deplane wrote heartily in his report: “I have never met a country so poorly adapted for humans as the land of the Dogon.”

Second World War interrupted field research, and when, after a many-year break, Griaule returned to his friends, they greeted him with honor and decided to initiate him into their deepest secret - the myth of the creation of the world. The representatives of the tribe carried out this decision of the high priests and patriarchs of the clans for more than a month. Preliminary preparations took place for thirty-three days.

The Dogon have no written language. The myth is learned by heart and passed on to descendants in this form. There are, however, thousands of auxiliary signs. But these are only mnemonic devices illustrating the main ideas of the myth. Every day, after a many-hour session of teaching the mysterious signs of the myth, the Dogon teacher came to the council of elders and reported on the successes of the white students. On the thirty-fourth day, Griaule finally heard the “bright word” - the essence of the Dogon myth. During his lifetime, Griaule managed to publish only one single brief message about the Dogon concept of the universe. In 1956, he died during another expedition to the country of his research.

Residents of the Sanga region, where Griol worked, gave him the highest honor, which no European had ever deserved before: the most important, most important thing was dedicated to the memory of the deceased scientist. solemn ceremony funeral rite– removal of mourning, or “daman,” which in the sacred language means “great prohibition.” When a person dies, many prohibitions are imposed on his close relatives: you cannot eat many things, you cannot do certain jobs. The duration of the ban depends on the position occupied by the deceased in the tribe during his lifetime. The fact is that the elders of all clans of the tribe are invited to the “removal of mourning”. Each of them comes to the wake accompanied by a large retinue. The owners do not spare millet beer and food for their guests. Often the entire harvest of the family field is spent on food. The more noble the deceased was, the more guests, the more beer needed for the “hyrax”, the longer the mourning period...

The ledges of the Bandiagara plateau in Mali, to which Dogon huts cling

The French ethnographer was remembered by the entire tribe. Two moons before the ceremony, the young men went to the savannah to collect wood and herbs, and then work began in the villages: they made masks and bracelets, weaved grass skirts, and dyed wigs.

In the evening, having put on angular homemade mourning clothes and girded with white sashes, the initiates began a slow, endless dance on the outskirts of the village. Under the rhythmic hooting of drums, a snake-like chain of dancers set off into the rocks. There, where a huge block of stone is installed on a bare platform - “Ammaginu” - the House of God. Here, in front of the altar, the sacred dance continued all night, which only a few are allowed to see - only those who have been accepted into men's fraternity tribe. The Dogons accompanied the soul of the scientist to Amma, the highest secret of which they revealed to a stranger, and also to a European.

By morning the dancers returned to the village. The sad dancing resumed in the dusty square. Numerous guests were already seated on mats. The feast lasted until evening. In the slanting rays of the pre-sunset sun, the kids brought gifts to the leader of the dancers: jugs of millet beer, a dish of rice, a bunch of dried fish, a little salt. IN last time a line of dancers set off along the village, pouring beer on the ground and sprinkling grain. All the men and women rushed after him. Each person held a clay shard in their hands. The procession headed towards the southern outskirts of the village, because the spirits of the dead live somewhere far to the south of the Dogon country. The drums droned desperately. They lined up in a row, each threw their shard as far as possible and took off running without looking back... The soul of the deceased scientist moved to the house of the Dogon god. A pot of millet broth and a jug of beer stood in front of the temple all night - let the human soul celebrate its relocation...

Nine years have passed. In Paris, edited by Germaine Dieterlen, the first part of the legends collected by French ethnographers was published - “The Pale Fox,” the cosmogonic myth of the Dogon. The book was carefully commented by Griaule and his student. But it did not arouse interest outside a narrow circle of specialists. However, the work was not intended for the general public.

Dogon huts are often decorated with ornaments containing scenes from the past life of the tribe

However, ten years later another book appeared. It was released by Eric Guerrier, an astronomer from Marseille and a passionate lover of archeology and ethnography. Watching man's first steps on the lunar surface, Guerrier remembered that he had once read something similar. But where, in what science fiction novel? The memory started working and led to the unexpected: “Pale fox”! The first lunar landing in the history of mankind vividly recalled the description in the Dogon myth of the arrival of the “ark of Nommo,” and the footprints of the astronauts evoked the footprint of Nommo’s copper sandal.

Guerrier re-read the myth and found Griaule’s earlier work, “The Sudanese Sirius System.” The astronomer was also struck by the information contained in these works. They were common for the ethnographer recording a myth, and did not arouse his excessive interest, but astronomers, apparently, do not often look into the works of humanists. The cosmogonic system of the Adogons surprisingly coincided with the latest theories and hypotheses! Griaule and Dieterlen tried to convey as accurately as possible, as objectively as possible primary material. They were not at all interested in a simple question: where did the Dogon get such knowledge? And Guerrier asked it in the first place.

He met Germaine Dieterlen. Very soon Guerrier became convinced that the venerable lady ethnographer had the most approximate idea of ​​space flight. The astronomer sighed with relief. The most important reproach that skeptics could address to Griaule and Dieterlen disappeared: they, they say, put into the mouths of the Dogon what they themselves knew. Guerrier decided to translate the myth into the language of our days, using modern scientific concepts.

It’s worth making a small digression here. As already mentioned, Dogon myths are transmitted orally, using a whole arsenal of mnemonic signs, each of which is associated with images, metaphors, and comparisons. Often a word in myth has a slightly different meaning than in everyday language. In the story you cannot change a single word, not a single letter, because this could disrupt the whole and distort the meaning. Griaule and Dieterlen wrote down first of all the plot of the myth. Then they gave explanations from the oigons themselves about what was told. Guerrier's commentary is an attempt to translate the Dogon myth into the language of modern science, to compare it with modern hypotheses of the structure of the Universe.

"In the beginning there was Amma..."

“In the beginning there was Amma, a god in the form of a round egg who rested on nothing,” this is how the Dogon myth begins. – It consisted of four oval parts fused with each other. Apart from this, there was nothing." The name of God - Amma - in modern language means “to hold tightly”, “to hug tightly”, “to hold in one place”. And Amma held and compressed the four main elements: water (“di”), air (“onyo”), fire (“yau”) and earth (“minne”). Amma had the shape of a small millet grain “po”. And “po” among the Dogon is the main element of the world.

The main task of the supreme being in any mythology is to create the world. And Amma in each of her four parts causes an explosion, “which is the cause of existence.” That’s why it gets its main epithet “spinning vortex.” It is further explained that this vortex spins in a spiral. This image can be attributed to both a small atom with an electron cloud revolving around the nucleus, and a giant star system - a galaxy: after all, most known galaxies belong to the spiral class.

(No matter how you look at Eric Guerrier’s comment, you can’t help but think that a small African tribe worshiped an eternal flow of energy in the form of Amma...)

Amma's creative process continued in a rather original way. He began to create signs that “give color, shape, substance to the whole world.” Signs come from inside things. We call such signs chemical elements. The entire set of signs is called “invisible Amma” by the Dogon. First of all, two “guiding signs” and eight “main signs” were created. The “Guiding Signs” belong to Amma and him alone.

Since we are talking about chemical elements, it is not difficult to assume that such “guiding signs” can determine two elements that play special role in the structure of space - hydrogen and helium. Then the “main signs” can be identified with groups of the periodic system of elements. True, such a comparison is very risky, because elsewhere in the myth the signs are divided into 22 families of “royal things”, and then their total number mentioned in the myth is more than twice the number of chemical elements known to us. Thus, analogies and comparisons here look very dubious. But they do not arise by chance.

