3.13: How did the Dogon know about Sirius?
Description
This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
3.13: How did the Dogon know about Sirius?
The story goes that when they were first contacted by Europeans, a
small stone-age tribe in Africa called the Dogon knew about a string
of astronomical phenomena, including Jovian satellites, the rings of
Saturn and the invisible companion star of Sirius ("The Pup"). Some
UFO enthusiasts have taken this as proof of visits to the Dogon by
aliens.
In "Broca's Brain", Carl Sagan writes:
The most striking aspects of Dogon astronomy have been recounted
by Marcel Griaule, a French anthropologist working in the 1930s
and 1940s. While there is no reason to doubt Griaule's account,
it is important to note that there is no earlier Western record of
these remarkable Dogon folk beliefs [...]
The facts known to the Dogon were mostly discovered over a century
before Griaule discovered them. It is most likely that the Dogon got
this knowledge from human visitors rather than extra-terrestrial ones.
In addition their astronomy included a number of facts which were
widely accepted in the 1920s but which are now known to be false. It
seems odd that visiting aliens would have made the same mistakes.
Apparently a debunking of Dogon astronomy can be found in an
article by W. Van Beck in "Current Anthropology", vol. 32, pp.
139-167, 1991.
Continue to:
My Books
