Conversations With Ogotemmeli is the telling of a white, European anthropologist's journey into Dogon culture of Africa. Written in the 40s, this text does little to appear scholarly, instead seeming like a meandering tale of some wild adventure. The beginning of the writing, written like a story, tells of the European's daily lives living amongst the Dogon people. We read of them waking up, taking care of sick natives, and doing research. It goes on to tell of how one of the Europeans received a cryptic invitation from a respected local philosopher and wise man. The European goes to the man's house with his African assistant, and there they meet Ogotemmeli. Ogotemmeli was once a great hunter but after an accident became blind, and spent the remainder of his years on pursuits of the mind, becoming renowned thinker. Ogotemmeli knew of the Europeans, and wanted to tell them of his culture himself.
The European is used to hearing the Dogon's lying to them of their customs and culture, and is eager to hear from such a well known Dogon about such things. The European never offers any more explanation for Ogotemmeli's actions except for saying that he had been waiting for fifteen years to impart his knowledge of his people on to a European. The European throughout makes assumptions of what Ogotemmeli is thinking and feeling, at times making it seem as if he is baffled as to how he could approach the European.
Ogotemmeli goes on to explain the Dogon origin story. The story is one of sex, disorder, and the restoration of order. The story is deeply concerned with gender, balance, numbers, language, order and disorder. the story connects the origin of life and humans with the order of the universe brought about by language.
There was also a lot said about the balance of the sexes, and that how originally men and women had the essence of both sexes in them, but how one would often take over and grow stronger than the other. This I thought was speaking about how balance is ideal, and can never be perfectly acheived, and that it will never last. This I thought was saying that humans almost represented disorder in the universe. But I could just be looking too far into it.
All of the talk of gender and balance, however, made me think of the documentry Southern Comfort that we watched in class about transgender people living in the south of the United States. The people featured in that documentry were people who were born one gender, but feel that they are actually the other. Throughout the film we see these people doing all they can to embody the gender that they feel they actually are. Instead of embracing both genders as the people in the Dogon myth may have, they disregard one and embrace the other. In the Dogon myth those first people born with the spirits of both genders were circumsised in order to remove the less dominant gender, as it created a conflict within them.
6 comments:
I think that the gender discussion in Conversations With Ogotemmeli is proof, if ever there was testimony, that gender is a social assignment. I thought it was interesting that you associated it with the film “Southern Comfort,” because it had crossed my mind several times throughout the reading. The idea of having both genders within them is pretty parallel to the narrative of Robert Eads, who was at one time a woman. He even experienced marriage and birthing children. Although he said he always felt like a man, he did not allow that gender (sex) to dominate until later on. I am assuming that Ogotemmeli was referring to the fact that this is the spiritual explanation for the biological idea that people begin as an ambiguous gender and then one begins to govern. This brings me to the idea that Ogotemmeli tells the European the story of origin, which is the Dogon version of our “creation story.” This reminds us of the fact that the Dogon’s beliefs are not inferior, as alluded to, but are just as complex as our own. Man is always trying to clarify the unexplainable.
As i began reading "Coversations with Ogotemmeli" i was interested and curious, the way the article began in the form of a story drew me to wonder what this piece was about. After the first few pages i had the same thought came into my mind, what was how closely related this article is with "Southern Comfort" And how even though they were born with male or female organs, that was not their true identity. I honestly can not understand how this can be, i believe that if you are born a male or female than it was what God intended. Overall i felt as if i was siiting through another episode of "Southern Comfort".
I think that it's important to note that the story incorporates the power of language and its emergence in different cultures. It is through language that we communicate our ideas, our stereotypes and our biases. We can communicate our confusion through the commoniality of language. This ties into the theme that continues out through much of the excerpt about order and disorder and the quest for balance. Order can be gained through the creation of language, yet disorder, chaos and complications can further rise as a result of the self expression that language allows.
Like the original bloggger and the previous commenter suggested, this article is proof that gender is a social construction of modern day times. To quote from the excerpt-"Man's life was not capable of supporting both beings: each person would have to merge himself into the sex for which he appeared to bebest fitted" And that is perhaps what has happened in our society today, we have adapted to the sex to which we are "best fitted" but maybe we have two essences of sexes within us. The film, "Southern Comfort" visually illustrates how one can have both sexes within them, and it is possible to actively acknowledge that.
Therefore, it can be said that our society from the beginning of time has been looking for a balance, and it is unclear as to if we have achieved it in this complex world which we all reside.
I like what you said about the imbalance of gender in people possibly representing a natural disorder in the world. It made me think of how most plants and animals are able to live among each other in harmony, and yet there is often conflict between humans. I think that the Dogon's religion is trying to state that the only way for people to live peacefully together is to come to terms with who they are, which would mean embracing only one gender.
Great connection to Southern Comfort. I think that film really helps prove your point. The trans-gender people in Southern Comfort could be seen as people who have embraced the gender that they believe they truly fit into, despite the fact that their bodies say otherwise. These people are able to live happily among each other, but face a great deal of criticism from others. The fact that there exists these opposing values and morals may enforce the Dogon's idea of a worldly disorder.
I think it is very interesting how there are some similarities to Christianity in Ogotemmeli's religion. He speaks of one true God who created man and woman. And the jackal reminded me of the Devil.
I have to say after reading this blog that I'm surprised I didn't think of "Southern Comfort" while reading this piece. I can't help but wonder what Robert and all the other characters from that film would think if they read about Ogotemmeli.
The film “Southern Comfort” really does create a great parallel with the gender issues discussed in this reading. Ogotemmeli tries to explain that we are born, in essence, with both sexes but eventually one takes over the other and therefore we are categorized by our “stronger sex”. Southern Comfort examines the struggle modern day transgender people face with their stronger sexes. While the mainstream society thinks that whatever is between our legs determines our gender, transgender people believe that it is more than physical features. Both of these works make the statement that gender is just an idea created by man looking to balance things into categories. But when is balance really ever created? Is it physical characteristics or individual mentality that provide this balance of genders? Can the world ever be balanced or “ordered” if we can’t find balance within ourselves?
Post a Comment