The report concentrates on the beliefs of the Dogon people which still manage to baffle researches all around the world. It appears that the Dogon people had considerable knowledge about a certain star that cannot be seen with a human eye under any circumstances unless specific equipment such as telescopes are involved. The way through which the tribe acquired such specific knowledge of the star and the immediate bodies that surround it remains open to the discussion. The tribe could have acquired the knowledge either by themselves or have claimed some information from another civilization. The phenomenon of travelling myths is fairly wide-spread.
Deities from Space
The first curious detail about Dogon culture is that there is a deity called Amma that supposedly came to the tribe from the stars and told about Sirius the brightest one. This does not cause any surprise. Sirius have long been used by sailors throughout millennia as being the brightest star directly to the north. It has always been one of the most used bodies in the sky for navigation when no other tools were available. The remarkable thing is that the tribes have always believed that Sirius has to accompanying stars. The point is that the stars were not discovered when the tribe knew about them. What is particularly remarkable is that two accompanying stars were indeed discovered later when the technology allowed for it. These curious observations were established in 1946 by the expedition of Griaule who spend thirty-three days talking with the wise man of the tribe Ogotemneli. Amma deity is very similar to the mysterious pharaoh Akhenaten. According to the beliefs of both cultures, both descended from the stars and gave certain wisdom to the people. This link could be explained because the Dogon tribe relocated to current Mali a long time ago from Egypt due to persecution on religious grounds. Therefore, it is likely that certain remnants of Egyptian civilizations remained albeit slightly altered by time. Hence, the different name, and a slightly different elements. The common element - descending from the starts - is there. Naturally, this is not enough to agree with the crazy hypothesis that the tribe was visited by some extraterrestrial ugly amphibious beings called the Nommos approximately five millennia ago (Carroll 104). There are plenty examples of intertextuality such as this around the world when two cultures that could not have any contact with each other have the same myths.
Proof or lack thereof?
The Dogon have a special symbol that resembles a blunt arrow. The symbol denotes Sirius. When rotating it around the stick designed for holding the symbol, one can observe the entire Sirius systems meaning the orbits and how the stars rotate around each other. The companion of Sirius A - Sirius B - turned out to be a white dwarf. This means that the star is not dead, but is on its way to self destruction. The start has a remarkable mass that surpasses the weight of our Sun eight times. When aligned with Sirius A, it amplifies its glow making it brighter. The fact that the tribe knew about the star for so long is difficult to explain for sure. Moreover, the research expedition conducted by Griaule established that the tribe knew about the rings around Saturn and the satellites around Jupiter. Naturally, having no special equipment to discover these notions, it is nothing short of remarkable. However, if one is to turn to the rational side, there are several explanations that could show how the tribe held on to this pieces of knowledge for so long.
It is possible that a primitive telescope was in the possession of the tribe a long time ago. It is theoretically possible that having come up with the devise and having aligned some powerful lens together, the discovery was made. It is also possible that the knowledge was derived from the Egyptian civilization, which was far more advanced and had the resources, both material and mental, to commit such discoveries. The fact that the knowledge has been passed over so many generations is not surprising. The power of spoken tales and knowledge has proven its power to leave knowledge in the minds of people long after its discoverers are gone on numerous occasions.
The explanation could be simpler. It is possible that the knowledge was distorted by Griaule on purpose to create a sensation and to draw attention to himself. Van Beek, another researcher, went on his own expedition to interview other representatives of the same tribe several years later to establish whether Griaule's findings are supported. To Van Beek's devastation, this was not the case. None of the interviewed subjects had any idea who Ogotemneli was and what Sirius is. They never heard the legends and even showed no abilities as far as myth creation was concerned. (Apter 99). This casts a shadow on the phenomenal findings. It is possible that shamans of this generation have to be interviewed specifically and not random tribesmen that do not have much interest in mythology.
Conclusion
It is not unheard of that a primitive tribe has knowledge of something remarkable that is beyond its scope of capabilities. In this case, the relation to the Egyptian civilization is the most likely factor that contributed to their knowledge of Sirius B and other facts of astronomy that could have not been available to people then by definition. It is clear that a new expedition has to be arranged to interview properly as many representatives of the tribe as possible to finally separate myth from truth and to establish once and for all for the tribesmen were and are aware of. The new expedition will show whether there is any truth to Griaule's findings after all. If at least some representatives of the tribe heard about Ogotemneli or similar legends, Griaule's writings would be taken far more seriously as a consequence of more interviewing.
Works Cited
Apter, Andrew. "Griaule's Legacy: Rethinking "la parole claire" in Dogon Studies." Cahiers d'Etudes africaines, XLV (1), 177, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/apter/Cahiers.pdf
Carroll, Robert Todd. The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. John Wiley & Sons, Inc,, 2003. Print.
