Table Of ContentLIVING IN A LANDSCAPE
OF SCARCITY
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LIVING IN A LANDSCAPE
OF SCARCITY
Materiality and Cosmology in West Africa
Laurence Douny
Walnut Creek, California
left coast Press, inc.
1630 north Main street, #400
Walnut creek, ca 94596
http://www.lcoastPress.com
copyright © 2014 by left coast Press, inc.
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
isbn 978-1-61132-891-2 hardback
isbn 978-1-61132-893-6 institutional ebook
isbn 978-1-61132-894-3 consumer ebook
library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data:
douny, laurence, 1977-author.
living in a landscape of scarcity: materiality and cosmology in West africa/
laurence douny.
pages cm. — (Publications of the institute of archaeology, university college london ;
v. 63)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-61132-891-2 (hardback: alk. paper) — isbn 978-1-61132-893-6
(institutional ebook) — isbn 978-1-61132-894-3 (consumer ebook)
1. dogon (african people)—Mali—Material culture. 2. landscapes—symbolic
aspects—Mali. 3. cosmology, dogon. 4. architecture, dogon. 5. food supply—
Mali. 6. scarcity. i. title. ii. series: Publications of the institute of archaeology,
university college london; v. 63.
dt551.45.d64d68 2014
306.46096623—dc23
2014005345
all photos by laurence douny unless otherwise noted.
Printed in the united states of america
the paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of american
national standard for information sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed library
Materials, ansi/niso Z39.48–1992.
Contents
list of illustrations 7
Preface 9
transcription notes 15
1. living in a landscape of scarcity: a Materiality approach 17
2. ‘Making and doing’ dogon Microcosmology: some
ethnographic, Methodological, and conceptual background 35
3. conceptual boundaries and inside/outside dialectics:
a dwelling Process 51
4. the inside of the village: Material symbolism and
building Process 67
5. the outside of the village as a ‘life-giving’ reservoir 81
6. dogon ‘Weather World’: local conceptions of rain
and Wind 97
7. the compound: fixing, gathering, and enclosing
the everyday 111
8. domestic Waste: doing and undoing the compound 127
9. Making an earth granary: embedded and embodied technology 141
10. Pandora’s granary: Material Practices of concealment 161
11. a Microcosmology in a Millet grain: cooking techniques
and eating habits 177
12. cosmological Matters: toward a Philosophy of containment 195
appendix a. d ogon’s identity: from immutability to cultural
diversities 203
appendix b. d ogon Mande origin through oral history 205
appendix c. dogon exoticism: from ancient egypt to outer space 207
appendix d. c hallenging griaule’s Work: a brief overview
of dogon studies 209
appendix e. M ethodology’s development: doing fieldwork
in the dogon region (Pre-Malian crisis, 2012) 211
appendix f. the tale of the foundation of tiréli 213
notes 217
glossary of dogon terms 225
references 235
index 247
about the author 257
Illustrations
figure 1.1 the village of tiréli 18
figure 1.2 Map of the dogon region 20
figure 3.1 view of tiréli from the top of the cliffs 54
figure 4.1 choreography of onion pounding on a boulder 74
figure 5.1 spatial divisions of the territory of tiréli 82
figure 5.2 young women collecting wood 93
figure 6.1 the wall of sand approaching the village 104
figure 6.2 road eroded by rain 107
figure 7.1 the cooking and brewing place 116
figure 7.2 Gujɔ with tin door and large windows 119
figure 8.1 Millet straw scattered in the compound 131
figure 8.2 sweepings found outside the compound 136
figure 8.3 dogon categories of waste 139
figure 9.1 Gúyɔ ana for storing millet 142
figure 9.2 the gúyɔ ya, a female granary used by women or men 142
figure 9.3 children helping to mix recycled walls with
added fonio straws 146
figure 9.4 fixing the áma corner 147
figure 9.5 fixing the mud on the áma 149
figure 9.6 flattening the outside of the wall 150
figure 9.7 building the granary’s vault 151
figure 9.8 the closing of the shell with an ‘inverted’ áma 152
figure 9.9 overview of the asymmetrical granary 154
figure 9.10 Plastering (roughcasting) the granary 155
figure 9.11 operational sequence of the making a granary 156
figure 9.12 tactile experience of mud 157
figure 10.1 Quantity of millet taken daily and given to a woman for
coking. 170
figure 10.2 starting to enter the female granary 171
figure 10.3 the torso is in the container 171
figure 10.4 Jumping into the upper compartment 172
figure 11.1 Material extracted from millet plants 180
figure 11.2 Millet parts and uses 181
figure 11.3 operational sequence of the processing of millet ears 182
figure 11.4 sifting millet 183
figure 11.5 Pounding techniques 185
figure 11.6 Pounder broken at the level of the handle 187
figure 11.7 operational sequence of processing millet grains 187
figure 11.8 filling up containers with food 189
figure 11.9 operational sequence of the sagujá meal 192
Preface
To my host family in Tiréli In memory of Patrice (1951–2013)
in his fctional short story entitled The Aleph, borges (1949/1974/2004) writes
of a mysterious object or ‘point in space’, the aleph, that ‘contains all other
points’ in the universe (borges 2004, 126); the aleph is discovered in the space
of a dark cellar. by looking into the aleph the protagonist is able to see the
entire universe. the aleph contains all human experience of the infnite space-
time continuum, and it conveys a deep and immediate sense of participation in
the world that is felt intensely by those who experience the aleph.
The Aleph as a cosmological literary metaphor enables me to introduce this
book, which is an exploration into the contemporary dogon cultural landscape
of a village in the bandiagara escarpment, a ‘down-to-earth’ point in space
from which i examine the villagers’ microcosmology. this book exposes
dogon shared embodied worldviews about living in a landscape of scarcity.
My interest into the dogon’s perceptions of their environment came out of
the context in which i conducted the core of my research in an idyllic, pictur-
esque, and ‘touristy’ landscape that quickly turned out to be not ideal to live in
(douny 2007). it was harsh, and it was so for everybody.
My ethnography is mainly set up in a village of the tɔrɔ sɔ area of the
bandiagara escarpment, in Mali (West africa), and it is grounded in my partici-
patory observations of daily and seasonal embedded practices of the dogon land-
scape throughout an agricultural cycle. the dogon microcosmology i recount
is a gathering of interrelated worldviews that emanate from shared embodied
experiences of a harsh environment in which the weather, and food scarcity in
particular, were and still are the major problems (recorded between 2001 and
2013 and during a seventeen-month feldwork period between 2002 and 2004).
With more than 1,000 publications written about the dogon, some of my
colleagues asked ‘why another one?’ My answer is simple: the dogon daily
domestic practices out of which the people’s material world and thus their cul-
tural landscape are shaped remain largely unexplored. in this book i attempt
to show that daily practices and so techniques of ‘making’ and ‘doing’ the
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