Sirius MysteryFrom TinWiki.org
The Dogon people live West Africa, in the general vicinity of Timbuctu. By the time they were questioned by two French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, between 1931 and 1950, the Dogon supposedly had knowledge of various astronomical matters (particularly relating to the Sirius solar system) that could not have been discovered using the technology available to them. Various UFO researchers have stated, or implied, that the relative knowledge derived from alien visitors to the Earth. This is often referred to as “the Sirius Mystery”. Numerous sceptics, notably popular astronomer Carl Sagan, have suggested that the knowledge attributed to the Dogon may have been obtained from Europeans prior to questioning by Griaule and Dieterlen.
[edit] “The Sirius Mystery” (book)The Dogon “mystery” gained widespread publicity when Robert Temple wrote a book in 1976 entitled “The Sirius Mystery”. Since 1976, numerous researchers have pointed out serious problems with the content of that book. Indeed, the “Sirius Mystery” has probably received more detailed attention from scientists than almost any story relating to UFOs and alien visitors. The claims made in Temple’s book about the content of the Dogon myths are based on work by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, two French anthropologists. They published an article in French about their research in 1950. The research was carried out in the 1930s and 1940s. Erich Von Daniken, the famous (infamous?) author of several popular books on “ancient astronauts” has written that Robert Temple’s book “confirmed my theories” (Von Daniken, 1977, pages 81-82). Several more recent authors have given relatively uncritical presentations of Temple’s views (e.g. Coomer, 1999, pages 13-14) and/or of Temple’s suggestions that his theories have resulted in the CIA showing an interest in him (e.g. Hansen, 2000, pages 191-192). Books by several popular scientists have included lengthy discussions of Robert Temple’s claims about the Dogon, including Carl Sagan (a 16 page discussion) and James Oberg (an 11 page discussion).
[edit] Claims to fameThe Dogon mystery’s claims to fame include the following:
[edit] Sirius and the probability of evolution of intelligent lifeSeveral researchers have suggested that the Sirius star system is a very unlikely place for intelligent life to have evolved. For example, Ashpole has suggested that the Sirius star system “is not a likely home for life” (Ashpole, 1989, page 151) while Ian Ridpath has referred to “its extreme unlikelihood of supporting life” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 199). Several reasons have been given in support of that view. Firstly, the stars in Sirius solar system are relatively young. In relation to Sirius A, Ashpole, 1989, page 152 “Sirius A is a very young star: only about 500 million years old. This star will end its life-cycle long before advanced life could evolve on any suitable planet there” (Ashpole, 1989, page 152). Similarly, Ian Ridpath has suggested that Sirius B has a life-span of no more than about 1000 million years, which “does not seem to be long enough for advanced life to develop” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 191). Secondly, Robert S. Harrington of the U.S. Naval Observatory published information indicating that planetary orbits in the "habitable" zone around Sirius, defined as the region in which water would be liquid, are unstable (Ridpath, 1978a, page 193). Ian Ridpath has concluded “astronomical evidence argues strongly against Temple’s ancient astronaut theory” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 193). However, the force of these arguments is considerably undermined by the fact that the relevant planet supposedly orbits Sirius C, not Sirius A or Sirius B. On the other hand, it is possible to come up with one or two arguments supporting the plausibility of alien visitors coming from Sirius. In particular, Sirius is (in astronomical terms) basically a near neighbour. It is barely 8 light-years from Earth. This is only twice as far away as the nearest solar system to our own.
[edit] Alleged Knowledge[edit] Sirius B and its period of rotationSirius A is the brightest star in the sky. Sirius B, on the other hand, is much dimmer. It is not visible to the naked eye. Yet the Dogon reportedly discussed Sirius B with Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen between 1931 and 1950, Not only that, but Robert Temple claims the Dogon know the actual orbital period of this invisible star, which is fifty years. The statement actually attributed to the Dogon is slightly more ambiguous: “The period of the orbit is counted double, that is, one hundred years, because the Siguis are convened in pairs of ‘twins’, so as to insist on the principle of twin-ness” (Temple, 1976, page 24;Temple, 1998, page 100). However, the Dogon statements about the existence of Sirius B and its orbital period reflected information known in the West for nearly a century prior to the visits by Griaule and Dieterlen. The German astronomer F W Bessel suggested that long-term motion of Sirius A was affected by the gravitational influence of a dark companion with a fifty-year period (Bessel, 1844). Sirius B was discovered by a direct visual observation eighteen years later by Alvan G Clark (Flammarion, 1877; Sagan, 1979, pages 90-91). Could some early visitor to the Dogon people have been aware of that information? Yes. MIT physicist Dr Kenneth Brecher wrote an article in 1977 that reported that “Sirius B was important and widely disseminated news in the 1920s” and stated that he had “found references in the 1920s to Sirius B in ‘Le Monde’, ‘The New York Times’, and ‘Scientific American’” (Story, 1980, page 119). Robert Temple’s own book mentions in passing an article by a Dr P. Baize which appeared in the September 1931 issue of Astronomie concerned the discovery, orbit, period and density of Sirius B (Temple, 1976, page 27; Temple, 1998, page 103).
