Granary Door Granary Door Dogon, Mali Granary Door , Dogon, Mali Wood, Ulfert Wilke Collection purchased with funds from the Friends of the Art Museum, Acc. They live by subsistence farming, mainly of grain crops. Their political structure is based on deification of the Earth. Accordingly, their villages are under the leadership of ritual headmen whose duty it is to maintain good relations between the people and the Earth.
Descent is patrilineal, and marriage residence is with the father's family.
Polygynous marriage is permitted but does not predominate. Members of an outcast group work as blacksmiths and wood and leather craftsmen. The Dogon possess a rich mythology with a symbolic interpretation of the universe in which all persons are described as both male and female in body and in psyche. Their highly developed art forms include representational wood masks and figures. Ancestor worship is important in traditional Dogon religion.