From: rxga@ulysses.att.com (Rick Greer)
Subject: Re: request info on Dogon tribe; any taker
Summary: info from (new) Baker and Nickell book
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 16:18:24 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Followup-To: sci.skeptic

Here's what Robert Baker and Joe Nickell have to 
say about this Dogon issue in their book "Missing Pieces" (1992)
Prometheus Press ISBN 0-87975-729-9

"Another ancient astronaut theorist, Robert Temple (1976), advances
a specific theory of extraterrestrial visitation.  His book
`The Sirius Mystery' argues that beings from the Sirius solar
system visited a West African tribe known as the Dogon over one
thousand years ago.  Temple's  main argument is not new.  It is
that Dogon legends provide accurate astronomical information
about a dwarf star in the Sirius system -- a star, known
as Sirius B, that was not discovered until 1862, although
the Dogon legends are supposed much earlier.

"As it happens, investigators discredited the claim on various grounds,
Ridpath (1978),for example, demonstrated that the Sirius system
is incapable of supporting life.  Moreover, he and others have,
by careful analysis of the claims, shown that the Dogon's knowledge
about Sirius B corresponded to the astronomical thinking of the 1920s,
a time when European missionaries had begun to visit them.  Thus, it would 
appear that  `When westerners in the early twentieth century learned
of the Dogon's interest in Sirius, they told them of Sirius B
and that information was incorporated into the legends' (Hines 1988,
p. 218)"

    Ridpath,I. 1978.  Messages from the Stars.  New York, Harper Row.
    Hines, R. 1988.  Pseudoscience and the Paranormal.  Prometheus Books.

The first part of the Baker-Nickell book consists of a description
of the paranormal landscape and how good scientists can investigate it.
The second part consists of applications of these principles to UFOs,
ghosts, and other specific paranormal areas.

There are many, many references in this book for the further
edification of the reader.  And there is a lot of helpful, sound
information throughout.

Sadly, at least in the UFO chapter, they (remarkably) violate
many of the principles they espouse in the first part:  they
engage in sarcastic, ad hominem attacks, they appeal to authority,
they argue against one case and then imply that they have just
dispensed with all of the cases, and some of their arguments
have holes you could drive a truck through.  

    For example, their explanation of UFOs in Sweden 
from 1939 through a big flap in 1946 (p. 188)
(`In 1946, the Swedish Defense Staff received over 200 reports of
cigar-shaped objects -- some with wings -- many of which were
seen in broad daylight.'), is that German V1/V2 rockets were
responsible.  Well, my understanding is the Nazis didn't have
the rockets in 1939, they certainly weren't firing them in 1946,
and when they were firing them, they were firing them at England,
not Sweden.  Their argument that UFO flaps feed on themselves
is weak here if the presumed stimulus (V1/V2 rockets) are totally
missing from the skies.

    But nonetheless, there is a lot of useful and thought-provoking
information in this book and I'm happy I bought it.  On the bright
side, you can look forward to the fruitful application of the 
investigative principles you read in the first part to the material
in the second half.

Rick Greer

`standard disclaimer`