[edit] Density of Sirius BOne of the most remarkable facts the Dogon are supposed to have known relates to the density of Sirius B. Sirius B is a white dwarf star. White dwarfs have mass comparable to that of the Sun, but a relatively small volume - comparable to that of something only the size of the Earth (see the Wikipedia page relating to white dwarfs at the link below). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf). Robert Temple quotes Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen as reporting the following about the Dogon’s views: “the star which is considered to be the smallest thing in the sky is also the heaviest: 'Digitaria is the smallest thing there is. It is the heaviest star:' It consists of a metal called sagala, which is a little brighter than iron and so heavy 'that all earthly beings combined cannot lift it'. In effect the star weighs the equivalent of 480 donkey-loads (about 38,000 kg. = 85,000 lb.), the equivalent of all seeds, or of all the iron on earth,' although, in theory, it is the size of a stretched ox-skin or a mortar. (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1950, at Temple, 1976, page 42-44; Temple, 1998, page 492). Temple suggests that the statement that “The star which is considered to be the smallest thing in the sky is also the heaviest” is “the most amazing of all the Dogon statements” (Temple, 1976, page 24; Temple, 1998, pages 100 and 102). While the Dogon did not have the technology to find out for themselves that Sirius B had a high density, they could have learnt this from others (not necessarily aliens) prior to the 1930s. Europeans had thought that Sirius B had a high density since the late nineteenth century, i.e. long before Griaule visited the Dogon. Knowledge of the relative motion of Sirius A and Sirius B permitted estimates of their masses. Both Sirius A and Sirius B have masses about the same as the Sun. But Sirius B is about ten thousand times fainter. Either it is much smaller or has a much lower temperature. But in the late nineteenth century it was believed that stars of the same mass had approximately the same temperature. Carl Sagan has stated, therefore, “by the turn of the [nineteenth] century it was widely held that the temperature of Sirius B was not remarkably low … Accordingly, the concept of Sirius B as an extremely dense star was widely held in the first few decades of this century” (Sagan, 1979, page 91). Indeed, while Temple suggests that the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B’s high density was “amazing”, even the background information of his book indicates that this knowledge was available to humans prior to the 1930s. Somewhat buried in a footnote in Temple’s book is the following information: “In 1915 Dr W. S. Adams of Mt Wilson Observatory made the necessary observations to learn the temperature of Sirius B, which is 80000, half as much again as our sun's. It then began to be realized that Sirius B was an intensely hot star which radiated three to four times more heat and light per square foot than our sun. It then became possible to calculate the size of Sirius B, which is only three times the radius of the Earth, yet its mass was just a little less than that of our sun. A theory of white dwarfs then developed to account for Sirius B, and other white dwarfs were later discovered” (Temple, 1976, pages 33-34, footnote 4; Temple, 1998, page 115, footnote 4):. Was information about Sirius B’s high density only reported in some obscure technical journal, unlikely to be conveyed to the Dogon by any Western visitors? No, it wasn’t limited in this way. Carl Sagan has reported that “the peculiar nature of the companion of Sirius was extensively reported in books and in the press” (Sagan, 1979, page 91). He quotes a discussion of “white dwarfs”, including “the Companion of Sirius”, in Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington’s book “The Nature of the Physical World”. That book was published in 1928 and was translated into many languages, including French (Sagan, 1979, page 92). So, the Dogon’s knowledge was not that “amazing”. It was already information known to those in the West (and, according to various sceptics, the Dogon may have got that information from the West).
