DIETERLEN, GERMAINE (1903–1999), a towering figure in French ethnography, is especially known for her exhaustive documentation of the Dogon of Mali. In 1931 she joined the famous ethnographic expedition, the Dakar-Djibouti mission, led by Marcel Griaule (1898–1956). She became an integral part of Griaule's interdisciplinary research team and his closest associate. Dieterlen's interests and investigations were wide-ranging. She made more than forty expeditions, mostly to Mali but also to Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Ghana. She researched Bozo, Peul, and Bambara (Bamana) as well as Dogon cultures, including music and instruments, statuary and art, jewelry, oral literature, language, and religion.

Dieterlen was already married and thirty years old when she decided to earn her baccalaureate in order to pursue a vocation in the nascent science of ethnography. That she defied the constricting social conventions of her day shows the extraordinary will and determination that she extended into the...