Book
The pale fox
Continuum Foundation • China Valley, Ariz. • Published In 1986 • Pages:
By: Griaule, Marcel, Dieterlen, Germaine, Infantino, Stephen C..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is the English translation of the classic French ethnography on the Dogon creation myth, ‘Le renard pâle,’ published in 1965. Although Griaule's ethnographic methods have come under attack (see van Beek, document no. 31), this is nevertheless an impressive work. The myth tightly weaves together Dogon ideas about language, anatomy, astronomy, botany, the landscape, and genealogy. Could the creation myth be a mnemonic device for storing and transmitting Dogon knowledge? The myth represents the accumulated knowledge of Dogon elders, underlying their authority, and serving as a blueprint for Dogon social life. It is also an epistemolgy, in which ideas are thought to emerge through a hierarchy of symbols: from traces (BUMMO) to signs (YALA) to figures (TONU).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Visual arts
- Cosmology
- Mythology
- Spirits and gods
- Ideas about nature and people
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Dogon
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1931-1956
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1948-1956
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sanga region, Mali
- NotesAdditional notes
- Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen ; translated from the French by Stephen C. Infantino
- Translation of: Le renard pâle
- Originally published in French by l'Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1965
- Many graphics are not included
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 548-522)
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Dogons (African people)