Mysterious sigi-tolo

The Dogons know the starry sky well. The star of Hyena corresponds to Procyon, the star of Leo corresponds to beta Aries, there are the stars of the Acacia tree, Rice, Sorghum and many others. The “eyes of the world” are the North Star and the Southern Cross. There is amazing information in Dogon astronomy. Thus, they call “the star of the Ball Tree” one of the four large satellites of Jupiter, the same ones with which Galileo introduced Europeans. True, with the help of a telescope, a whole dozen satellites have been discovered by the elder brother of the Earth, but the Dogon have no telescopes to this day... However, the name “Double Eye of the World” given to the alpha of the Southern Cross also suggests the idea that the ancestors of this people were familiar with optical instruments. Any telescope can see that this star is a double star. The Dogon symbol of Saturn - two concentric circles - recalls the famous rings of this planet, also inaccessible to our vision. In the Sigi-so language there is a special term “to-logonose”, or “revolving star”. This is the name given to the satellites of any celestial body. All this information, which evokes respect for Dogon astronomy, pales next to their “theory” of “shigi-tolo”. This is what they call the most beautiful of the heavenly stars, the well-known Sirius.

The light we see is only a fragment of a star system. It is formed by the main star, or Sirius A, the white dwarf Sirius B, invisible to the naked eye; the Dogon call it “po-tolo” (and “po,” as we know, is considered the smallest particle of energy, its grain), and another invisible star “ emme-ya-tolo" with the satellite planet "nyan-tolo". Regarding two last stars and the Dogon planets say that they are so close to Sirius A that they are not always visible. Although Sirius is one of the closest stars to Earth - only 8.5 light years away, its satellite Sirius B was discovered only in January 1862 by Clark, and the theoretical orbit was calculated only ten years earlier. As for Sirius C, its existence still causes heated debate among astronomers.

But here’s what the Dogon say: “The po-tolo star revolves around the sigi-tolo.” One revolution lasts 50 years... “Po-tolo” regulates the movement of “sigi-tolo”, which moves along an irregular curve.” It was the twisted movements of Sirius A that led scientists to the discovery of an unnoticed neighbor. The orbital period of Sirius B is 50 Earth years... By the way, close neighbors of the Dogon, for example the Bambara, also know about the existence of the star’s smaller brother. And far in the south of the continent, the Hottentots call Sirius “the star nearby.”

“Po-tolo” makes exactly the same revolution around Sirius as “po” around its embryo in the womb of Amma... When “po-tolo” is near a star, it increases its brilliance; when "po-tolo"

moves away, it begins to blink so that the observer seems to see many stars.” An impressive picture, considering that Sirius B is not visible to the naked eye! In the symbolic Dogon drawing of the Sirius system, “po-tolo” is shown as a circle with a dot in the center. But, according to Africanists, not a single dot can appear in such images by chance. Guerrier believes that this drawing is a symbol of a white dwarf. “White dwarfs seem to “ripen” inside stars - red giants - and “come into being” after the outer layers of giant stars separate,” says Soviet astronomer I. Shklovsky.

The life of the Dogon today does not confirm their deep knowledge of astronomy.

What do the Dogon say about this?

“Po-tolo” is the heaviest star... It is so heavy that all people taken together could not lift a small piece of it.” Now compare this with the data of modern astronomy: the mass of Sirius B is 0.98 solar masses, and the diameter of this star is only two and a half times the diameter of the Earth. This gives a fantastic density: one cubic centimeter weighs approximately 50 tons! So the catch-ups were not mistaken qualitatively. The myth also explains the high density of matter: “Po-tolo” consists of three main elements: “onyo” (air), “di” (water) and “yau” (fire). "Minne" (earth) is replaced by another element - "sagala", "which sparkles brighter than iron." Modern astrophysics claims that during the evolution of stars, gradual compaction and heating of the core occurs. When its temperature reaches one hundred million degrees, the reaction of fusion of three helium nuclei into one carbon begins. This helium flash does not last long, but leads to serious changes. Further evolution can take different paths. If the mass of the star is large enough (approximately two or three times the Sun), the helium body sheds its shell. The core, after catastrophic compression, turns into either a “black hole”, or a white dwarf, or a neutron star. If the ejection of matter occurs quickly, a supernova erupts: the star’s brightness increases ten or even a hundred million times, and then slowly dims over decades. And it turns out that the Dogon myth repeatedly mentions the “po-tolo” explosion: when people were on Earth for only a year, the star suddenly began to shine, and then gradually, over the course of two hundred and forty years, its brightness decreased. And further: the contents of the “po-tolo” erupted in the form of “po” grains. In the Dogon system of mnemonic signs there is a special design: a circle, inside of which strokes directed towards the center are placed - this is how the decrease in the size of the star is symbolically depicted. What is this, an accident? But then there are too many of them in the myths of the African tribe.

When French ethnographers asked the old people where the Dogon got such extraordinary information, they answered that they observed all space objects from the Sirius group from a cave. Where is the cave itself? This is a top secret. The priests flatly refused to open it to whites. Griaule only managed to hear one more mention that there was a large amount of “evidence” collected in the cave. The elders did not explain this term...

Why are the Dogon so great place in their legends focus on distant worlds and, it would seem, completely unrelated to earthly life? It turns out that there is a connection, and a very direct one: “In the beginning, the place of the star “in the tolo” was where the Sun is now. The sun was there too. But the star “tolo” moved away from the Earth, but the Sun remained.” One part of "The Pale Fox" describes how people were transported from the planet whose sun was "po-tolo" before its explosion. The Dogon metaphor defines this journey as a “successful marriage.” In the symbol picture depicting this “marriage”, Sirius is larger than the Sun! The radius of Sirius A is indeed 1.7 times that of the Sun.

Amma's hidden secret

“Po” ​​is the original image of matter... Amma’s creative will was contained in “po,” the Dogon say. It is the beginning of all things because it is the smallest of all. If we remember that Amma acts as the god-energy, then one can be amazed at the accuracy of the formulation: the smallest particle is the beginning of matter. “All the things that Amma created originate from a small grain of po.” Starting from the smallest, all things are created by Amma, adding the same elements. Amma begins to create all things as small as “po”; then he adds new portions of small “pos” to the created things. As Amma connects the grains “po”, the thing becomes bigger and bigger.” It is unlikely that an educated person will be able to explain the structure of matter more clearly to an illiterate person.

“When life develops, it develops in a vortex that repeats the first creation of Amma. Life evolved at the same moment that the po grains were combined.

The complex, archaic, figurative language of myth sometimes conveys information in allegorical ways that would seem incredible to primitive people.

“The word “po” comes from the same root as the word “pok,” which means “to twist into a spiral.” “Po”, twisted into itself, stores the “word” until the moment when Amma orders the release of this “word” in order to transmit it to all creations. “Po” ​​can turn into a terrible wind, but you can’t talk about it.” Guerrier believes that this is talking about the possibility of the transition of matter into energy - no more and no less. Isn't this interpretation too bold? Maybe. But this is what the Dogon say - literally - and this phrase constitutes the deepest secret of their myths.

Here's another fragment. Everyone knows what an important role enzymes play in the processes of organic synthesis, that is, substances that accelerate chemical reactions. Enzymes were discovered at the end of the last century. And the Dogon, from generation to generation, teach the lines of their myth: “The life contained in grain, thanks to the “word,” is like the fermentation of beer in a calabash...”

Space travel

The Pale Fox describes two “space odysseys” (as Guerrier calls them). First, it tells about the journey to Earth of a creature named Ogo, then about the arrival of the “ship” of Nommo and the first people to Earth.

Ogo is in many ways reminiscent of the Satan we know. Close to the god Amma, he rebelled against his patron and mastered part of his knowledge. Ogo went on space flight three times. (This part of the myth is told in a very confusing way, and ethnographers believe that it reflected actual events: the three stages of the Dogon resettlement in Bandiagara.)