[edit] Contamination[edit] IntroductionAs discussed in more detail below, numerous sceptics (including Carl Sagan) have suggested that the astronomical knowledge attributed to the Dogon may have been obtained from Europeans prior to questioning by Griaule and Dieterlen. Sirius A is the brightest star in the sky. “It’s appearance in the dawn sky marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar – and warned of the impending summer’s heat and Nile floods” (Oberg, 1982, page 122). Thus, it is not improbable that the Dogon already had some myths about that star and/or may have wished to discuss Sirius with any Western contacts. Carl Sagan is one of many sceptical researchers that have suggested that the Dogon may have regaled a visitor with their Sirius lore and asks a Western visitor what his Sirius myths may be (Sagan, 1979, page 92). Many of the discussions of the Dogon “mystery” give examples of the problems that can arise in anthropological investigations as a consequence of prior contact between the subjects of the study and other cultures. The subjects of the study may be contaminated by such prior contact. One rather extreme and amusing example is given by Carl Sagan. He recounts a tale about an (apocryphal?) anthropologist that visited an elderly member of a tribe of Native Americans in the first decade of the twentieth century. After each question, the old man retreated into the darkened depths of the hogan. In each case, he emerged quarter of an hour later with a rich set of answers. Eventually the anthropologist asked his informant what he did each time he retreated into the Hogan. The old man smiled, withdrew, and returned with a well-thumbed copy of the “Dictionary of American Ethnography”, compiled by anthropologists in the previous decade (Sagan, 1979, pages 92-93). Carl Sagan also recounts two stories which show how such contamination can arise. Both were told by the physician Dr D Carleton Gajdusek. In the more amusing of those stories, Dr Gajdusek visited a village in New Guinea in which there remained a tradition of cannibalism. While they, the visitors sang several Russian songs, including “Otchi chornye”. Some years later, Dr Gajdusek discussed traditional songs with young men elsewhere in the same region. They produced a clearly recognizable version of “Otchi chornye”. Many of the singers apparently thought the song traditional (Sagan, 1979, pages 94-96). What about the Dogon themselves? Has such contamination occurred with them in relation to matters other than Sirius? Yes, it has. Van Beek has referred to “many” instances in which “foreign elements” (including Christian and Muslim traditions) “were adopted and in a single generation became ‘traditional’ … [The Dogon] see no particular reason for any fundamental distinction between things learned from their Dogon forefathers and from newcomers” (van Beek, 1991, pages 152-153).
[edit] Relevant datesThe Dogon people were questioned Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen between 1931 and 1950. Thus, the issue of potential contamination of the information by Western sources of astronomical knowledge have focused on possible contamination prior to 1931. However, it should not be assumed that all the relevant information was obtained in 1931. Some of the information may only have been obtained much later. Indeed, Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen themselves stated that “the main investigation was carried out among the Dogon between 1946 and 1950” (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1950, at Temple, 1976, page 35; Temple, 1998, pages 476-477). More fundamental is the issue of whether there is any evidence that the knowledge attributed to the Dogon had been held by them prior to its communication to Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen between 1931 and 1950. Some of the proponents of the “Sirius Mystery” claim there is such evidence. For example, in response to criticisms of his theory by Carl Sagan, Robert Temple has suggested that the Dogon have had the relevant knowledge for hundreds of years, referring “hundreds or thousands of objects, symbols, woven blankets, carved statues, etc., etc., which exist in those cultures relating to the 'Sirius Mystery'” and stated that he is baffled by “how these hundreds or thousands of objects are meant to have been expertly fabricated fakes purporting to be centuries old, fooling all dating experts” (Temple, 1981). However, few details of such “hundreds of thousands” of pieces of evidence have been supplied by Robert Temple or anyone else. Obvious questions about the “hundreds or thousands” pieces of evidence mentioned by Robert Temple are: (1) What specific objects are relied upon? (2) How do those specific objects prove that the alleged knowledge of the Dogon is “centuries old”? If such objects and symbols did indeed exist, then the alternative explanation put forward by sceptics (i.e. contamination with Western knowledge) would be completely undermined. Temple has written a lengthy book on the “Sirius Mystery”. He also substantially added to that book, after two decades of attacks by sceptics largely based upon the theory that the relevant knowledge is the result of recent contamination. So, why hasn’t Temple answered the two basic questions posed above about the “hundreds or thousands” of objects and symbols? The obvious inference is that he is unable to provide compelling answers to these questions.
[edit] Possible Routes of contaminationVarious sceptics have suggested that there are various routes by which astronomical knowledge from the West may have been communicated to the Dogon people prior to them being questioned by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen between 1931 and 1950 Those skeptics have stressed that the Dogon were not isolated (e.g. Oberg, 1982, page 124). Ian Ridpath has pointed out that the Dogon live “near an overland trade route, as well as close to the southern banks of the Niger river, which is another channel of trade” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 199). More details has been provided by E C Krupp: “The Dogon have, in fact, long been a relatively cosmopolitan, adaptive people. They live in the general vicinity of Timbuctu, which for centuries has been a major market city and a center for schools and scholars in west Africa. The Dogon have enjoyed regular communication with other cultures because they live so near a major trade route linking North Africa and Egypt with the sub-Sahara. In fact, French schools existed in the Dogon territory as early as 1907 and well before the 1920s, when there was considerable European interest in Sirius and research on its companion” (Krupp, 1981, page 292) Carl Sagan summarised the position by stating “Perhaps the Western contact came from a European visitor to Africa, or from the local French schools, or perhaps from contacts in Europe by West Africans inducted to fight for the French in World War I” (Sagan, 1979, page 90). Some of the alleged possible routes of contamination are outlined below.
