Dogon Of Mali Research Articles

Conserving Millet with Potash : Towards a Dogon Epistemology of Materials

In a climatically challenging environment, over time, the Dogon in Mali (West Africa) have developed technical strategies to cope with the scarcity of food resources and conserve millet, their subsistence crop. Millet stalk ash and potash, produced by leaching and heating ashes, are commonly used for conserving millet in granaries as well as cooked foods. In light of the anthropology of techniques, and by using operational sequences as a core methodology for field data collection and analysis, this paper explores the traditional conservation techniques used by Dogon men and women in the village of Kani Komolé, located in the Tengu kan linguistic area. This approach focuses on the material aspect of this technical system of conservation: preservation and transformation are considered as a set of material practices involving generative materials such as millet potash, which is produced out of millet ashes obtained from the combustion of millet straws and shaft. Potash is considered both as a property of ashes and as the material that results from their transformation. Through an examination of processes used for the transformation of millet – including the use of fire – this collection of operational sequences highlights implicit forms of meaning such as belief systems about materials, the ritualization of tasks and symbolic aspects of the conservation techniques, which all form part of the Dogon definition and practice of conservation. In this perspective, this paper documents the Dogon’s conservation system, based on the social aspects of millet consumption and on the cereal’s temporality. In addition, this system stems from a Dogon epistemology of materials, based on the Dogon’s understanding of the material efficacy of millet potash – that is, this substance’s inherent power as a set of active properties with relation to healing, enhancing, neutralizing spells and preserving. In this perspective, by considering millet’s material relations within the broader daily social environment of the Dogon, this paper examines both what happens when Dogon men and women prepare food for the purpose of conservation, make it ‘preservable’, and the effect of potash on foodstuffs and on the people who consume them.

Semantics and the Study of Religion

AbstractThis essay argues that the approach to meaning articulated by Donald Davidson supplies all the student of religion needs to know about this subject. By focusing on interpretation as understood by Davidson, we can understand, for example, the beliefs and practices of a people such as the Dogon of Mali. By adding to this the evidence of ethnography and history, students of religion can give a compelling account of change and adjudicate between competing analyses.

Indigenous African Education for Socio- Economic Development

Education in Africa has been in existence since time immemorial. This study sought to examine the activities of Lantana in Benin on their specialised training, Dogon of Mali in their world view, Futo Toro of Senegal in their various trades, Poro of Sierra Leone in the training of the youth, Takensi of Ghana in their social order and the Akan of Ghana. Also examined are the activities of the Chamba and Yoruba of Nigeria in their adult centred training and forecasting of the future respectively. The Chagga of Tanzania and the Abakwayaare were also examined on their initiative plays and economic activities. The paper also studied the Ndembu of Zambia on the past analysis and the activities of the Mijikenda of Kenya among other Kenyan tribes. The study used the theoretical framework of Emile Durkheim on the social and moral order, while the design of the study was on content analysis of available information and expectations. The study recommends positive approaches in the indigenouseducation that can be adapted, mainly for Kenya in its desire to achieve Vision 2030. However, further research should be done on specific values, foods, attitudes and the rule of law, how achieve social, political and economic progress in African nations and especially how the current economic integration blocks have followed the same pattern of the communities and their values.

Interaction between environment, nutrient-derived metabolites and immunity: A possible role in malaria susceptibility/resistance in Fulani and Dogon of Mali

