Summary
In July 1998, astrophysicist Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud visited the Dogon people of Sanga in Mali along with ethnologists Germaine Dieterlen and Jean Rouch, to study the primary role of the star Sirius in the Dogon cosmogony. Among the Dogon, Sirius is the star of Sigui, one of the most important Dogon ceremonies, which takes place every 60 years. How do the Dogon know that the white dwarf, the star which they call Sigui's companion Tolo, orbits Sirius in 60 years, the same period as that between the ceremonies of Sigui?
