THE “FEEDBACK EFFECT” IN MODERN DOGON CULTURE (MALI)

Abstract

The ‘Feedback effect’ is a phenomenon of a ‘feedback’, repeatedly described for discussing the oral tradition: Back in 1982, German ethnologist David Henige noted that researchers of African traditional cultures more and more often encounter the practice when they are recounted the results of the field materials of their predecessors. In all such cases, informants reproduce the works of anthropologists, but the authenticity of recorded traditions in general is beyond doubt. That is not the case with Dogon. The example of this people shows that the phenomenon of ‘feedback’ can not only complicate the work of anthropologists, but also contribute to the growth of ethnic and national identity. Myths borrowed from anthropological literature began to penetrate rural folklore with the development of tourism in the 1990s– 2000s. But the purposeful imposition of a united mythology ‘according to Griaule’ began to play a very important role in the development of ethnic and national identity. The most important role belongs here to the festivals of Ogobagnia. Thus, using the example of the Dogon, one can see a kind of a ‘secondary’ mythology version based on the phenomenon of feedback. The imposition of this ideology is still opposed by local traditions and local folklore, which are very different from the “Dogon mirage” introduced by intellectuals, as well as local customs and rituals, sometimes having little in common with each other; so far, the linguistic and cultural diversity of the ethno-social organism of the Dogon has resisted the pressure of these myths, but perhaps the day is not far off when not only in the Sangha, but also in Semari and Tintan, visitors will be told about Nommo and Sirius names which do not exist (sigu tolo or pô tolo), and the mythology of the Dogon will really turn into a harmonious, but artificial system.