[edit] “White Fathers” MissionariesOne of the various specific routes of contamination been suggested by various sceptics relates to missionaries (e.g. by Sagan and Ridpath). James Oberg has suggested that many missionaries “are avid astronomers” (Oberg, 1982, page 124). In a revised edition of his book published in 1998, Robert Temple has stated that the White Fathers, a group of missionaries, confirmed to him in correspondence that none of their missionaries visited the Dogon until after 1931 (Temple, 1998, page 97). On his website, Mr Temple gives the following additional details: "I wrote to the Father Superior of the White Fathers Mission in Mali and asked when the first missionaries were sent to the Dogon areas. He replied that the earliest missionaries arrived in 1949. By that time anthropologists had already obtained the Dogon Sirius information". See: http://www.robert-temple.com/papers/Sirius-AnswerCritics.html Apparently conflicting statements have been made by various researchers on this point. Science journalist Ian Ridpath has written that "I confirmed with the London headquarters of the White Fathers, a Catholic group who have been very active in this part of Africa, that missionaries from their sect had made contact with the Dogon in the 1920s…" (Ridpath, 1978a, page 200). The book “Mud and Mosaics” by Father Gerard Rathe gives details of a journey across parts of Africa from 1957. In Chapter 7 of that book, Father Rathe gives detailed information about contact between the White Fathers and the Dogon people. The information below appears in that chapter 7and is attributed by Father Rathe to a Monsignor Landru during discussions at Mopti: "The first news the White Fathers had about the Dogon people came to them at Bamako, two hundred miles away, when, in 1927, a French Administrator at Bandiagara wrote to the Bishop telling him that he had discovered a people, pagan and fetishist, who seemed a promising field for the sowing of the Gospel. Nothing could be done at that time from Bamako, and it was not until 1945 that the first direct contact was made with the Dogons". When this evidence was raised with Ian Ridpath by Isaac Koi during 2007, Ian Ridpath indicated that he could not throw any light on the first contact between the White Fathers and the Dogon, commenting that “I simply reported what I was told” (Ridpath, 2007). He further commented: “As you point out, first contact would occur long before the setting up of any official missions in the area so the dates quoted by Robert Temple and myself could both be right, in their own way” (Ridpath, 2007).
[edit] Other missionariesMost discussions of the “Sirius Mystery” refer to missionaries in passing (if at all), with few specifics being given. Robert Temple and Ian Ridpath are exceptions, since they have discussed missionaries belonging to the White Fathers in some detail. However, even these two researchers have not referred to any other specific group of missionaries that was, or may have been, active in the area. Various websites paraphrase Robert Temple’s information about the White Fathers in ways which imply (or expressly state) that the Dogon had no contact with any missionaries at all until the 1940s. However, the White Fathers did not have a monopoly on sending missionaries to Africa prior to the 1940s. In an article written in 1991 by van Beek (considered in more detail below), there is mention in passing of the fact that one individual (named “Ambara”) “had frequented the Protestant mission (Sudan Evangelical Mission, predominantly Baptist) since his early youth” (van Beek, 1991, page 157). Isaac Koi has suggested that this article strongly implies that the mission was frequented by members of the Dogon (or at least one member, Ambara) prior to the visits of Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen since:
[edit] French schoolsThere were French schools in the Dogon area prior to the visits of Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. Peter and Roland Pesch of the Warner and Swasey Observatory have referred to the existence of French schools in the Dogon area since 1907 - see Pesch and Pesch , page 27 – citing M P Marti’s book “Les Dogon” (1957) at page 92). Pesch and Pesch also mention Islamic schools in the area (Pesch and Pesch, page 27 – again citing M P Marti’s book “Les Dogon” (1957) at page 92). Furthermore there is evidence that at least one of those interviewed by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen had been to a French school. The details of the relevant individual provide yet further indication of the contact between the Dogon and the Western world prior to the visits of Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. The relevant individual is, once again, Ambara (referred to above in the context of the presence of other missionaries in the region). The article written by van Beek in 1991 refers to Ambara having “spent considerable time outside Dogon country” and to “Ambara’s French education – his study abroad as well as his schooling in Sanga” (van Beek, 1991, page 156).
