Posts like this support the roof beams of toguna, open-sided shelters forbidden to women where Dogon men meet to rest, converse, and discuss issues of importance to the community. Each village had such a toguna, said to be one of the first structures built when a village was founded. Togu meants “shelter”, while na can be translated as “big, great”, therefor toguna means as much as “great shelter”. The ceiling of a toguna was low, too low for a man to stand up under, possibly to encourage a calming effect on the men by keeping them seated and therefore less prone to posturing or fighting. Toguna roofs were made of neat stacks of millet stalks piled thick to keep the inside of the shelter dark and cool. The roof was supported by beams help up by wooden posts, carved of kile (Prosopis africana), a very hard and durable wood. The tree, when reaching 2 meters, splits in two and, when cut off at the base, creates a natural fork that supports the beams of the roof. Most of the carved posts come from Dogon villages on the Séno Plain, a vast sandy expanse stretching from the foot of the Mali’s famed Bandiagara cliffs to the Burkina Faso border. Unlike the cliffs, the Séno Plain is fertile enough to support thick stands of trees, the source for these massive, forked posts. The toguna posts are carved in relief, usually with figures of women with enormous conical breasts. In this example, only a pair of breasts is sculpted, highlighting the importance of women in Dogon society. Along with rain and millet, the most common requests in Dogon prayers were for wives and children. The wear and erosion of the present house post suggest a very old age.