Ogo Amma turned the first “ark” into Earth. Then followed the second journey - on a small “ship”, which moved, driven by the “wind” contained in the “po” grains. This important information allows far-reaching interpretations to be made... If desired, of course.

Ogo flew from the star “sigitolo” - Sirius. At the same time, it tells in detail how he steered his “ship” so that its movement coincided with the movement of the Earth (“entered into a successful marriage with the Earth,” as the Dogon say). All this is so reminiscent of reasoning modern theory space flights, which Guerrier concludes: the Dogon myth conveys theoretical and practical knowledge in as much detail as possible. In order, he probably believes, for this information to be passed on in detail to distant descendants.

Nommo's task turned out to be completely different. Amma himself instructed him to populate the Earth. For this purpose, a huge two-decker “ship” with a round bottom was built. Nommo's "ship" was divided into sixty compartments containing "all earthly creatures and ways of being": world, sky, earth, village, meetinghouse, women's house, livestock, trees and birds, cultivated field, cowrie shells, fire and the word , dance and work, travel, death, funeral... But the current Dogon know the contents of only the first twenty-two compartments. “The rest will come into people’s consciousness later and change the world” - that’s what they say themselves...

It remains a mystery who and when informed the West African Dogon, who were at such a specific level of social development, such wise information about space and cosmology in general

The “ship” was suspended on a copper chain, and then, at a signal from Amma, it launched into a hole made in the sky: it set off from that part of space where “tolo” gave birth to life, which was now to be transferred to Earth. Approaching our planet, the “ship” circled across the sky for eight “periods”, occupying it like a giant rainbow - from horizon to horizon. It circled from east to west, deviating now to the north, now to the south. It rotated around its own axis and described a “double helix” during its descent. The said rotation was aided by a “whirling vortex” that burst out of the ship through openings that had the “shape of this wind.”

At the moment of landing, the “ship” slid through the mud, and the hole formed after it hit the ground filled with water and became Lake Debo. On its banks, on Gurao Hill, there is still a giant dolmen depicting the “ship of Nommo”, and in a small distance, among the menhirs personifying Sirius and the Sun, another stone, much smaller in size, symbolically depicts the Earth.

“Coming out of the ship, Nommo first of all put his left foot on the ground. This meant that he took the Earth into his own possession. The footprint left by Nommo’s foot resembles the footprint of a copper sandal.”

After Nommo, the rest of its inhabitants left the “ship” in turn. When the “ship” was empty, Amma pulled the chain that supported it into the sky, and the sky closed. Earthly life began.

Nommo plunged into the waters of Lake Debo, from where his caring eye watches people until the appointed hour of his rebirth comes - the “day of the word.” It is necessary to observe the lives of people - after all, this is why he arrived earlier than Nommo to Ogo Land, in order to interfere with them. Here you really need an eye and an eye...

Modern times have mercilessly discarded myths like a boring toy. It turns out that not everything in ancient legends was fiction. Remember Schliemann, who dug up Troy in strict accordance with the myth; about the traditions of the Polynesians, accurately reproducing the history of the people. And now people of our days are diligently digging through the legends shrouded in the haze of time, looking for a rational grain in them, a memory of prehistoric times. Perhaps there is such a grain in the Dogon myth. Of course, it is naive to believe that the impetus for the development of earthly civilization was given by the visit of a handful of space travelers. In general, the very possibility of such a visit is controversial. The study of myths for the “cosmic grain” opens up space for bold guesses and original hypotheses. Unfortunately, there is a lot of room for fraud and quackery... Apparently, it is not yet time to unambiguously evaluate the Dogon legends. There may be another interpretation, different from Guerrier's interpretation. Well! You can, after all, turn to the detailed and reliable records of Griaule and Dieterlen. Or maybe other researchers will be able to “talk” the Dogon secret keepers even more? What will happen then? Whether Guerrier’s “cosmic version” is justified, or whether it itself turns out to be a myth, only in the 20th century, one thing is clear: in any case, our knowledge about the past of mankind will be enriched.

And a small African animal, a pale fox, will help in comprehending the truth...

Almost all sacred books are filled with stories about those who came from heaven and, mixing blood with people, reproduced the offspring of demigods, and in return gave our ancestors knowledge.
Thousands of years later, every now and then we come across Their traces, and not in the offices of scientists, but in the most virgin corners of our planet.

A true confirmation of this is the Dogon tribe, living in the heart of the African continent. The Dogon believe in their cosmic past and believe that their ancestors came to earth from the star Sirius from the constellation Canis Major!
The Dogons (self-named Dogom, Dogon, etc., singular Dogone; Fula Habe, singular Kado, lit. “pagans”) are a people in the southeast of Mali (south of the Mopti region).
The name of the tribe was invented by travelers; it comes from the English word Dog Star - “Dog Star”. They themselves call themselves the Children of the Pale Fox - that is the name of their distant star father.
They live (compactly or mixed with the Fulani people) in a remote area around the escarpment of the Bandiagara highlands, on the adjacent plateau and Seno plain, as well as in several border villages of Burkina Faso.
They speak Dogon languages. Many also have varying degrees of proficiency in the Fula language, which serves as a lingua franca for some groups of the Dogon, where mutual understanding is difficult or impossible, and the Bamana. Only a few people speak French, the official language of Mali.

