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Dancing In The Dogon

            
             The topic of dancing in the Dogon religion is discussed in the 28th Day. In the Dogon religion, the primary purpose of the dancing rituals is to guide the souls of the deceased to their ultimate resting place in the family altars and to sanctify their passage to the ranks of the ancestors.
             This ritual of dancing can be traced back to the first days of the world. The jackal had gone onto the roof of his father's house, God, believing that he was dead to mourn for him. The jackal, dressed in the fibre's from his mother's skirt that were full of do umoisture and words, danced and as he did he spoke the first Word revealed by Nummo to the earth. These actions and the dancing traced out the world and its future.
             The first dance, of divination and death, was the one to guide the soul to its resting place. The dance of divination told in the dust the secrets of the Word contained in the fibres worn by the dancer. The purpose of the dance of death was to honor the jackal's father as well as disobey him for having invented the dance.
             The resurrection dance was what consecrated the passage of the dead to the ranks of their ancestors. This dance led the master of Speech to the tomb of the ancestor representing the Word. The end was a swallowing followed by a vomiting, which ejected the outline of the new world-order.
             All of this was to be reproduced in the life of men and enriched by new meanings and new movements. The current day dancers are acting out this original dance done by the jackal. The whole production of the dance and the sounds depicts the order of the universe in color and in movement.
             Dancing is very important to the Dogon religion because they do believe it to describe their world order and the order of the universe as well as their future. Dancing is also important because they are dancing the life of the dead person. They use dancing to celebrate the life of the person they have lost rather than grieve their death.


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  • Word Count: 1520
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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