Shutter, Possibly for a Granary

The main types of architectural sculpture among the Dogon are supporting posts for the togu na (men’s meeting shelters) and shutters and doors for granaries and houses. Granaries are narrow, four-sided, mud-brick structures with thatched roofs; the shuttered windows enable the owner’s access to the goods stored inside. Shutters are secured either with a wooden lock or by sealing the edges with mud, and they would have swung open on pivots set into the sill and lintel of the window. This shutter is highly unusual in that it is carved on both sides. The subject matter of the carving—two rows of seven abstract figures—suggests the function of the architecture as storage for food and goods crucial to the well-being and nurturing of humans and by extension the proliferation of Dogon society.