In Dogon Country: Marcel Griaule's Journeys through Africa (Enhanced DVD)

Although Griuale set out on a two year trans-Africa expedition that started in1931, with the intention of introducing African culture to Europeans, his two year journey from Dakar to Djibouti, fueled and funded by the support of an intellectual and artistic community who found it fashionable to show an interest in Africa, ended up revolutionizing anthropology and inspiring a new approach to anthropological research. Not content to merely observe, Giraule befriended  and participated in the lives of the Dogon people of West Africa, in what is now Mali. He lived with them, worked their fields, built bridges, participated in ceremonies, even going so far as to undergo initiation rites. All the while he documented his experiences in a way far more comprehesive than anthropologists of his time,not only with detailed drawings and copious notes but also photographs, making him the first anthropolgist to use film. Now, his grandson shows the same hands-on approach as he retraces Griaule's steps in this 55 minute DVD, including an intervews with a family whose younger members  remembered his grandfather and a 90 year old woman who actually knew him. Weaving together new material with the archival, the DVD explores Dogon rituals surrounding mask-making, market-going, and fighting that still exist today, and visits the museum that marked his grandfather's base of operations. The conclusions Griaule drew about the Dogons may have garnered criticism but no one has ever disputed his contributions to the progress of anthropology.

In Dogon Country: Marcel Griaule's Journeys through Africa

• Enhanced DVD
• ISBN: 978-1-62290-223-1
• Run Time: 55 Minutes
• Copy Right Date: 1997
• CC