Demographic anthropology in the study of matrimonial exchanges in a Dogon isolate

Abstract

The Dogon population of Boni lives in the south-Sahelian bush of Mali, on several abrupt mountains. It forms a community within which each of its members finds a spouse. This criterion of membership is based on a concept of population taken in the “genetic sense”. This population is small (5000 persons approximately) and it forms a genetic isolate. Matrimonial exchanges are very important in the process of evolution of populations thus it can be useful to construct explanatory models. Different analysis levels allow to better describe a phenomenon resulting from a complex system of interdependent factors. -the global analysis is quantitative and shows the high endogamic level observed within each village and each mountain, -the qualitative analysis, motivated by a genetic study associated to criteria of choice of the spouse. -an anthropological analysis will be presented as a third possible level in the matrimonial market analysis. It consists of investigating alliance cycles based on the study of brother-sister pairs and implying three marriages. The high frequency of the type of cycle raises questions and incites to researching a coherent interpretation.