The total number is about 800 thousand people (2007 estimate). Mostly Muslims, in a number of areas traditional beliefs are preserved, about 10% are Christians (Catholics and Protestants).
The Dogon elevate themselves to the ruling groups of Ancient Mali. According to ethnogenetic legends, their ancestors, pressed by the Fulani, came to X-XII centuries from the upper reaches of the Niger - from the Mandin country, displacing the local population (Telem or Kurumba) and partially assimilating their culture and, obviously, adopting their languages. What remains of the bodies are cave sanctuaries and burial complexes in the rocky spurs of eastern and southern Bandiagara (the inventory includes ceramics, arrowheads and spearheads, bronze and iron bracelets, wooden sculptures, fragments of fabric, weaving, etc.). Tradition does not report direct contacts between the Dogon and the body. The connection with the Mandin peoples is confirmed by the social ties of clan groups, the proximity of art, dances, rituals, etc.
Over the centuries they have maintained their original culture, despite European influence and the close proximity of Timbuktu, the ancient center of Islamization of Sudan, which was greatly facilitated by natural conditions - inaccessible terrain with narrow passages and steep cliffs that turned Dogon villages into impregnable fortresses.
The Dogon villages are located in terraces on the slopes of the hills at the foot of rocky screes, on which rise the conical buildings of their legendary predecessors, the tellem.
According to legends, the history of the Dogon dates back to the time of the great cosmic tragedy that took place on the outskirts of our Galaxy... Two planets revolved around the third star from the Sirius system. On the first of them, Ara-Tolo, lived the snake people Nommo. On another planet, Yu-Tolo, the intelligent birds of Balako found their shelter. The inhabitants of Yu-Tolo reached the highest level of civilization; with the help of their knowledge, Balako were able to predict the impending disaster. It came from a nearby star in the Sirius B system, which was expected to explode in the next decade. The explosion threatened complete destruction for both civilizations, and they began to look for other planets suitable for the life of their physical bodies.
For this purpose, the aliens equipped several interstellar expeditions. According to the Dogon, they moved in astral bodies and could, using genetic matrix codes, set suitable planets with a program for creating an experimental batch of biological bodies of a particular type. How their experiments on other planets turned out is unknown. As for the Earth, there was success. Research on the possible adaptation of their bodies to earthly conditions was more than successful - the Bandiagara plateau was chosen for these purposes.
Some time after the launch of the genetic program, strange creatures began to appear on the fertile African soil - amphibians. Nommo began to develop local lakes, and the bird people of Balako began to build nest-dwellings on the inaccessible ledges of the plateau. But then the aliens came to the conclusion that the Earth was not entirely suitable for their biological forms.
The report on the research was sent to their homeland, the aliens began to wait for an answer to which planets they needed to finally move to. It was at this time that the main alien problem happened.
The deadline for the next fifty-year cycle approached - the orbits of the three stars of the Sirius system came closer and Sirius B exploded, turning into a White Dwarf. As a result of the explosion, all biological creatures of this star system were completely destroyed. The only survivors were the star scouts stuck on Earth.
In memory of their lost homeland, every fifty years they hold the sacred holiday of Sigi - Day of Remembrance of the Dead.
The situation was out of control, it was necessary to do something and somehow adapt to earthly conditions in anticipation of the call of relatives who might have managed to take root on other planets. Fortunately for the aliens, at that time the African tribe of Tellems migrated to the plateau. With the help of occult knowledge, the aliens freed people from their souls, and they themselves moved into them, becoming pseudo-humans...
Almost the entire Tellem tribe acquired new inner content, part of the tribe was reincarnated, others became slaves. The aliens “folded” their previous bodies back into eggs (they have this form of reproduction on Sirius) and placed them in a secret cave Sanctuary.
Over time, people's bodies aged, and the aliens needed to be reincarnated. For this purpose, they began to marry the surviving tellems: their children are now called Dogon, who are still waiting for the call of a distant homeland and guard the gene pool of the real biological bodies of the children of Sirius. Not all, of course, the inhabitants of the Dogon tribe are so enlightened; secret knowledge is kept only by the priests of the tribe - the Olubaru. You can become such a priest only from birth; future Olubarus are selected by bird people from the Dogon as children and teach them the Sigi-So language, ancestral rites, holidays and that unusual knowledge of astronomy that so surprises the entire earthly scientific world.
The Olubaru priest is obliged to carefully follow all traditions and end his existence at the age of seventy. Upon reaching the specified age, the olubaru goes to a secret settlement, where he is sacrificed to the spirit of Yurugu. He is summoned at the hour of the Twilight Zone by beating ritual drums. All participants in the sacrifice are plunged into a deep trance, which is probably why they no longer care whether they are alive or already dead. In addition to human sacrifices, crocodiles are also sacrificed to Yurugu.
The main purpose of life of the Olubaru is to store eggs - their space brothers.
The Dogon calendar is very different from the well-known and generally accepted calendars of the world. For example, a week does not consist of seven days, as we are used to, but of five. The fifth day is market day - in Africa this is already a holiday. Everyone walks around dressed up - with all the regalia and attributes. Men drink beer on this day, discussing universal problems, women do the same, only without beer.
The Dogon celebrate Des Masques every year. This holiday comes in April and is celebrated for exactly one Dogon week - five days. Its main goal is to refresh the memory of the Dogon Sigi holiday, celebrated once every fifty years, so that it is not forgotten. It is for this reason that the same thing happens on Des Masques as on Sigi.
The whole action of Des Masques is like a costume performance telling the story of the origin of the Dogon. The main attribute is special masks made of wood, decorated with fancy patterns. The masks are crowned with special figures - headpieces, reaching a height of up to five meters. The most important of them is two meters high, it personifies the mythical bird Balako with wings and paws outstretched in the form of a swastika!
Sacred masks are kept in shrines, away from prying eyes, and are guarded by olubaru priests. Depending on the holiday, the Dogon revive this or that mask, and make a new one for special occasions.
The Dogon use eighty different masks in their ceremonies. Moreover, all of them, despite a wide variety of forms and subjects, retain the features of the same style. Each ritual involves a specific set of masks. Some of the Dogon masks have been preserved only in museums. On the other hand, the emergence of new types has been noted, preserving the main features of the local style.
Almost all masks emphasize the vertical axis, and most of them have two compositional centers: one of them is the mask, that is, the part of the mask that covers the face, the other is the pommel, which is an independent plastic structure. The Dogon style is characterized by rectilinear “cubist” volumes, sharply cut forms, rectangular joints, and clear, halftone-free boundaries of light and shadow.
Anthropomorphic, as a rule, Dogon masks are always supplemented with the features of various animals (monkey, antelope, hare, hyena, etc.). The most common and one of the most revered masks is the kanaga. The flat face with holes for the eyes is divided in half by a thin vertical partition of the nose, resting on the forehead overhanging in the form of a triangular cornice. The pommel has the shape of a Lorraine cross with bent ends of the crossbars.
Various variations of this form, reminiscent of a schematic representation of a human figure in the so-called frog pose, are found everywhere in primitive and traditional art: in rock art of Australia, Eastern Spain, Scandinavia, Transcaucasia, in the art of Canadian Indians, etc.
The symbolic meaning of this shape crowning the kanaga mask has been interpreted in different ways. M. Griaule considers it a symbol of balance between earth and sky, a symbol of cosmic order; others see it as a sacred bird with outstretched wings, a figure of the supreme deity in the act of creation; according to Kjersmeyer, this is a symbol of a crocodile, on whose back, according to legend, the Dogon swam across the Niger during their exodus from the “Country of the Mande.”
The shirige mask, or, as it is also called, “multi-tiered house,” differs from the kanaga mainly in its pommel. The front part of this mask (like many others) in general terms repeats the laconic anthropomorphic scheme of the kanaga. The top of the sirige is an openwork board or flat pole three to five meters high, symbolizing the ginna - the home of the Ogon, the religious leader and ruler of the Dogon. The carvings covering the pole in the form of repeating geometric shapes reflect the cosmogonic ideas of the Dogon.
The front part of zoomorphic masks, as a rule, retains the same plastic structure: a flat rectangle divided into two parts by a narrow vertical partition. The mask can be topped with straight or curved horns (valu - antelope mask), long ears (dyomo - hare mask) or have a monolithic streamlined shape ("black monkey" - baboon mask).
Tops in the form of a human figure (for example, a Yasigin mask) (Yasigin (or Yasigi) is a mythical woman, the paired female hypostasis of Yurugu, who stole the secret of masks and therefore was initiated into Ava. According to legend, from that time on, a certain category of women has the right to perform in ritual dances under Yasigine mask) or monkey figures are, as a rule, less geometric and sometimes almost naturalistic. Moreover, in these cases, the front part is completely deprived of pictorial elements, turning into a plane on which the vertical is designated only as a partition between the rectangular eye openings.
The mother of all masks is considered to be the imina na mask - the “great mask”, which combines the features of both types: the anthropomorphic nature of the front part, the geometric ornament of the pommel (reaching ten meters in height) and a more realistic interpretation of the snake’s head with an open mouth crowning the pommel. This mask can only be seen at the Shigi ceremony.