[edit] World War IOne of the specific means by which it has been suggested by sceptics that the relevant astronomical knowledge may have been obtained was "from contacts in Europe by West Africans inducted to fight for the French in World War I" (by Carl Sagan in his "Broca's Brain" (1979) at page 90 (in Chapter 6) of the Coronet paperback edition). Various other sceptics have referred to the participation of Dogon tribesmen in World War I, particularly in the French army. For example, James Oberg has stated that “many [Dogon] served in the French army in World War I” (Oberg, 1982, page 124). However, Robert Temple states on his website that: "I do not believe it is true that any Dogon tribesmen fought in any trenches in Europe in the First World War". No reasons or sources are given by Robert Temple on the relevant webpage support of this view.
[edit] Griaule himselfSeveral sceptics have suggested that certain aspects of the Dogon culture render it particularly susceptible to cultural contamination. It further appears that Griaule’s personality and techniques were particularly prone to obtaining results that had been contaminated by his own knowledge and views. Taking the Dogon culture first, Van Beek has reported that “Dogon culture is oriented towards overt harmony” and “are very slow to correct each other”, more senior individuals “are the ones who know and consequently should not be contradicted” (van Beek, 1991, page 152). Similar comments are made in a passage provided by Father Page of the White Fathers. Father Page helpfully provided an extract from the book “Le Mali” by his “confrere” [fellow-member], Joseph Roger de Benoist. That book is in French (see Endnote 1 for relevant original text), but the gist of the passage is that: (1) the Dogon did not say no to Europeans, which they viewed as sent by God. (2) If it was felt that the European came with an obsession and that the European wanted to find something, one helped the European to find what he came to seek. One invents an answer, one improvises a legend. Turning next to Griaule’s personality and techniques, it can be seen (in the light of knowledge of the Dogon culture) that the risks of obtained contaminated data were particularly high. Van Beek reports that Griaule “confronted his informants with items, be they artifacts, plants, animals, or stars, and expected them to provide adequate information immediately”. Van Beek quotes one of Griaule’s informants as saying Griaule “thought each keke (cricket) had its own Dogon name, and he did not stop” (van Beek, 1991, page 154). Van Beek pokes fun of Griaule’s belief that the Dogon had names for 24 different species of dung beetles, including a beetle wallowing only in the dung of grey horses, referring to an “inability to take no for an answer” and “an unwillingness on the part of the informants to disappoint the researcher”. Van Beek suggests the Dogon engaged “in harmless games in which information was produced that did not exist beforehand, all the while clearly conforming to the white man’s wishes”. Van Beek suggests many Dogon see Griaule even now “as a forceful personality, in a situation of undisputed power, with a clearly expressed preference for specific information and his own ways of getting at it” (van Beek, 1991, page 153). The Dogon reportedly viewed Griaule as “the white man, endowed with power and prestige, ranked high in Dogon eyes”, and Griaule allegedly “capitalized on it”. Van Beek has suggested that Griaule asked “leading questions” and that Dogon that “worked with him (or should one say ‘for’ him?) still comment on his impatience”. When considering the “Sirius Mystery” it is significant to note that Van Beek specifically states that Griaule had studied astronomy in Paris and that Griaule deployed “star maps” to investigate Dogon knowledge about astronomy (van Beek, 1991, page 154). While these specific allegations appear as statements of fact on several websites on the Internet, they are in fact somewhat controversial. Griaule’s daughter, Geneviève Calame-Griaule, has responded to some of these allegations. She has further denied that her father studied astronomy, writing that “As for his alleged training in astronomy, I can report that his training was in literature; he had no notion at all of astronomy…” (Calame-Griaule, 1991, page 577). Unfortunately, van Beek failed to provide any supporting reference for his allegation that Griaule studied astronomy, so it is not easy to resolve this dispute. I note, however, that Calame-Griaule may have had in mind only his latter education. In the 1920s, Griaule had studied a languages degree. Hoever, prior to World War I (in which Griaule served as a pilot), Griaule had been preparing to become an engineer. I wonder whether van Beek’s reference to Griaule studying astronomy relates to that earlier period of his education. Indeed, Geneviève Calame-Griaule has written that Griaule was completely ignorant of existence of the satellite of Sirius until the Dogon told him of a companion (Calame-Griaule, 1991, page 577). In relation to the use of star-maps, however, there is no outright denial. She has merely written that “If he later displayed charts of the heavens, it was for his own use and not to instruct the Dogon” (Calame-Griaule, 1991, page 577). The purpose of displaying star-charts is irrelevant – the concern relates to the effects of his alleged display of star-charts.
