John Deere Snowmobile South Dakota

Dogon - locks

The Dogon, as other populations of the Sahel of Mali (eg Raman), use of sculptures sometimes quite complex, stylized, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic and always with a clear symbolic value, such as locks on closing the doors of barns or dwellings. The "body" of the lock represents the feminine, while latch wood that is clearly crosses the male symbol of the penetration, if the act of opening is akin to the idea of \u200b\u200blife and birth, alludes to the final closing at the end of life, the death of all things. In the examples shown here

the theme is, except for the final down, one of the turtle: water or land, the turtle is characterized by the Dogon locks in a diamond pattern on the surface of the lock body to represent the scales of shell and the elongated head and is equipped with or without tail. In the last example, however, raised the animal is a bird, anthropomorphized by the presence of the two legs.

The patina of locks, regardless of their age, depends mainly on the position in which they were exposed, whether more or less affected by the weather, and many of these coatings are dried and dehydrated indicator element to understand the actual use are the subject to friction or rubbing that for the real specimen and actually used must be worn in a characteristic way.

Bibliography:

1) Serrures du Pays Dogon

Bilot Alain, Michel Bohbot, Genevieve Calame-Griaule, Francine Ndiaye

and Adam Biro., Paris, 2003

2) Dogon corn encore. ..

AA.VV. - Somogy ed., Paris, 2002