Each mask has a special costume and decorations that hide the dancer from head to toe. Most of the suit is made from plant fibers. Masks depicting people, for example Fulbe women, are also made from the same fibers (the Fulbe were previously considered enemies of the Dogon, and their nyama had to be neutralized in the same way as the nyama of killed animals). An indispensable accessory of this mask is a woman’s breast made from two halves of a baobab fruit. In general, Dogon masks are made of soft wood and therefore last only a relatively short time. This circumstance (the disappearance of samples) may contribute to the accelerated evolution of masks - their style and form - in comparison with round sculpture (J. Delange sees the reason for the accelerated evolution in the fact that the makers of masks here are most often their wearers - members of the Ava, and not blacksmiths , who are hereditary artisans and, according to established tradition, along with their main business, are usually engaged in the manufacture of sculpture).
In the 16th century, the Dogon were part of the early state formation of Songhai, in the 16th-19th centuries (to varying degrees of involvement for different groups) - in Masina. Contacts between the Dogon and the Islamized Fulani, which began at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, led to the latter's capture of Bandiagara by the mid-19th century.
“Having taken refuge in mountain villages,” writes ethnographer B. Sharevskaya, “the Dogons retained many archaic customs and beliefs until very recently. This also characterizes their mythology.”
Beginning in 1931, a group of French scientists led by Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen studied the life and worldview of the Dogon. The result of this enormous work was the book “The Pale Fox” (named after one of the most popular characters in Dogon folklore).
In “The Pale Fox,” French scientists presented and commented verbatim on Dogon myths about the creation of the Universe and the history of the human race. And not just myths, but esoteric myths, known until recently only to a few. The second star of the Sirius system (see description) - Sirius B - was discovered in 1862, its unusually high density was determined shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, which made it possible to classify the star as a “white dwarf”. Spiral nebulae were sketched by Ross in the mid-19th century. Hubble proved in 1924 that they are made of stars. The rotation of our Galaxy was proven in 1927, and its spiral shape was proven in 1950.
What is this listing for? It turns out that in the archaic mythology of the Dogon all this has long been known! It is known to the people, whose entire science is limited to the manufacture of ritual masks.
Modern science says that the Universe was formed as a result of the initial Big Bang, before which all its matter, compressed to an incredible density, occupied an infinitesimal volume, and such categories as space and time were absent.
Since the Big Bang (about 13 billion years ago), there has been a continuous expansion of the Universe, the so-called recession of galaxies.
And here is how the formation of the Universe took place according to the ancient Dogon legends: “At the beginning of all things there was Amma - God, who did not rest on anything. Amma was a ball, an egg, and the egg was closed. Apart from him, nothing existed."
In the modern Dogon language, the word "amma" means something that is motionless, highly compressed and very dense. And further: “The world inside Amma was still without time and without space. Time and space have merged into one.” But the moment came when “Amma opened his eyes. At the same time, his thought emerged from the spiral, which, circling in his womb, indicated the future growth of the world.”
According to legend, the modern “world is infinite, but it can be measured.” This formulation is very close to that given by Einstein in his theory of relativity.
Not even having their own written language, the Dogon in their cosmogonic myths divide celestial bodies into planets, stars and satellites. The stars are called "tolo", the planets are called "tolo gonoze" (stars that move), and the satellites are called "tolo tonaze" (stars that go in circles).
The Dogon consider Sirius to be a triple star, consisting of the main star “sigi tolo” and the “po tolo” and “emme ya tolo” stars. The period of their revolution around the main star is amazingly accurately indicated - 50 Earth years (modern data: 49.9 years). Moreover, their ancient myths contain information that the “tolo” star is small in size with enormous weight and density.
“It is the smallest and heaviest of all stars and consists of a metal called “sagolu”, which is more brilliant than iron and so heavy that all earthly creatures united could not lift even a particle...” Elsewhere the myth clarifies: “ a particle of sagolu “the size of a grain of millet weighs as much as 480 donkey packs weigh” (i.e. about 35 tons).
Using the methods of modern science, it has been established that Sirius is indeed a double star, and its second component is the white dwarf Sirius B, the density of which can reach 50 tons per cubic centimeter...
According to Dogon myths, when the po tolo star (Sirius B), which according to the priests has an elongated orbit, approaches the sigi tolo star (Sirius A), it begins to shine brighter.
Several years ago, astronomer A.V. Arkhipov, in order to verify this statement, compared data from measurements of the brightness of this star over a century and a half. The scientist came to the conclusion that the brightness of Sirius really fluctuates, and with a periodicity of 50 years, i.e. with the period of revolution of Sirius B around Sirius A...
Moreover, when comparing these fluctuations with changes in the distance between these stars, the Dogon were completely right - the closer its satellite is to the main star, the brighter it is!
Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman sources indicate that Sirius, the bright blue-white star in the constellation Canis Major, looked different in ancient times than it does today. So, in Babylon he bore the name Shukkudu - “hot copper”, Ptolemy in his “Almagest” (II century AD) places Sirius on the list of red stars, the Roman philosopher Lucius Seneca about two thousand years ago noted: “The redness of the Dog Star (i.e. Sirius) is deeper, Mars is softer, Jupiter does not have it at all ... "
However, already in the 10th century AD, the Persian astronomer Al-Sufi described Sirius as white and blue, as we see it today. Modern scientists recognize the possibility of changes that occurred with Sirius in an insignificantly small amount of time. on a cosmic scale period 700-800 years...
Astronomer D. Martynov, having examined the possible mechanisms of such changes, came to the conclusion that Sirius B exploded as a semi-supernova in one of the first centuries of our era. According to the scientist, before the explosion, Sirius B was a “red giant,” which determined the color of the entire Sirius system. After the explosion, it turned into a “white dwarf” - an extremely dense star the size of Earth...
Dogon myths about deep space largely correspond to modern scientific views. So, for example, the Dogon know that our Galaxy, visible from Earth as the “Milky Way,” is a “spiral star world” and believe that there are “infinitely many such “spiral star worlds” in the Universe, and it itself, although and “infinite, but measurable.”
According to the Dogon, the Universe is inhabited by various living creatures, and plants were the first to appear in it. For example, the seeds of pumpkin and sorrel “before reaching Earth, lay on the edge of the Milky Way” and “sprouted in all the worlds of the Universe.”
The Dogon are also convinced that “on other lands there are horned, tailed, winged, crawling people...”
Strictly speaking, Dogon myths tell the story of not one, but several “space travels”, the first of which were made by someone named Ogo, who on his third “star voyage” ends up on Earth, where he turns into a “pale fox” - Yurugu.
Ancient myths and drawings of the Dogon also describe the cosmic “Ark of Nommo”, in which the ancestors of the Dogon descended from “Sigi Talo” along with everything necessary for life on Earth. The "Ark of Nommo" is depicted by the "Olubaru" priests in the form of a "tazu" basket, reminiscent of a truncated cone, the upper plane of which is a square and the lower plane is a circle. On the sides of the cone there are stairs on which people, animals, plants, etc. were held during their descent to Earth.
As it descended, the ark rotated, and this movement was supported through... a nozzle. “The hole of the nozzle is a large path of the breath of the ancestors,” the myth says, “who descended from a height. It was their breath that helped to rotate, to move and fall..."
"Nommo's Ark" landed after eight years of "swinging" in the sky, "raising a cloud of dust with an air whirlwind." Nommo was the first to leave the ark, and then all the other creatures.
The Dogon priests name Lake Debo in Western Sudan as a landing site, which fills with water during floods on the Niger River. On one of the islands of this lake there is a stone image of the “Ark of Nommo” flying among the stars.
Of particular interest are the hidden cosmogonic myths of the Dogon... “In the beginning there was Amma, a god in the form of a round egg, who rested on nothing... Apart from this there was nothing...”
The main element of the world among the Dogon is the particle “po”, which has the shape of a small millet grain. Amma had the same form. This grain “spun and emitted particles of matter in the action of sound and light, while remaining invisible and inaudible.” In grain “by” Amma built the entire Universe, but in order to “let the world out” he began to rotate around its axis... The Dogon say: “Turning and dancing, Amma created all the spiral star worlds of the Universe.”
Eric Guerrier notes that the image of "Amma's spinning spiral vortex" can be safely applied both to an atom with an electron cloud rotating around the nucleus, and to each spiral galaxy...
Strange as it may seem, the more you become acquainted with the translation of Dogon myths into the language of modern physics, the sooner you become a supporter of E. Guerrier’s hypothesis that the Dogon have long worshiped energy!..
Here it is appropriate to cite the most intimate secret of the Dogon myths - “Po, twisted around himself, keeps the word until the moment when Amma orders the release of this word in order to transmit it to all creations. Po can turn into a terrible wind, but you can’t talk about it..."
E. Guerrier believes that in this part the myth directly points to the possibility of the transition of matter into energy, calculated using the formula e = ms2, discovered by A. Einstein at the beginning of the 20th century.
This point of view is supported by myths describing the “space odysseys of the Dogon”. They tell of the journey from Sirius to Earth of a creature named Ogo, and later of the “ark of Nommo,” with which the first people arrived. There is a curious evidence from the myths that in these space travels the Dogon starships moved, driven by the wind contained in the grains, “by”...
Also of interest is the opinion of the “Olubaru” priests that the intelligent inhabitants of “Yalu Ulo” - i.e. “spiral star world” Galaxies, although they interfere in the life of humanity on planet Earth, are much less to a lesser extent than the inhabitants of the constellations Orion and Pleiades. (...???)

