The Dogon and Sirius: Un Systeme Soudanais de Sirius (1950). Claims that the Dogon, in Mali, West Africa, know stars invisible without a telescope.
The Dogon and Sirius
In 1950 was published a most enigmatic document, Un
Systeme Soudanais de Sirius by Marcel
Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, which has given rise to a minor
industry of speculation about how true the document is, and if it
is true, how it is rationally possible. This document claims that
the Dogon, a tribe in Mali, West Africa, have knowledge of stars
invisible without a telescope; specifically two companions to
Sirius called by astronomers Sirius B and Sirius C.
There are two main questions arising from this
document:
1. How true is it in terms of ETHNOGRAPHY?
2. How true is it in terms of ASTRONOMY?
The answers to both of these simple
questions both turn out to be far from simple, in fact,
they are incredibly more complex than might be imagined. This
complexity has in itself spawned a large number of incorrect
conclusions and an enormous amount of misinformation on the part
of both sceptics and enthusiasts. The central problem is
arguments inappropriately mixing the
very hard physical science of astrophysics and the more subtle
human discipline of anthropology. Compounded with this is the
"open" status of the problem in both disciplines which
cannot be closed down and written off easily. Only now, with the
amount of evidence now gathered, do I feel the parameters starting to close again. But this site makes no
claims to provide the definitive answer to either question:
Only tentative conclusions can still be drawn. For clarity of the
argument, according to the original premise, I have separated
these two strands of enquiry to run in parallel to each other to
reach a common Conclusion. The site aims to gather as many of the relevant facts from as original
and up-to-date sources as possible, lay out the
implications and let readers decide for themselves. There is an
amount of visual and documentary evidence taken from copyright
sources; to copyright owners who have not been asked for
permission, apologies, please get in touch. I am neither
professional anthropologist nor astronomer and there are
inevitable errors. To members of those professions, your opinions
are most welcome, so that these errors can be corrected. Most of
all, besides the Quest for Truth, I
have tried to make the site fun. So
follow the links to get to the heart of the "Sirius
Mystery."