The role of some nutrient-derived metabolites on the innate and adaptive immune responses is now established. Global research approach investigating the interplay between environment, lifestyle and the host’s immune responses is crucial in the understanding of malaria susceptibility. Advanced Glycation end products (AGE), which are food-derived metabolites result from the link between reducing sugar and amino group of proteins, lipids or nucleic acids. The level of exposure to AGEs varies depending on the type of diet. The dysfunction of the immune system induced by AGE and the cellular receptors for AGEs (RAGE) in susceptibility to bacterial infection has been described. But no study has yet explored their role in susceptibility to malaria. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate systemic AGE and RAGE gene polymorphism in two sympatric populations with previously described difference of susceptibility to malaria. We measured by ELISA the plasma levels of AGEs, and their soluble receptors (sRAGE) from 170 volunteers (68 Fulani and 102 Dogon). We also determined by real-time quantitative PCR the expression of RAGE, and the -374 T/A, -429 T/C polymorphisms and 63 bp deletion by fragment length restriction polymorphism. The prevalence rate of Plasmodium in Fulani and Dogon were respectively 42.64% and 51.30% for P. falciparum, 5.88% and 6.5% for P. malariae, 0% and 2.6% for P. ovale. The average AGE was 12.65 μg/ml, and 496.48pg/ml for sRAGE. Highest levels of sRAGE were observed in Fulani (563,07pg/ml, 95% CI [547.81–580.13] vs 465.68pg/ml, 95% CI [331.19–467.51]) for Dogon, p = 0.00001. Fulani had the lowest mean of AGE (10.21μg/ml, 95% CI [8.02–10.92]) compared to Dogon (16.88μg/ml, 95% CI [13.92–17.96]; p = 0.00001. RAGE was more expressed in Dogon than Fulani (0.08 vs 0.04), P = 0.08. The -374A polymorphism vas more frequent in Fulani (32%) compared to Dogon (20%). The chronic exposure to dietary AGE could lead to immune responses impairment and polymorphism with implications in malaria susceptibility. More studies are necessary to better investigate this hypothesis.

What Explains Patrilineal Cooperation?

Evolutionary anthropologists have proposed that unilineal kinship promotes collective action and that patriliny occurs when the reproductive payoff from passing wealth to sons is greater than that for daughters. We assess both of these theoretical perspectives as well as indirect reciprocity and kin selection as possible contributors to patrilineal cooperation in the Dogon of Mali. The mean coefficient of relatedness for males (N = 4,724) in 31 Dogon patrilineages is r = 0.03, which is very low (akin to second cousins). However, relatedness in the 638 work-eat groups (WEGs) that make up the patrilineages is very high (r = 0.32), or greater than for half siblings. Indirect reciprocity and collective action explain cooperation among fictive kin in the patrilineage as a whole: the old men at the apex of the lineage help to stabilize cooperation by using their gerontocratic authority to punish cheaters. However, kin selection is a more useful theory for explaining cooperative behavior within WEGs, and both qu...

Diario de máscaras by Luisa Valenzuela

artist. Earlier, that chapter seems to violate one of Schmidt’s guidelines against strictly geographical grouping, when that great locomotive of modern southern writing —as Flannery O’Connor once called Faulkner—leads a train of his southern compatriots, including O’Connor. Granted, they did not suffer by following. The Novel: A Biography is well conceived and superbly written. My bookmarks indicate five different pages that I will go back to. I recommend Schmidt for all those on the hunt for something new or perhaps just a novel like a novel you liked. W. M. Hagen Oklahoma Baptist University Luisa Valenzuela. Diario de máscaras. Buenos Aires. Capital Intelectual. 2014. isbn 9789876144612 Masks, among other things, may be monstrous or cute ambassadors of distant secrets, peoples, and truths. By cataloging her masks, passionately accumulated while traveling, Diario de máscaras enables us to trace the random outlines of what writing , traveling, and living have in common for Luisa Valenzuela: the intense need to avoid the plan, to get lost. Valenzuela’s new travelogue brings with it the undeniable fascination of distant peoples and places— from the equatorial jungle to the Dogon in Mali, Amazonia, Papua New Guinea, China, India, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Egypt, and the Argentinean Chaco Salteño—as “narrated” by her masks. Valenzuela confesses : “Every one of my masks is for me like a book. They tell me many stories.” She also suggests that masks show rather than hide and that traveling and getting lost imply, for her, a need to write. Writing, for Valenzuela, is not different than traveling because she believes in “writing with the body, putting every one of the cells in movement to create, which is in itself a discovery process,” and her approach to both is similar in its lack of structure, where the technique is getting lost, probably because “the big surprises emerge from the unexpected. There is nothing like getting lost to better find ourselves.” This technique brings us closer to the places and peoples of her stories, letting us, if only for a minute, inhabit their masks. In Diario de máscaras, Valenzuela adopts the anthropologist’s role, which she had “lent” to Marcela Osorio, the main character of her novel La travesía (2001; see WLT, Spring 2002, 238), to produce a diary rather than a complete and organized description of places and cultures, with the purpose of “showing the scraps of her trips.” As in her novels—in which, she explained in a 2001 newspaper interview with María Moreno, “I don’t have structure. I never assemble a novel knowing where it is taking me. They tend to be exploration texts”—her diary feels like a set of exploratory texts and suggestions about places. While one could say that the irony of Valenzuela’s new book is that she commits the sins she warns against—to provide a guide, to suggest a route—the call to get lost and the value system she outlines redeem her from such sins. Diario de máscaras packs the same positions that characterize Valenzuela’s work— herengagementwithsocialcauses,feminism, and sustainability—in the form of a travelogue that stops to reflect on the responsibility of travelers: to avoid stealing the meaning of places, peoples, and masks; the cultural role of women as creators of the masks and therefore of deeper meaning; and the need for travelers to behave like true anthropologists and to try not to contaminate the setting with their presence. Diario is a guide of sorts to situations and an art of traveling that invites readers to go on their own trips to places and among peoples and therefore into a deeper understanding of themselves. Carolina Sitya-Nin University of Oklahoma Clive Watkins Already the Flames Waywiser Press / Dufour Editions While the opening poems in this eightpart work depict a demon’s attack on a pilgrim, Already the Flames opaquely moves from dismay to deliverance. Much like the alternating themes of antipathy and adjustment, Clive Watkins’s extensive range of style vacillates between rhymed verse and unrhymed prose. Through keen observation, this powerful selection of poems sharpens one’s perspective on perpetrator and willing observer alike. Nota Bene STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP...