Dogon rituals are tied to the 50-year period of Sirius B's orbit around Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
It is impossible to detect the satellite of Sirius, determine its color, calculate its orbital period and density without having astronomical instruments. Even the satellites of Jupiter, which the Dogon know about, cannot be seen with the eye. There is only one way out - borrowing from another culture.
The Dogon could have obtained information about the structure of the Universe from the ancient Egyptian priests, especially since the tribe moved to West Africa only 5-6 centuries ago. But the ancient Egyptians could not have known anything about the explosion of Sirius B in the 2nd century AD - their civilization perished much earlier. And among the Dogon, this explosion is one of the central points of mythology. Ideas about the existence of superdense matter in the Universe, “white dwarfs”, generally belong to the most modern ideas.
Medieval Arab culture? The Canadian Ovenden hypothesized contact with a Muslim university in Timbuktu, where the knowledge of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks was stored. But this is a false trail - ancient scientists did not have such deep knowledge of astronomy.
Finally, we cannot rule out a prank on the part of Marcel Griaule. But, firstly, this scientist has an impeccable reputation. And secondly, he was guided by the principle of “describe and only describe.” Astronomers paid attention to his work many years later, which would be unbearable for any joker.

There remains one more possibility. Not even a possibility, but a direct explanation arising from Dogon mythology. According to their legends, people received all their knowledge from God, who descended from the third star Sirius. He appeared in an ark, this ark was spinning. And the rotation was maintained by “breathing” through the nozzle. Upon landing, the ark raised a cloud of dust. There is also a drawing connecting the Sirius system and our Sun in one direct line. But about the existence of a third star in the Sirius system modern science nothing is known. Although Sirius C has supporters among astronomers.
The famous American physicist Carl Sagan said that evidence of visits to our planet by aliens from outer space can be either indisputable “artifacts” or the existence in myths of “clear messages about astronomical realities that primitive people could not know about themselves.”
The hypothesis that the archaic but astronomically advanced Dogon mythology is evidence of a paleo-visit by aliens was formulated by the American scientist Robert Temple in 1975. Since then, controversy has continued around this hypothesis. Of all the plots related to aliens, whose lack of professionalism is visible a mile away, the Dogon mythology cannot be ignored. But we can’t count on an imminent end to the dispute.
"White dwarf", spiral star systems and Milky Way, the rotation of Sirius B around its axis - these facts cannot be seen with the most powerful telescope, they are the result of understanding what astronomers observe and assume high level culture. It turns out that there is no escape from the paleovisit hypothesis? The inhabitants of the planet from the Sirius system arrived on Earth, told earthlings about their home, and along the way conveyed general information about the Universe. This idyll fully satisfies Sagan's criterion.
But how you don’t want to believe in aliens! And opponents managed to find a weak spot in this version. The astronomical knowledge of the Dogon still seems insufficiently advanced for potential aliens. The aliens who made their way through the Universe could not consider Sirius B to be the smallest and heaviest star, for they would certainly have known, as we know today, about the existence of much smaller and heavier stars.
And why, one wonders, did space teachers report only 4 satellites of Jupiter, since there are already 16 of them, and this is not the final number?
However, no one guaranteed that aliens could count to more than five... “Unless interstellar travelers, flying past Jupiter, could not even count to five,” astronomer Dieter Hermann sneers about this.
So, Dogon astronomy is closer to the level of yesterday’s terrestrial astronomy, albeit quite developed. Isn't this where the solution lies? This is how the hypothesis about the anonymous “missionary” arose.
In the 1920s, missionaries from the Catholic brotherhood “White Fathers” appeared in this tribe. And some well-read clergyman might have noticed that Aboriginal mythology gives great importance Sirius. To establish contacts with the tribe, the missionary decided to enrich the Dogon ideas about the divine luminary.
In the West, it was in the 1920s that Sirius became a topic numerous publications. By that time, the monstrous density of its satellite had been established, and science concluded the existence of a new type of star - “white dwarfs”.
"The smallest and heaviest star" - this characteristic of Sirius B corresponds to the state of astronomical knowledge in the 1920s. The missionary conscientiously told the Dogon everything that he had read about Sirius V. The priests included invaluable information in mythology, and French ethnographers perceived the borrowed astronomical knowledge as an organic part of it.
Sounds convincing. But why did the educated missionary tell the inquisitive Dogons only about 4 satellites of Jupiter, because then they had already counted 9 satellites?
And it’s also surprising: Dogon astronomy is characterized by a distinct chronological multi-layered nature. The first layer: ideas characteristic of archaic culture, when a person knows only about planets visible to the naked eye - here neither missionaries nor aliens are needed. The second layer - knowledge, for example, about the satellites of Jupiter - corresponds to the astronomical ideas of the Galileo era. Finally, knowledge about the Sirius system or the spiral structure of the Galaxy corresponds to the level of science of the first half of the 20th century.
Perhaps the Dogon, possessed like no other people by astronomical mania, interrogated everyone who visited them? Is there a stretch here?
Ethnographers do not see “white threads” in Dogon legends and a hasty adaptation of new borrowings to old myths. Each astronomical fact among the Dogon is tied to certain rituals, which can be traced through relics at least until the 12th century! German scientist Dieter Hermann calls the situation with Dogon knowledge about space a “hopeless case”: it is impossible to unequivocally refute or confirm any version, but for a respectable scientist it is still more decent to stick to the version about the missionary.
Another nationality lives in Mali - the Bambara. They call the stars of the Sirius system the stars of knowledge, and Sirius itself the primary star, because, like the Dogon, they believe that life came from Sirius.
New astronomical discoveries could resolve the dispute. Now, if only a third star had been discovered near Sirius. Or if traces of a diffuse nebula were found near Sirius, left after the explosion of Sirius B, which the Dogon so sincerely believe in...
Information sources:
1. Deniken E. Heavenly teachers
2. Wikipedia website
3. Leskov S. Dogon tribe
4. Kratochvil V. “Ship Nommo” from the constellation Canis Major

Amazing tribe ancient culture lives south of the Sahara in the Republic of Mali. The Dogon tribe still fascinates with its knowledge of the stars. They knew things about which they could not know, their knowledge of astronomy anticipated the discoveries of scientists.

Dogon mythology contains references to Sirius B, a star invisible to human eyes. Judging by the legends, the information was conveyed to them by Nommo - aliens from the depths of space. Many consider the knowledge of an African tribe to be irrefutable evidence that we were visited by aliens in the past.

There are between 400 and 800 thousand Dogons with a rather unusual culture. African researchers are delighted interesting architecture, art and intriguing ritual masks of the local residents. But what's more exciting is not what you can see, but what you can hear.

The knowledge of the Dogon tribe demonstrated a highly developed cosmology. Robert Temple, author of the 1976 history of The Sirius Mystery, wrote that even during the first contacts with anthropologists, members of the tribe were amazed by their great knowledge of the “celestial spheres.”

This did not really suit the civilizational stage of development of the tribe they were at, but the Dogon knew for sure that the Earth revolves around the Sun and a revolution in orbit takes a year. They were well aware of the daily rotation of the planet around its axis and said that this “gives the illusion that the sky is spinning.”

