Walter E. A. van Beek is an anthropologist who conducted his own fieldwork among the Dogon of Mali, and this peer reviewed article, published in the journal Current Anthropology, is a direct critical re-examination of Marcel Griaule's famous earlier claims about Dogon cosmology, including the claims about Dogon astronomical knowledge of the star Sirius. Its strength is that van Beek returned to the same Dogon communities Griaule had studied and could not confirm many of Griaule's specific cosmological claims among ordinary Dogon informants, a serious and influential methodological challenge published with substantial peer commentary in the same issue. Its limit is that it is one fieldworker's re-study decades after Griaule's original work, in a Dogon culture that had itself continued to change across that interval.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Walter van Beek's peer reviewed field re-evaluation of Marcel Griaule's famous claims about esoteric Dogon cosmology, based on van Beek's own later fieldwork, which found no independent confirmation among ordinary Dogon informants; it directly contradicts the widely circulated Griaule account, so any Dogon cosmology claim sourced to Griaule should be checked against this critique. NotesWalter van Beek's scholarly field re-evaluation of Marcel Griaule's famous claims about esoteric Dogon cosmology, based on van Beek's own fieldwork among the Dogon decades later, which failed to find independent confirmation of Griaule's reported cosmological system among ordinary Dogon informants. Use to document this critical reassessment and its methodological challenge to Griaule's claims; it directly contradicts, rather than confirms, the widely circulated account of Dogon astronomical knowledge originating with Griaule, so any Dogon cosmology claim sourced to Griaule should be checked against this critique.
Citation
AuthorWalter E. A. van Beek
PublisherCurrent Anthropology 32(2)
Publication Year1991
URLhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203932
Source Typepeer-reviewed article
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Mali directly: "his own fieldwork among the Dogon of Mali, and this peer reviewed article, published in the journal Current Anthropology, is a direct critical re-examination of Marcel Griaule's famous earlier..."
Claims Backed By This Source (91 claims)
This source backs 91 claims across the atlas. As facts: 67 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 9 holds. Plus 12 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Deities, 17 claims: 14 well-attested, 1 holds, 2 general references.
- Articles, 15 claims: 14 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Rituals, 12 claims: 9 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sacred Sites, 10 claims: 7 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 holds.
- Subcategories, 9 claims: 5 well-attested, 2 holds, 2 general references.
- Cultures, 7 claims: 4 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Religions, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Fixed Stars, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Historical Figures, 2 claims: 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.
- Myths & Sacred Narratives, 2 claims: 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.
Scholarly debate
3Myths & Sacred Narratives
General References
12Myths & Sacred Narratives
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