A couple o' comments.
Katana--Woof!
Fernando, Jim, and all,
I agree it's possible that it's a jackal. I'm just trying to figure out how many swords I've seen marked with symbols of chaos and disorder (excluding modern fantasy stuff). It would be like saying that the cross on many European swords was an inverted, satanic cross, or perhaps more accurately, it would be like having Kali on a hindu sword.
While I agree that swords do spread chaos and disorder, more typically, the symbolism on them is protective, not destructive. Even when the swords are being used to spread destruction, I think it's human nature to attribute said destruction to self defense or some positive virtue, rather than deliberately causing disorder. In short hand, "He deserved what he got."
That's why I'm not convinced it's a jackal.
You get into interesting discussions talking with experts across fields. For instance, many academics do not study weaponry, and many martial artists and collectors aren't scholars (though many here are). Sometimes the lack of a common reference frame makes things interesting.
My favorite example was when I was reading the translated titles of moves in a Chinese martial arts set. One move was "Boa constrictor coils around the tree." I told my teacher (who'd translated it) that it couldn't possibly be a boa constrictor. He wouldn't hear of it. The thing he didn't know was that boa constrictors are new world animals only. The word he should have used was python, but to him, a big snake was a big snake, good only for nature shows and chopping. The name wasn't important.
With this dog(-)on sword, it's possible that the Dogon scholar's attribution was influenced by his personal attribution of violence to a sword, rather than by his knowledge of Dogon sword symbolism. I'm not saying he's wrong, it's hard to tell, at this remove, how much he knows specifically about Dogon weaponry.
Finally, Fernando: there are "jackals" in the Arizona desert. Both the four-legged and the two-legged kind are called "coyotes," and I think I trust the four-legged kind a little more these days.
My 0.00002 centavos,
F
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