“The Dogon are free from the illusions that our European ancestors had, who believed that the sky and stars revolved around the Earth,” writes Robert Temple in his book. We know about this from the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule, who was among the Dogon in 1934-1956.

During the time he lived among the Dogon, Marcel gained the trust of the tribe's elders and one of the shamans, called Ogotemmelli, told the anthropologist about the myths and beliefs of his people. The story of the shaman became the basis for a number of publications by Marcel and another anthropologist, Germain Dieterlen.

The records of anthropologists most likely would not have gained fame beyond the narrow confines of the circle of specialists, fortunately the aforementioned Robert Temple illuminated the mysterious tribe. He drew attention to the unique astronomical knowledge and decided to check where the Dogon got such information from. Living separately and essentially alone, they knew much more than the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun and its axis.

The tribe knew about the closest planets, the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter, which Galileo discovered for Europeans using a telescope. They distinguished between types of stars and were aware of the existence of others solar systems in the galaxy, and they even knew that they were inhabited. In addition, the Dogon have long had a fairly good knowledge of blood circulation and its role in the transfer of oxygen. This seems surprising, but it seems that the source of their knowledge must be sought in the distant past, and we acquired this knowledge only in the 18th century.

According to Robert Temple, “the Dogon have preserved traditions that go beyond the understanding of the earthly world.” Dogon mythology tells in great detail about the constellation Sirius. In itself, this may not seem very strange, since Sirius is a bright star in the sky that has attracted the attention of people for centuries. But the Dogon knew about the existence of not only visible Sirius A, but also Sirius B - a white dwarf, which is invisible from Earth without a powerful telescope.

The Africans themselves call it “Sigi-tolo”, and anthropologists used the word “Digitaria” to describe it. More important than the name is what it refers to. The Dogon talk about the theory of Sirius B, which is consistent with all known scientific facts. They knew that the star was not visible, but they knew about its existence.

Long before the discovery of astronomers, the priests of the Dogon tribe knew the duration of rotation was 50 years, and this is true. They know that Sirius A is not at the center of its orbit, and Sirius B is “built” from a specific material called sagala, and it does not exist on Earth. And all this is really true!

Where could an African tribe that developed “inside itself” and in alienation from neighboring civilizations get such detailed information about space? But this is a really exciting question regarding the knowledge of the Dogon tribe. If we believe the old legend from the depth of the appearance of the tribe, and we do not believe there are any apparent reasons, then here too the events relate to the popular theory about ancient cosmonauts.

ALIENS AND DOGONS.

The Dogon received all their knowledge about the surrounding world and space from Nommo, who arrived on Earth in an “ark”, which “landed in a whirlwind, reminiscent of the movement of a whirlpool.” The Ark landed on the planet in the northeast of the modern Dogon living space, which points to Egypt. Then amphibious creatures emerged from the ship, which could live both in the sea and on land.

The interesting legend about the appearance of heavenly guests is not unique. We learn a similar story from the Sumerian tradition, where “those who came from heaven” appear; the same motif also appears in Egyptian mythology, which has points of contact with Dogon mythology.

The aliens gave the Dogon civilization and social organization, and told them several things about space and their world. The aliens came from the constellation Sirius, which is why they talked about it the most. Much in the memory of the priests over the past thousands of years has been erased by time, however important points they managed to save it.

Robert Temple did not stop there and created a huge tangle of myths, translations and linguistic comparisons. The idea was to confirm that the Nommo were aliens who visited not only the Dogon, but Ancient Egypt, where the ancestors of the tribe lived.

In The Sirius Mystery, the author of the book finds evidence among Egyptian and Sumerian legends that confirms his idea. He draws attention to the important role of Sirius in Egypt: the rising of the star signified the beginning of the year. Temple claims that “in the past, the Earth was visited by intelligent beings from the planetary system of Sirius.”

The author interestingly connects Sumer with Egypt, Egypt with Mali, the Anunnaki with Nommo, priests with aliens, and in Dogon rituals and art he finds traces of rockets, amphibious assault and mermaids. Everything in history, of course, can be explained much more simply and without cosmic intervention. Although in this case there is no confidence that the story will be true, especially since we are not talking about pseudoscientific, but about alternative development.

The Dogon are looking for sources of knowledge in cultural contamination; allegedly, in one of the contacts with the “West,” someone told Africans about Sirius, and they immediately included the knowledge in their belief system. Among the theorists is, for example, Walter van Beek, who described his visit to the Dogon in the publication Current Anthropology.

Van Beek conducted a series of surveys, closely asking people about "sigi tol". All the answers assured that the Dogon people first heard about the star from Marcel Griaule himself. However, Walter van Beek's research encountered serious criticism - he did not gain respect and authority among Africans, so all the answers were the same.

Several other researchers have tried to find the "incorporation" of space information into early period. Noah Brosh notes that everything could have happened in the 19th century, when members of the expedition of Henri-Alexandre Delander could have established contact with the Dogon. Brosh suggests that Griaule, who later studied their legends, took as existing ancient roots what the inhabitants of modern Mali had heard from another Frenchman several decades earlier.

Yes, these things happen sometimes. However, the theory of the extraterrestrial origin of Dogon knowledge is not so easy to destroy. First of all, supporters of the version note the main thing: Griaule or Delander could not talk about superheavy matter, since astronomers established that Sirius B is a white dwarf only in the 20s of the 20th century.

In addition, it comes to a couple of other doubts, for example, 400-year-old artifacts depict the passage of Sirius B around its larger neighbor. The Dogon regularly celebrate holidays associated with this star, and the tradition dates back to at least the 13th century. In other words, the tribe knew about Sirius centuries before the first Europeans came to them.

Locals believe that next to stars A and B there is also a small and completely invisible Sirius C. Astronomers have not yet found a curious object, but many researchers believe that the Dogon mythology is correct, and the celestial body will be discovered.

If Sirius C is indeed discovered and confirmed, then this will be the final confirmation of the theory that ancient astronauts visited Earth. Today is not the time to draw a conclusion about the existence of alien civilizations. They say that the arrivals suffered an accident and stayed on our planet until help arrived. This is exactly the case with regard to the ancient Dogon and guests from Sirius.

In the Republic of Mali, a small tribe of farmers lives on the Bandiagara plateau. They call themselves Dogo. They are known to the world as the Dogon tribe. The small people are divided into several isolated tribes: Dione, Ono, Aru and Domno. The Dogon became part of the states located in the west of Sudan more than 500 years ago, but they have retained their inherent identity and isolation of their culture to this day. Despite the dominance of various cultures and religious movements, the Dogon were able to resist both colonial conversion to Christianity and general Islamization.

The reason for this isolation of the people is largely the territorial isolation of the tribes. The first official information about the Dogon appeared in scientific circles in the 30s of the last century. Since then, the indigenous people of Bandiagara have taken several hesitant steps towards the civilized society of Bali. However, the Dogon people carefully preserve their foundations and traditions from outside interference.

Life of the Dogon

Standard of living and living conditions The Dogon have remained virtually unchanged today. The Dogon live in primitive adobe buildings covered with flat roofs. The main part of the houses in the village are located very close to each other, and sometimes they adjoin neighboring buildings, forming a chain of monotonous sections.

One of the free-standing buildings in the village is a meeting house called Toguna. The house is arranged with some intention to prevent heated debates and prevent the emergence of heated polemics. You can’t even shake your fists in such a building, since the house where the entire male population of the village gathers has a very low ceiling.

A separate stone building remains standing outside the boundaries of the settlement. A kind of “house for women” is intended for women’s privacy during their critical days.

According to community rules, the elected head of the settlement is also required to live in a separate house. A spiritual leader must live alone for the rest of his life, abandoning his family. Moreover, no one is allowed to even touch it.

