Editing Sirius (section)

=== Dogon ===
{{See also|Nommo}}

The [[Dogon people]] are an [[ethnic]] group in [[Mali]], West Africa, reported by some researchers to have traditional astronomical knowledge about Sirius that would normally be considered impossible without the use of telescopes. According to [[Marcel Griaule]], they knew about the fifty-year orbital period of Sirius and its companion prior to western astronomers.<ref>{{cite book |first=Marcel |last=Griaule |title=Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas |year=1965|publisher=International African Institute |isbn=0-19-519821-2}} (many reprints) Originally published in 1948 as Dieu d'Eau.</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Marcel |last1=Griaule |first2=Germaine |last2=Dieterlen |title=The Pale Fox |publisher=Institut d'Ethnologie |year=1965}} Originally published as Le Renard Pâle.</ref>

Doubts have been raised about the validity of Griaule and Dieterlein's work.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ramtops.co.uk/dogon.html| title = The Dogon Revisited| access-date = 13 October 2007| author = Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130216045735/http://www.ramtops.co.uk/dogon.html| archive-date = 16 February 2013}}</ref><ref name="coppens">{{cite web| url = http://www.philipcoppens.com/dogonshame.html| title = Dogon Shame| access-date = 13 October 2007| author = Philip Coppens| author-link = Philip Coppens (author)| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121227102555/http://www.philipcoppens.com/dogonshame.html| archive-date = 27 December 2012}}</ref> In 1991, anthropologist Walter van Beek concluded about the Dogon, "Though they do speak about ''sigu tolo'' [which is what Griaule claimed the Dogon called Sirius] they disagree completely with each other as to which star is meant; for some it is an invisible star that should rise to announce the ''sigu'' [festival], for another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as ''sigu tolo''. All agree, however, that they learned about the star from Griaule."<ref>{{cite journal | jstor = 2743641| last =van Beek | first = W.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;E. | journal = Current Anthropology| volume = 32 | issue = 2 | year = 1991 | title = Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule | author2 = Bedaux | author3 = Blier | author4 = Bouju | author5 = Crawford | author6 = Douglas | author7 = Lane | author8 = Meillassoux | pages = 139–167 | doi = 10.1086/203932| s2cid =224796672 }}</ref>  According to [[Noah Brosch]] cultural transfer of relatively modern astronomical information could have taken place in 1893, when a French expedition arrived in Central West Africa to observe the total eclipse on 16 April.<ref>{{harvnb|Brosch|2008|p=65}}</ref>