[edit] Out-Dated Knowledge[edit] IntroductionIsaac Koi has suggested that the most compelling evidence that the Dogon knowledge originated in the West is that:
[edit] The density of Sirius BThe Dogon rather under-estimated the mass of Sirius B. They stated (as reported by Griaule and Dieterlen) that “the star weighs the equivalent of 480 donkey-loads (about 38,000 kg. = 85,000 lb.)” (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1950, at Temple, 1976, page 42-44; Temple, 1998, page 492). Sirius B was also reported to be believed by the Dogon to be “the size of a stretched ox-skin or a mortar” (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1950, at Temple, 1976, page 42-44; Temple, 1998, page 492). The Dogon failed to mention any heavenly objects smaller and heavier than Sirius B. Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen state that the Dogon consider Sirius B to be “the smallest thing there is. It is the heaviest star” Temple, 1976, page 42-44; Temple, 1998, page 492). Several researchers have pointed out that, in fact, since the 1930s it has been discovered that there are in fact smaller and heavier objects in the universe. James Oberg has commented that, while in the late 1920s, Europeans too believed that the ‘white dwarf’ Sirius-B star was the heaviest thing in the universe, in later years “astronomers were to find thousands of similar objects along with even heavier and denser objects such as neutron stars and black holes” (Oberg, 1982, page 123). Similarly, Ronald Story has commented that “white dwarf stars are no longer believed to be the smallest and heaviest bodies in the universe. Rapidly rotating neutron stars called pulsars (about 100 million times as dense) and the incredible ‘black holes’ are the new candidates for such honours” (Story, 1980, page 119). The same point has been made by Ian Ridpath (Ridpath, 1978a, page 196). [edit] Rings around other planetsRobert Temple, and several of his researchers, have relied upon alleged Dogon knowledge of Saturn’s rings. For example, Robert Temple has stated “Their drawing of the planet Saturn has a ring around it” (Temple, 1976, pages 27 and 29; Temple, 1998, pages 104 and 106-107). However, the Dogon did not talk about any planet beyond Saturn with rings. This reflected European knowledge of the 1920s-1930s. Since the 1930s:
[edit] Jupiter’s moonsRobert Temple refers to Dogon knowledge of 4 moons of Jupiter. “The other moons of Jupiter are small and insignificant, having formerly been asteroids which were captured by Jupiter's gravitation at some unknown time in the past” (Temple, 1976, pages 27-28; Temple, 1998, pages 105-106): Four moons of Jupiter were first observed by Galileo in 1610. However, those are merely the largest (by far) of Jupiter’s moons. Writing in 1982, James Oberg wrote that Jupiter has at least twelve moons (Oberg, 1982, page 124). In November 2007, Wikipedia states “Sixty-three moons orbiting Jupiter have been discovered” : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter . Thus, James Oberg and other sceptics have suggested that any visiting spaceman would have known that Jupiter has more than four moons (e.g. Ridpath, 1978a, page 196). Temple, and one or two other researchers, have responded that the smaller moons of Jupiter are relatively insignificant and/or are not really moons at all (e.g. Spencer, 1997, page 59). However, this really does smack of seeking to explain away a fairly damning point (particularly when taken in conjunction with similar points made in relation to the Dogon’s outdated knowledge of rings around other planets, no to mention their knowledge of Saturn and Sirius B).
[edit] Our solar system’s outermost planetsRobert Temple’s book states that Saturn is “the outermost planet which the Dogon mention” (Temple, 1976, page 29; Temple, 1998, page 107). However, we now know that Saturn is not the outermost planet in our solar system : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system . Contrary to a suggestion by James Oberg that “the Dogon insist” that Saturn is the outermost planet (Oberg, 1982, page 124), the relevant records of alleged statements by the Dogon do not record them as “insisting” that Saturn is the outermost planet. However, Temple does state that the Dogon referred to Saturn as “the star of limiting the place” in association somehow with the Milky Way (Temple, 1976, page 29; Temple, 1998, page 107).