The Dogon tribe is engaged in agriculture, actively growing corn, onions, peanuts and legumes. To store the harvested crops, the Dogon build special round buildings covered with a thatched roof.

Without even the rudiments of their own writing, the Dogon miraculously learned to express their thoughts with the help of drawings and sculptures. Local ceremonies and rituals are carried out using special masks, which have been recognized by scientists as unique ethnic attributes. Dogon masks symbolize the gates to the other world, through which the souls of dead tribesmen are able to penetrate into the world of the living.

No less unique and surprising is the method of fortune telling used by the Dogon for almost any reason. On a certain plot of land, special areas are marked, on which sticks, nuts and various goodies are laid out in a certain order.

During a night hunt, foxes run through prepared areas and disturb the order of laid out objects. Since the Dogon consider foxes to be a powerful spirit of the tribe, in the morning the elders predict future events by interpreting the tracks left by the foxes and the position of the objects they move.

Beliefs of the Dogon tribe

The Dogon firmly believe that the Earth is by no means the only place in the universe where living beings live. “Stellar worlds in the form of a spiral are inhabited” - this is exactly what the Dogon believe. Having given people things, the dominant mythical deity Amma gave them the ability to move and created all living beings that currently exist. It is surprising, however, that the Dogon knowledge and beliefs are based on information about the smallest particles from which all matter is composed. According to the Dogon, Amma created all things from the smallest grains, and created the final appearance of objects by adding the same particles to the initial grain.

The Dogons very carefully and jealously preserve their traditions. The main thing and everything that determines everything for them is the cult of ancestors. In their opinion, the Great Lebe is considered the main ancestor of all tribes.

The leader of the Dogon tribe is considered a perfect man with a connection with the greatest ancestors. Respect for elders can be equated with fanatical worship. Many legends and mythological stories are only told by selected members of the tribe.

Dogon culture and art

Research into Dogon culture and art has allowed us to collect a lot of material for anthropologists and historians. The isolated but friendly tribe made good contact with scientists. Tools and clay products, figurines and ritual masks donated to researchers turned out to be largely unique and were about 4 thousand years old. Scientists have never seen similar products anywhere else.

Everything the scientists saw caused genuine surprise! Unusual and unique ways Irrigation of plantings and methods of cultivating land turned out to be very thoughtful and unique.

The rituals of the tribe were like an enchanting performance. Unusual ritual masks with special meaning in every performance, the attributes for dancing, the community of priests and “holy people” - everything seemed unreal and illusory.

French scientists explored an ancient cave with many wall paintings, which are not possible to decipher, even though the images drawn more than 700 years ago are perfectly preserved.

Dogon mythology

The mythology of African peoples is very amazing and provides many opportunities for research by ethnologists. The worldview of African tribes is similar in many ways, however, here too the Dogon are distinguished by the presence of uniquely accurate practical scientific knowledge.

In the Dogon tribe today there is a strict hierarchical ladder, and unlike other African tribes, not a single member of the tribe dares to violate the established order. All existing Dogon legends and myths are brought into an unusually strict system thanks to the existing active priestly layer. Various secret societies are especially developed among the peoples of Africa, thanks to which many aspects of the life of the Dogon remain hidden from civilization.

The main custodians of the ancient teachings, legends and unique living standards of the Dogon are members of the mask society, called Ava. Only they have the right to participate in ancient religious rituals and learn the mysterious languages ​​in which ancient legends are transmitted.

The mythical stories of the Dogon also present a unique version of the appearance of the first people on Earth. In their convinced opinion, one of the main assistants of the deity Amma, Ogo, appeared first. Having settled on Earth, Ogo opposed the will of his master and began to deny his dominant position. According to the Dogon, Ogo is the personification of evil. Amma made several attempts to prevent the rebel from appearing on Earth, but the obstinate Ogo built a ship and arrived on our planet from Sirius. Following him, Nommo arrived on Earth. It was he who, with the permission of Amma, brought the first people to Earth, who were placed on a ship with about 60 compartments. According to legend, people only had an idea about 22 compartments and what was there. When people become aware of the contents of the remaining compartments, then ideas about the creation of worlds will change dramatically.

From generation to generation, the Dogon pass on the story of the appearance of the first eight people on Earth. They arrived together with Nommo on a ship that flew through a hole in the sky. Before landing, the ship, which was held by a copper chain, hung in the sky for a long time, swaying from East to West and back. The Dogon claim that a lake formed at the site where the ship with their ancestors landed. Having landed the people, Nommo plunged into the waters of Debbie and from there closely monitors the events taking place, and also takes care of the people of the Dogo tribe.

Cosmic knowledge of the Dogon

On Dogon territory there is Mount Scholl, famous for the huge dolmen on it. Made of giant stones, it depicts the ship on which the first ancestors of the Dogon arrived. Not far from the dolmen there are three structures made of stones that symbolize three planets: the Sun, Earth and Sirius. Bordering on the edge of fantastic myths, Dogon legends surprise scientists around the world with some facts that deserve attention due to the possibility of their scientific explanation. Many pundits regard the tribe's legends as evidence of their contact with alien visitors.

The knowledge of the Dogon about the presence of a satellite of Sirius is considered especially interesting and surprising. Dogon knowledge is already 5 hundred years old, however, its confirmation by scientists in 1812 became a real sensation. Closed and alienated from civilization, the tribe is well aware of the existence of the rings of Saturn, the orbital moons of Jupiter, and even that the Sun rotates on its axis. Many legends speak ambiguously about the spiral structure of the Milky Way.

The world scientific community considers it inexplicable that the Dogon have information about the state of the surface of the planets closest to Earth. What is especially surprising is that it was from the Dogon that they learned about the explosion of the satellite of Sirius, which they call Po. This information received official confirmation, but did not bring clarity to the knowledge of the seemingly primitive tribe.

The Dogons surprisingly noticed not only the explosion of the star, but also determined that it was not Sirius itself that exploded, but its satellite. The Dogon claims that Sirius is a triple star have received scientific confirmation, although the accuracy of their knowledge is considered astounding and inexplicable.

The Dogon idea that except for the Sun all other stars are located at a considerable distance from the Earth is now beyond doubt. Is it possible to believe them even when the Dogon leaders call Sirius the center of the universe, playing a dominant role for all the stars in the constellation Orion? All stars and systems known to the Dogon are considered by them to be the support of the whole world, which has a direct impact on people’s lives and their spiritual and physical development.

According to the Dogon, distant systems of celestial bodies that form star spirals have much less influence on people. Comparing the Dogon concepts about the properties and structure of outer space, scientists experienced a real shock when the elders told them that the number of stellar spirals is huge, and the universe itself is undoubtedly infinite, but can be measurable. “Humanity does not yet have a way to measure infinity,” say the Dogon. But that's just for now!

Trying to study the truly unique Dogon knowledge system, most scientists have suggested that it is likely that the first ancestors of these amazing people arrived on Earth from the Sirius system. Apparently, the Dogon lived on a planet that moved in an elliptical orbit with an orbital period of 50 years. This confirms the celebrations associated with the long period that comes after the sweltering heat from two active luminaries. It turns out that for 20 years out of a 50-year period people lived in conditions of unbearable heat. The 30 years of coolness that followed the endless heat were more favorable for life. During periods of heat, the ancestors of the Dogon were forced to live in the bowels of the planet and, apparently, this is why the Dogon now bury their dead not on the surface of the earth, but in deep caves.

The amazing and unique African Dogon tribe gave food for thought a large number scientists for many, many years. Every even not very significant discovery only confirms the facts of the Dogon’s awareness of questions of existence and cosmic mysteries. Numerous scientific expeditions regularly bring back new records of legends and myths told by the Dogon. Research continues, and who knows, maybe this particular tribe, which does not have modern technical devices and scientific research works, will reveal to us the secret of the universe.