essay
Becoming human in Dogon, Mali
Coming into existence : birth and metaphors of birth, edited with an introduction by Göran Aijmer • Goteborg, Sweden • Published In 1992 • Pages: 47-70, 154-159
By: Beek, W. E. A. van.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article van Beek discusses women's fertility and Dogon ideas and practices surrounding menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and naming. He then discusses the SIGUI ceremony which happens once every sixty years. The sigui ceremony is a ritual of renewel and initiation in which only men participate. Men are reborn from the bush with a new personhood (INé) and minds (HAKILé), and with enhanced powers and fertility. According to van Beek, the sigui ceremony inverts the rituals associated with pregnancy and childbirth and endow men and the patrilineage with creative powers. The ceremony stresses ‘the fleeting male creation by man of himself against the continuing chain of life generated by the women' (p. 70).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Age stratification
- Gender status
- Mythology
- Organized ceremonial
- Ideas about nature and people
- Reproduction
- Puberty and initiation
- 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
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- 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
- 1978-1989
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1978-1989
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Bandiagara escarpment, Mali
- NotesAdditional notes
- Walter E. A. van Beek
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-159)
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Dogons (African people)