Youth Mobility in an Isolated Sahelian Population of Mali

This article uses fieldwork collected in four villages of the Sarnyéré Dogon in Mali between 2002 and 2010 to explore the impact of unprecedented individual youth mobility. This small Sahelian population has been challenged by declining natural resources and an opening up to the outside world. Temporary migration of families before each rainy season or harvest has always been part of this population’s adaptation to an arid environment, but youth mobility, especially among girls, is new. Although migration is short term and over relatively short distances, it is an increasingly prevalent alternative to agricultural subsistence strategies. Whereas economic reasons underpin boys’ mobility, for young unmarried girls, the predominant driving force is the discovery of the outside world. Broadly speaking, youth migration in this population is one part of changing intergenerational and gender relations and is especially related to youths’ more individual choices of spouse.

Wild Silk Textiles of the Dogon of Mali: The Production, Material Efficacy, and Cultural Significance of Sheen

This article examines wild silk woven wrappers of the Dogon of Mali. These luxury cloths called tombe toun that are worn and valued by Dogon women for their sheen embody prestige for ceremonies as well as they act as a material identity and a form of meta-language. In this article, I discuss the indigenous concept of sheen as expressed through the production and usages of wild silk wrappers. I show that from a Dogon point of view, sheen mainly refers to a living force called daoula inherent to wild silk. daoula as a kind of “aura” of the textile embraces the medicinal and magic properties of wild silk but also its durability, strength and material brilliance. These are drawn out of the cocoons and threads by use of technical transformative processes and through wearing the wrapper, which acts as a marker of social visibility and of which daoula empowers the wearer. I suggest that the cultural significance attached to Dogon wild silk material and textiles that symbolize Dogon social values such as personal worth, wealth, and social status, rests on the particular materiality of sheen and therefore the efficacy of this animal secreted material.

Cooperation and competition in a cliff-dwelling people

In animals that breed cooperatively, adult individuals will sometimes delay reproduction to act as helpers at the nest who raise young that are not their genetic offspring. It has been proposed that humans are also a cooperatively breeding species because older daughters, grandmothers, and other kin and nonkin may provide significant childcare. Through a prospective cohort study of children's (n = 1,700) growth and survival in the Dogon of Mali, I show that cooperative breeding theory is a poor fit to the family dynamics of this population. Rather than helping each other, siblings competed for resources, producing a tradeoff between the number of maternal siblings and growth and survival. It did not take a village to raise a child; children fared the same in nuclear as in extended families. Of critical importance was the degree of polygyny, which created conflicts associated with asymmetries in genetic relatedness. The risk of death was higher and the rate of growth was slower in polygynous than monogamous families. The hazard of death for Dogon children was twofold higher if the resident paternal grandmother was alive rather than dead. This finding may reflect the frailty of elderly grandmothers who become net consumers rather than net producers in this resource-poor society. Mothers were of overwhelming importance for child survival and could not be substituted by any category of kin or nonkin. The idea of cooperative breeding taken from animal studies is a poor fit to the complexity and diversity of kin interactions in humans.