[edit] Sirius C“But Digitaria is not Sirius's only companion: the star emme ya, Sorghum-Female, is larger than it, four times as light (in weight), and travels along a greater trajectory in the same direction and in the same time as it (fifty years). Their respective positions are such that the angle of the radii is at right angles.” (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1950, at Temple, 1976, page 42-44; Temple, 1998, page 492). Back in 1978, Ian Ridpath suggested that “the true test of a good extraterrestrial story is that it should tell us something we don’t already know” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 199). A similar comment was made by Edward Ashpole in 1989. He said “Like all such stories we need information unknown to us, predictions that we can check … The Dogons provided just one piece of information that we did not already know: that in the Sirius system, there is a third star, four times the size of Sirius B, but this astronomers have not found” (Ashpole, 1989, page 152). Robert Temple has claimed that a third star, Sirius C, has been discovered relying upon an article by Daniel Benest and J L Duvent published in 1995. Robert Temple has made various claims about this purported discovery. He has contended that “the discovery of Sirius C” has “rendered most criticism [of his views] obsolete” (Temple, 1998, page 23). Robert Temple has said that “the hypothesis of ‘The Sirius Mystery’ has now been verified in a dramatic fashion … this verification is a highly specific astrophysical prediction which has now been confirmed” (Temple, 1998, pages 3-4). However, the article by Daniel Benest and J L Duvent published in 1995 does not claim that Sirius C has been discovered. The relevant article discusses a 6 year perturbation in the motion of Sirius A-B, which may indicate the existence of Sirius C. The article concludes that stable orbits with 6-year periods exist around Sirius A, but does not claim that there is definitely a star (i.e. Sirius C) within any of those orbits. The article provides information which may assist in the search for Sirius C, “if it exists” (Benest and Duvent, 1995, page 627). There were reports of sightings of Sirius C in the 1920s. Sirius C was “observed about twenty times between 1920 and 1930” (Benest and Duvent, 1995, page 621). American astronomer Philip Fox believed he had seen a close companion of Sirius B in 1921 (Ridpath, 1978a, page 194). Various other authors also refer to reported sightings of, or speculation about, Sirius C in the 1920s (e.g. Oberg, 1982, page 123; Spencer, 1997, page 59) Sirius C was suspected to exist prior to the various reported observations during the 1920s. From 1894, there have been suggestions of irregularities in the motion of Sirius B which have resulted in suggestions that Sirius C may exist (Benest and Duvent, 1995, page 621). In 1973, Irving W Lindenblad reported that a series of photographic observations showed no evidence of a close companion to either Sirius A or Sirius B. In 2000, scientists suggested that the sightings in the 1920s were probably due to an unrelated background star but the existence of a long-period companion “cannot definitely be ruled out” (Bonnet-Bidaud, Colas and Lecacheux, 2000). Thus, the earlier reported observations of Sirius C were widely regarded as observational errors. Irving W Lindenblad informed Ian Ridpath during the 1970s that “the possibility of a very distant third body cannot be ruled out theoretically” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 194). Thus, at the time Robert Temple’s book was published in 1976 few astronomers considered it probable that Sirius C existed. The possible existence of Sirius C currently remains in doubt. Isaac Koi has suggested that the view attributed to the Dogon that Sirius C existed is perfectly consistent with the theory that the views attributed to the Dogon people was, in fact, the result of cultural contamination in, or prior to, the 1930s. He has pointed out that the existence of Sirius C had been reported in the West (based on reported observations) prior to the Dogon’s claims.
[edit] Sirius C’s orbital periodRobert Temple indicates that the Dogon supposedly stated that Sirius C “travels along a greater trajectory in the same direction and in the same time as [Sirius B] (fifty years).” (Temple, 1976, 26; Temple, 1998, page 102). Ian Ridpath has stated : “This is a physical impossibility. According to Kepler’s laws, the larger an orbit, the longer an object takes to go around it” (Ridpath, 1978a, page 195). Similarly, Krupp has commented that the information which the Dogon supposedly provide on the orbit of Sirius C “is inconsistent with itself as well as with Kepler’s laws” (Krupp, 1981, page 292). “Le Renard Pale” states that the orbital period of Sirius C is 32 years (i.e. not the same as Sirius B), which would make its orbit smaller than that of Sirius B (Ridpath, 1978a, page 195). This is considerably different to the orbit suggested in the article by Daniel Benest and J L Duvent published in 1995. As noted above, that article indicates the possible existence of a third star in the Sirius system which orbits Sirius A with an orbital period of about six years. Robert Temple’s discussion relying upon the article published in 1995 by Benest and Duvent does not to discuss the fact that the orbital period for Sirius C is different from the various figures which had been supposedly been put forward by the Dogon.
