The Eight Ancestors
Dogon · deity · mythic ancestral · Recorded classification
Collective figure for the eight primordial ancestors — four male/female twin couples drawn from the sacrificed Nommo, sent down in the ark, ancestors of the eight families and four Dogon lineages. Authored as one entity because the sources treat them as a set rather than eight stably individuated names.
Parentage
- parent: Nommo
Domains
- ancestral origins
- creation of humankind
- weaving
Powers
- Be drawn as four twin couples from the body of the sacrificed Nommo
- Descend to earth in the ark with all that humankind would need
- Found the eight families and the Dogon lineages
Relations
- sibling: LébéLébé Sérou is one of the eight ancestors / four Sérou eponyms.Griaule & Dieterlen, Le renard pâle (1965) (secondary)
- kin: Dyongou SérouDyongou Sérou is one of the eight ancestors.Griaule & Dieterlen, Le renard pâle (1965) (secondary)
- kin: Binou SérouBinou Sérou is one of the eight ancestors.Griaule & Dieterlen, Le renard pâle (1965) (secondary)
- sibling: Binou SérouFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Nommo) per the figures' cited genealogy.
- sibling: Dyongou SérouFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Nommo) per the figures' cited genealogy.
- sibling: The Smith (Master of Fire)Full sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Nommo) per the figures' cited genealogy.
Sources
- existence: Griaule & Dieterlen, Le renard pâle (Paris, 1965) (secondary)
- role: Griaule, Conversations with Ogotemmêli (1965) (secondary)