Scrofulous Sogolon 111 ing on the studies made by anthropologists, historians, and linguists, who have collected, recorded, and archived the oral traditions transmitted from generation to generation, especially by griots. Perhaps the recording of this immaterial culture will one day allow it to resonate with the material culture extracted— legally or otherwise—from its subsoil. The loss of the archaeological data through clandestine digs is something we must live with because it cannot be undone, but it should not be considered a fatality that forbids us to look at these works, exercise rational thinking, or attempt an interpretation of them. An Extrapolation Concerning Snakes We know of other cases in which artifacts match oral tradition, and we will discuss some of them here because they support our attempts to find ways to understand this material heritage by comparing it with what the griots have to tell us. In 2008, after scanning the IND snake hut (fig. 32) in the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), we recognized what appeared to be a representation of a Mande mythical story.102 The hidden sacrifice scene with female figures within the structure that was revealed by the scanner strongly suggested the myth of the snake, Bida.103 As in the epic genre, there are many variations on the same theme in myths and stories. Generally speaking, the story of Bida, the tutelary serpent that once protected Wagadu, the ancient Ghana Empire, and enabled it to prosper, goes as follows: The serpent received as a sacrifice every year a virgin girl supplied in turn by the clans of Wagadu; this girl had to be the most beautiful in the land. Dressed in all her finery, she was led in a procession with music playing to the edge of the sacred well. Charmed by the rhythm of the tam-tams, the great snake rose up from the well, towering nearly ten meters above the crowd. It then sank back into the well. The musicians played more furiously: the snake appeared a second time and a second time sank back into its lair. When it appeared for the third time, it shook its head, it shook and shook its head, then, as it slid back down, it seized the girl and carried her into the well.104 FIG. 34 (left): Figure of a woman giving birth to a snake. IND region, Mali. 12th–14th century. Terracotta with ochre/red slip. H: 36 cm. Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, inv. 1004-95. © Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva. Photo: Studio Ferrazzini Bouchet, Geneva/Carouge. FIG. 35 (above): CT scans of figure 34, opaque 3D views from two angles. © Dr. Marc Ghysels, Brussels.
T75E_web
To see the actual publication please follow the link above