[edit] What did the Dogon actually say, if anything, about Sirius B and Sirius C?Following the publication of Robert Temple’s “The Sirius Mystery” in 1976, points made by sceptics focused strongly on whether the knowledge attributed to the Dogon could be explained on the basis of possible gaining of knowledge from the West. Most of the relevant discussion either assumed that the Dogon had the knowledge attributed to them, or at most briefly mentioned the possibility of inaccurate reporting of that alleged knowledge. In 1991, the position changed. As a result of an article published in 1991, the following fundamental question arose: Did the Dogon even say anything about Sirius B and Sirius C to Griaule? The relevant article was written by anthropologist Walter E. A. Van Beek and was entitled “Dogon Restudied --A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule” (van Beek, 1991). Van Beek stated that he “could not replicate despite systematic attempts to do so” findings reported by Griaule regarding Dogon knowledge of Sirius. Contrary to the results reported by Griaule, Van Beek reported following his own investigation of the Dogon: (1) “That Sirius is a double star is unknown” (van Beek, 1991, page 148) and (2) “the purported knowledge of the mass of Sirius B or the orbiting time was absent” (van Beek, 1991, pages 149-150). Van Beek’s article included the following : “The Dogon, of course, know Sirius as a star (it is after all the brightest in the sky), calling it dana tolo, the hunter’s star … Knowledge of the stars is not important either in daily life or in ritual … no one, even within the circle of Griaule informants, had ever heard or understood that Sirius was a double star … Consequently, the purported knowledge of the mass of Sirius B or the orbiting time was absent” (van Beek, 1991, pages 149-150). Some of the various articles on the Internet which discuss van Beek’s article suggest that Griaule had managed to unearth secret knowledge known to only a few within the Dogon people, and that van Beek had failed to ask the right people and/or had not had the secret knowledge revealed to him. Such suggestions are supported by an article written by Griaule’s daughter. She has suggested that van Beek “has not gone through the appropriate steps for acquiring knowledge” (Calame-Griaule, 1991, page 575). However, van Beek actually includes a reasonably detailed discussion of Griaule’s clear statement that the deeper Dogon knowledge belongs to a class of secrets hidden from the majority of the population, as well as outsiders. He refers to an estimate by Griaule that 15% of the population had this secret knowledge (citing Griaule, 1952 pages 32-33). Van Beek commented that “rediscovering this knowledge will not be easy; yet it must be possible” (van Beek, 1991, page 143). Thus, van Beek clearly had in mind the suggestion that the relevant knowledge was confined to a certain part of the Dogon population. He discusses this suggestion in considerable depth in his article. Following his study of the the Dogon, van Beek reported that they have various myths, many of which are conveyed by song texts. However, he reports that “neither the myths nor the song text … are secret”, commenting that “every Dogon knows the myths and parts of the songs, though not everyone can tell or sing them in full”. Some individuals are trained to recite the myths “without fault or hesitation”, but “their knowledge does not go beyond the pubic knowledge”. Van Beek concluded : “Thus, the secrets of Dogon society are not at all of the initiatory kind. The knowledge defined by the Dogon as secret is, in fact, of the ‘skeleton in the cupboard’ variety. The best-guarded secrets in Dogon society pertain to facts that shame them as members of their families or lineages, such as divisive past quarrels, or to the mechanisms and trappings of witchcraft and sorcery” (van Beek, 1991, page 150). The article by Griaule’s dauther which comments upon Van Beek’s work repeatedly refers to “many misreadings” and “errors” in van Beek’s article, but gives few specific examples of material errors (Calame-Griaule, 1991, page 576). On the other hand, another academic has referred to spending “10 years working among the Dogon” and has confirmed the validity van Beek’s finding regarding lack of knowledge of Sirius (Bouju, 1991). Bouju also commented that “the domain of secrecy is indeed not that of esoteric knowledge revealed only to a few great initiates but that of historical or current events that are considered shameful – instance of conflict, past (serious transgressions, betrayals, wars, massacres) or present (over land, women, or sorcery)” (Bouju, 1991, page 159). Van Beek’s article also provides an account of discussions between Ambara and Griaule. Van Beek reports that “According to Amadingue… Ambara never spoke in terms of a double-star system. What he did speak about always… were stars of different generations (togu; the French translation is his), meaning (and pointing out) two adjacent stars in the sky, which were to be considered as father and son to Sirius as a "grandfather." These stars, as Amadingue pointed them out to me [van Beek], were the two other stars of the Dog constellation. If this is so, then Griaule must have interpreted the information given by Ambara and Yebene in a different fashion, as a system of double and triple stars” (van Beek, 1991, page 157)”. When Robert Temple revised his book in 1998, he did not refer to the article published by van Beek in 1991.
[edit] References
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995A&A...299..621B
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1844MNRAS...6..136.
http://www.philipcoppens.com/dogonshame.html
http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc134.htm
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1877AReg...15..186F
http://www.truly-free.org/e/n/Temple,%20Robert%20-%20The%20Sirius%20Mystery.zip
http://www.debunker.com/texts/dogon.html
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1976Natur.261..617O
http://www.truly-free.org/e/n/Temple,%20Robert%20-%20The%20Sirius%20Mystery.zip
http://www.robert-temple.com/papers/Sirius-AnswerCritics.html#1
http://www.truly-free.org/e/n/Temple,%20Robert%20-%20The%20Sirius%20Mystery.zip
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