Early Interferon‐γ Response againstPlasmodium falciparumCorrelates with Interethnic Differences in Susceptibility to Parasitemia between Sympatric Fulani and Dogon in Mali

Interethnic differences in susceptibility to malaria provide a unique opportunity to explore immunological correlates of protection. The Fulani of Sahelian Africa are known for their reduced susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum, compared with surrounding tribes, yet the immunology underlying this is still poorly understood. Here, we show that mononuclear cells from Fulani elicit >10-fold stronger interferon (IFN)-gamma production following a 24-h in vitro coincubation with asexual parasites than cells from sympatric Dogon. This response appears to be specific for P. falciparum among a panel of other human pathogens and is independent of the lower number of regulatory T cell counts present in Fulani. IFN-gamma responses in both tribes were inversely correlated with peripheral parasite density as quantified by nucleic acid sequenced-based amplification, but responses of Fulani remained significantly stronger than those of Dogon after adjustment for concurrent parasitemia, suggesting that hard-wired immunological differences underlie the observed protection. These results underscore the value of early IFN-gamma responses to P. falciparum as a correlate of anti-parasite immunity, not only in this setting but also in the wider context of malaria, and support the development of malaria vaccines aimed at inducing such responses.

The Social Production and Symbolism of Cloth and Clothing among the Dogon of Mali

The Social Production and Symbolism of Cloth and Clothing among the Dogon of Mali

Associations between the IL-4 -590 T allele and Plasmodium falciparum infection prevalence in asymptomatic Fulani of Mali

In this study, we compared the genotype and allele frequencies of the IL-10 -1087 A/G and IL-4 -590 C/T single nucleotide polymorphisms in asymptomatic subjects of two sympatric ethnic tribes differing in susceptibility to malaria, the Fulani and the Dogon in Mali. The genotype data was correlated with ethnicity and malariometric indexes. A statistically significant inter-ethnic difference in allele and genotype frequency for both loci was noted ( P < 0.0001). Within the Fulani, the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infection, as detected by both microscopy and PCR, was associated with the IL-4 -590 T allele ( P = 0.005 and P = 0.0005, respectively), whereas, no such associations were seen in the Dogon. Inter-ethnic differences in spleen rates, higher in the Fulani than the Dogon, were seen between T carriers (TT and CT) of both groups ( P < 0.0001). Parasite densities and number of concurrent clones did not vary between IL-4 genotypes within any of the studied groups. These results suggest an association between the IL-4 -590 T allele and P. falciparum prevalence within the Fulani but not the Dogon. No associations between IL-10 genotypes and studied malariometric indexes were observed in any of the two communities.

Different antibody- and cytokine-mediated responses to Plasmodium falciparum parasite in two sympatric ethnic tribes living in Mali

The Fulani are known to be less susceptible to Plasmodium falciparum malaria infections and to have lower parasitaemia despite living under similar malaria transmission intensity compared with other ethnic tribes. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the Fulani were more polarised towards Th2 as reflected by higher numbers of malaria-specific IL-4- and IL-10-producing cells and lower numbers of IFN-γ- and IL-12-producing cells as compared to their neighbour ethnic tribe, the Dogon of Mali. Total IgE and both anti-malaria IgE and IgG antibodies were measured by ELISA and the numbers of IL-4-, IFN-γ-, IL-10- and IL-12-producing cells were enumerated using enzyme-linked ImmunoSpot assay (ELISPOT). Numbers of parasite clones were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The study was performed outside the transmission period and all individuals included were asymptomatic. The results revealed that the Fulani were less parasitised, had fewer circulating parasite clones in their blood, had significantly higher anti-malaria IgG and IgE antibodies and higher proportions of malaria-specific IL-4- and IFN-γ-producing cells compared to the Dogon. The higher antigen-specific production of IL-4 among the Fulani was statistically significant both before and after adjustment for level of spontaneous cytokine production, while greater IFN-γ production only attained statistical significance after adjustment for spontaneous levels. Taken together, the association of higher anti-malarial IgE and IgG antibodies and increased numbers of specific IL-4- and IFN-γ-producing cells compared to the ethnic sympatric tribe, the Dogon, may assist in explaining the lower susceptibility to malaria observed in the Fulani.

