- Dogon
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1. a member of a group of indigenous people of the mountains of central Mali.2. the Gur language of the Dogon.
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People of the central plateau region of Mali, around Bandiagara.Their language is of uncertain affinity within the Niger-Congo languages. Numbering about 450,000, the Dogon are mainly an agricultural people. Their distinctive villages are composed of elaborate mud buildings, often built on cliff faces. In addition to their characteristic architecture, the Dogon are known for their fine wood sculptures and masks, metalwork, and leatherwork.* * *
▪ peopleethnic group of the central plateau region of Mali that spreads across the border into Burkina Faso. There is some doubt as to the correct classification of the many dialects of the Dogon language; the language has been placed in the Mande (Mande languages), Gur (Gur languages), and other branches of the Niger-Congo language family (Niger-Congo languages), but its relationship to other languages of the family, if any, is uncertain. The Dogon number about 600,000, and the majority of them live in the rocky hills, mountains, and plateaus of the Bandiagara Escarpment. They are mainly an agricultural people; their few craftsmen, largely metalworkers and leatherworkers, form distinct castes. They have no centralized system of government but live in villages composed of patrilineages and extended families whose head is the senior male descendant of the common ancestor. Polygyny is practiced but reportedly has a low incidence.Each large district has a hogon, or spiritual leader, and there is a supreme hogon for the whole country. In his dress and behaviour the hogon symbolizes the Dogon myth of creation (creation myth), to which the Dogon relate much of their social organization and culture. Their metaphysical system—which categorizes physical objects, personifies good and evil, and defines the spiritual principles of the Dogon personality—is more abstract than that of most other African peoples. Dogon religious life is heightened every 60 years by a ceremony called the sigui, which occurs when the star Sirius appears between two mountain peaks. Before the ceremony, young men go into seclusion for three months, during which they talk in a secret language. The general ceremony rests on the belief that some 3,000 years ago amphibious beings from Sirius visited the Dogon.Fewer than half the Dogon are Muslim, and fewer still are Christian. Most practice traditional religion.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
