The Word at Face Value

This is an abridgement, with commentary, of an original account of the beginnings of the Universe, by an African people, specifically, the Dogon sages of Mali, in West Africa, first titled "The Pale Fox" and written by the French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. The Dogon account is special, not only because of the sheer elegance of the Dogon worldview, but also because of its echoes of biblical theology, and (given that it comes out of a 700 year old tradition) its remarkable predictions of modern scientific knowledge. Take for instance their knowledge of Sirius B, not discovered by Western scientists until 1862; and Sirius C, indicated to exist by perturbations in the orbit of Sirius B around Sirius A discovered in 1995. How the Dogon without telescopes and other modern technology could have amassed such knowledge so long ago is still a mystery fervently debated today.