African Tourist Encounters: Effects of Tourism on Two West African Societies

AbstractThis article compares encounters with tourism in two African communities, the Dogon in Mali and the Kapsiki in north Cameroon. The societies are comparable in many respects, but the effects on them of the tourist presence quite different. The Dogon react to tourism by bolstering their cultural pride and self esteem, and they develop inventive ways of gearing their cultural performances to tourist demands without compromising the rituals to which the performances belong. For them, the tourist presence signals the importance and intrinsic interest of Dogon culture. The Cameroonian Kapsiki (called Higi in north Nigeria) interpret the attention bestowed upon them and their country as indicating that they are marginal, living at the rim of the habitable world. They translate the tourist quest for ‘authenticity’ as being ‘backward’ and left out. The reasons for these different reactions are traced to processes inherent in cultural tourism, to the specific agenda of tourism in either place, and to some characteristics of the host '. The overall effect of tourist encounters with local communities seems to be to reinforce existing patterns of identity construction and to restate the images of the relevant ‘other’ already current in those cultures.

Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture

Pondering the origins of the world and their own ancestry, African societies often sought to provide answers to these and other perplexing concepts in their oral traditions, poetry and art. The Bamana people of Mali, for example, attributed the invention of agriculture and their understanding of the earth, animals and plants to a mythical hero called Chi Wara, shown in sculptural form as a roan antelope. The elegant Chi Wara headdresses were created in wood in male-female pairs and worn during agricultural ceremonies. This volume examines the Chi Wara headdress as an icon of African sculpture and presents 40 examples of this well-known form. Major artistic traditions in other African societies - including the Dogon of Mali; the Yoruba of Nigeria; the Bwa, Bobo, Kurumba and Mossi of Burkina Faso; the Kuba and Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the Chokwe of Angola and Zambia - are also discussed in terms of the distinctive cultural perspectives and local traditions that inspired them. The masterworks featured and analyzed are drawn from public and private collections in the United States.

Life-history theory, fertility and reproductive success in humans.

According to life-history theory, any organism that maximizes fitness will face a trade-off between female fertility and offspring survivorship. This trade-off has been demonstrated in a variety of species, but explicit tests in humans have found a positive linear relationship between fitness and fertility. The failure to demonstrate a maximum beyond which additional births cease to enhance fitness is potentially at odds with the view that human fertility behaviour is currently adaptive. Here we report, to our knowledge, the first clear evidence for the predicted nonlinear relationship between female fertility and reproductive success in a human population, the Dogon of Mali, West Africa. The predicted maximum reproductive success of 4.1+/-0.3 surviving offspring was attained at a fertility of 10.5 births. Eighty-three per cent of the women achieved a lifetime fertility level (7-13 births) for which the predicted mean reproductive success was within the confidence limits (3.4 to 4.8) for reproductive success at the optimal fertility level. Child mortality, rather than fertility, was the primary determinant of fitness. Since the Dogon people are farmers, our results do not support the assumptions that: (i) contemporary foragers behave more adaptively than agriculturalists, and (ii) that adaptive fertility behaviour ceased with the Neolithic revolution some 9000 years ago. We also present a new method that avoids common biases in measures of reproductive success.

Hemoglobin C associated with protection from severe malaria in the Dogon of Mali, a West African population with a low prevalence of hemoglobin S

AbstractThe malaria hypothesis proposes a survival advantage for individuals with hemoglobin variants in areas of endemicPlasmodium falciparummalaria. Hemoglobin C (HbC) is a possible example in West Africa, where this hemoglobin has a centric distribution with high frequencies among certain populations including the Dogon ethnic group. To test whether HbC is associated with protection from malaria, we performed a case-control study in the Dogon of Bandiagara, Mali. HbC was present in 68 of 391 (17.4%) of uncomplicated malaria control cases, whereas it was detected in only 3 of 67 cases (4.5%) of severe malaria (odds ratio [OR], 0.22;P = .01). Further, HbC was present in only 1 of 34 cases (2.9%) with cerebral manifestations, the most common presentation of severe malaria in this population (OR, 0.14; P = .03). Episodes of uncomplicated malaria and parasitemias (4800-205 050/μL) were identified in cases of homozygous HbC (HbCC), which indicates thatP falciparum parasites are able to efficiently replicate within HbCC erythrocytes in vivo. These findings suggest that HbC does not protect against infection or uncomplicated malaria but can protect against severe malaria in the Dogon population of Bandiagara, Mali. The data also suggest that the protective effect associated with HbC may be greater than that of HbS in this population.

