Dogon Wood House Post, Based

Trees held up the village. Dogon builders knew which ones.

In Dogon villages, sturdy posts cut from local trees carried the beams and thick layered roofs of houses, granaries and shelters, and many were shaped with simple forms that echo the body or nature. This one, wood, Mali, 20th century, stands eighty-one inches on its base. A single straight trunk rises to a gently flared, open top, with a short rounded projection branching from one side about two thirds of the way up.

Years of sun and weather have left the wood a soft silvery gray-brown, deeply grained and checked.

Stand it in an entry, and watch people slow down.