Men's bracelet

The stone bracelet used to be worn by the Dogon men on the forearm; today, it is practically not used. Stone is an essential element in traditional Dogon construction. The specialists who deal with splitting natural rocks into blocks are dumon vognonne - stonemasons. Stone is a raw material that is also used in crafts and worship. The Dogon believe that a stone, a fetish (an object imbued with magical power), is a material exemplification of the bond with supernatural forces. According to one of the myths, stone fetishes come from the tomb where the mythical ancestor Lebe Serou (Lebe Seru) was buried - one of eight ancestors born from the first pair of human beings created by Amma, the creator god. When the Dogon had to leave their ancestral homeland, the country of Mande, they decided to take the remains of their ancestor and the land where he was buried. When they opened the grave, however, they found a snake surrounded by stones. The snake accompanied them on their journey to the place where they decided to settle, while the earth they took from the grave was used to form the first altar, and the stones were used as fetishes to give each Dogon village its Lebe ancestor.

Katarzyna Findlik-Gawron