Hemoglobin C associated with protection from severe malaria in the Dogon of Mali, a West African population with a low prevalence of hemoglobin S

The malaria hypothesis proposes a survival advantage for individuals with hemoglobin variants in areas of endemicPlasmodium falciparum malaria. Hemoglobin C (HbC) is a possible example in West Africa, where this hemoglobin has a centric distribution with high frequencies among certain populations including the Dogon ethnic group. To test whether HbC is associated with protection from malaria, we performed a case-control study in the Dogon of Bandiagara, Mali. HbC was present in 68 of 391 (17.4%) of uncomplicated malaria control cases, whereas it was detected in only 3 of 67 cases (4.5%) of severe malaria (odds ratio [OR], 0.22;P = .01). Further, HbC was present in only 1 of 34 cases (2.9%) with cerebral manifestations, the most common presentation of severe malaria in this population (OR, 0.14; P = .03). Episodes of uncomplicated malaria and parasitemias (4800-205 050/μL) were identified in cases of homozygous HbC (HbCC), which indicates thatP falciparum parasites are able to efficiently replicate within HbCC erythrocytes in vivo. These findings suggest that HbC does not protect against infection or uncomplicated malaria but can protect against severe malaria in the Dogon population of Bandiagara, Mali. The data also suggest that the protective effect associated with HbC may be greater than that of HbS in this population.

Menstrual cycling and breast cancer: an evolutionary perspective.

This article attempts to bridge the disciplinary gap between evolutionary biology and clinical studies of women's health. The resulting dialogue is predicted to have useful implications for research aimed at the prevention of women's reproductive cancers. The specific focus is on the relationship between breast cancer and exposure to ovarian hormones during normal menstrual cycling. The clinician's view of normal cycling is radically different from that uncovered by evolutionary studies of noncontracepting populations. This point is illustrated by data on the Dogon of Mali, a traditional West African population with a mean of 8.6 +/- 0.3 live births per woman. The Dogon data include hormonal profiles (urinary estrone-3-glucuronide and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide) of 93 women (sampled twice weekly for 10 weeks) and a census of women's visits to menstrual huts (n = 736 days). Dogon women menstruated regularly only if they were sterile. Otherwise, women aged 20-34 years had a median of only two menses each over the 2-year study period. The median number of menses per lifetime was approximately 100, about a third as many as experienced by an American woman who had three live births. These results contribute to a growing body of evidence that women's bodies were designed by natural selection to spend most of the time in lactational amenorrhea and add support to the view that contraceptives can be made safer if they forego the hormonal swings associated with menstruation. This conclusion is further reinforced by evidence that menstrual bleeding serves no adaptive purpose.

The public health significance of urinary schistosomiasis as a cause of morbidity in two districts in Mali.

Schistosoma haematobium-related morbidity was studied in the perennial irrigation area of Office du Niger and the small reservoirs area of Plateau Dogon in Mali. Questionnaire, clinical, parasitologic, and ultrasound examination data were collected from 1,041 individuals at the baseline survey in 1991; 705 were re-examined one year after treatment. At baseline, the overall prevalence of S. haematobium infection was 55.2%; half of those infected had no clinical symptoms and 30% had pathologic lesions. Both infection and morbidity were more frequent in children than in adults, with a peak prevalence at 7-14 years of age. The rates of lesions were more than twice as high in those heavily infected as in lightly infected individuals. Reagent strip testing for microhematuria was more sensitive in detecting individuals with pathologic lesions than in detecting individuals with infection. One year after treatment with praziquantel, more than 80% of the urinary tract lesions had cleared. It is concluded that S. haematobium-related morbidity is frequent in Mali, but passive case detection for treatment would not cover a great deal of early stages of the disease; active intervention using reagent strip testing for microhematuria at the most peripheral levels would be an efficient system for morbidity control and monitoring of control operations.