Dogon: Africa's People of the Cliffs

By Walter E.A. Vanbeek

In a remote area of Mali, West Africa, the people called Dogon survive today as they have for thousands of years: in mud-brick houses below the Bandiagara cliffs. In the sandy plains, they grow the millet and sorghum they need to live. This arresting photographic portrait allows us privileged access to their traditional way of life, remarkably maintained today even after extensive contact with Western civilization.Stephenie Hollyman's intimate pictures show a tightly knit, cooperative society engaging in daily activities and sacred rituals: planting and harvesting crops, creating crafts, and performing varied religious ceremonies, most notably the masked dances with which the Dogon celebrate the honored burial of their dead. Walter van Beek's engaging narrative displays the authority and observant eye of an anthropologist who has long lived among the people he writes about. This astonishing volume will find a rapt audience among readers of Abrams' acclaimed African Ceremonies and other popularbooks on vanishing African tribal customs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810943735
• ISBN13: 9780810943735
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.3" x 1.0" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Good pictures and very good texts

The book is very good. Make a jorney in one of the Africa most interesting tribe. You will enjoy it. Good for those who have never been among dogons and even for those who have been there. You will find a lot of interesting information. Some pictures are not excellent but anyway I would recommend this book. It is very deep.