Ethnographical proof?

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Compare the Sirius C question: we cannot see the star now, but Fox, van den Bos and Innes claimed to have seen it -- we have to take their testimony as scientists in good faith as we have to with Griaule. With the death of the informants, however, we will never know what exactly was said -- the mystery survives.

Van Beek admits this: "This [van Beek's] research is empirical and, like any such work (granted the limitations of the ethnographical account), is capable of "disproof"." But to be fair to van Beek, his meticulous work has brought us to the limits of proof in "soft science" and fuzzy human areas of knowledge, while his general conclusions are supported by a number of field anthropologists including Jacky Bouju, Claude Meillassoux and Paul Lane.

In a very generous reading the story might have 0.01% validity, for Occam's razor does not provide a decisive proof one way or another. It merely recommends the easiest explanation. The whole situation in van Beek's version, plausible as it sounds in context, compared to other alternatives, is still extremely bizarre.

The facts of acculturation and death of cultures are worth taking into account. The Dogon are becoming increasingly converted to Islam and Christianity, while the effects of the modern world are palpable.

The following is by Peace Corps volunteer Shawn Davis, whose entertaining account of his life in a Dogon community is available here

Death is a Celebration
Dologou, Mali
June 12, 1997

"Some cultures bury their dead. Others shroud them in blankets and lay them in caves, float them out to sea, or prefer to cremate them. The rituals surrounding these events are as varied as the people for whom they are performed.

"Severed cow tails, red hot coals, wool blankets, wood sculptures, millet beer, ancient rifles, painted masks, and dancing would all figure on the list of images for the Dogon of eastern Mali.

"This flurry of activity reminded me of a county fair. All events were focused in an empty field which served as the "stage" of the Yingim. The deaths of elders from several surrounding villages were being celebrated, but the most notable were those of three "Hogons."

"The Hogon is the eldest man in the village, religious leader of the animist population, and guardian of all sacred secrets. It had been 16 years since Dologou had celebrated the death of a Hogon and this was to be the last. The would-be successor, as well as the next four in line, had converted to Islam years ago, making themselves ineligible for the post. The village, now predominantly Muslim, decided that after this year the few remaining animist families would have to celebrate their members' deaths in a nearby practicing village."

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Thus admitting the very slim (0.000000001%) possibility that the Sirius material is genuine (but now lost or forgotten) Dogon culture, the mystery arises anew of how they came by it. Looking at the sky is simply not enough to see Sirius B, as discussed in depth by Bernard Ortiz De Montellano in his Nov-Dec 1996 article for "Skeptical Enquirer". Renard Pale has lists of altars. There is the (terrifically tiny) possibility of observation altars with ideal atmospheric or aqueous viewing conditions to refract light like a telescope. There is the possibility of visible paleo-events as observed by the Chinese, although it is hard to explain how these could be interpreted. Also, all the foregoing is merely superficially plausible speculation unsupported by any evidence.

As for the extraterrestrial answer, the most powerful argument against this is what I call the Dogon Extension of the Fermi Paradox: Why are the extraterrestrials not still here? Didn't they keep an eye on us?

We have to respect van Beek's position that neither of these options is what we should expect to be the absolute reality, as the philosophical premises on which Un Systeme Soudanais de Sirius operates are the questionable Griaulian edifice of Renard Pale.

In this context, the statements of other tribes having this knowledge must therefore be in doubt. Statements from Bambara informants at the back of Un Systeme Soudanais de Sirius indicate a correspondence of the Dogon mythopoeic image of Yasigi-Yurugu, two separated "twins" corresponding to the two stars in orbit which never reach each other, to Musso Koroni-Pemba in the Bambara pantheon. Does any person have better information on this? Get a prize

It is much more highly possible (Occam's razor again) that there were other modern, non-Dogon influences for their Sirius story, as claimed by Ridpath, Sagan et al. Any quoted by Van Beek are eligible. Robert KG Temple has provided some extra information that is a surprising coincidence: The first Jesuits arrived in Bandiagara in 1949. Bingo! Sirius starts appearing in the literature. Does anyone have any information on this? Get a prize

Due to the brilliance of Dieu d'Eau as literature and the imagination-grabbing nature of the Sirius story, the "Sirius Mystery" is an enduring meme, accepted as plain scientific truth by a huge segment of French and English readers. It is above all a production of Anthropology, as the public's trust thereof as a precise science, and sustained by the continued high regard for Griaule and the school he founded (which did produce a large body of sound work) by French academia. The coincidentally surprising testable statements have been persuasive. Travel guides don't help: of the two biggest selling guides to Mali, Lonely Planet reproduces Un Systeme Soudanais de Sirius, and the Rough Guide, Dieu d'Eau. Griaulist interpretations pepper the official Republic of Mali websites (we'd like to see how this gets to the guides); the Sirius Mystery is maintained as a modern, popular myth by devotees of the New Age. While Germaine Dieterlen is still alive, she may have been the first to notice that Sirius has brought her the company of cranks, when by van Beek's statement that her most recent work is descriptively valid and insightful on previously unknown aspects of Dogon culture, she clearly prefers the company of fellow anthropologists.

To Conclusions: