Ancestors, Power, and History in Madagascar

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Karen Middleton
BRILL, Jan 1, 1999 - Religion - 360 pages
The peoples of Madagascar are renowned for the prominence they give to the dead. In this edited volume, regional specialists reassess the significance of ancestors for changing relations of power, emerging identities, and local historical consciousness. Case-studies include The Royal Bath of 1817 (Pier Larson), Succession in an Urbanized Sakalava Kingdom (Lesley Sharp), The Antankaraia Ritual Cycle (Michael Lambek, Andrew Walsh), Nineteenth-Century Norwegian Missionary Culture (Karina Hestad Skeie), Sacrifice on the East Coast (Jennifer Cole), Violence among the Zafimaniry (Maurice Bloch), and Circumcision and Colonialism in the South (Karen Middleton). Three further chapters present original research on slavery, memory, and cultural politics in the Highlands (Sandra Evers, David Graeber, Francoise Raison-Jourde). Diversity and complexity make this volume a valuable addition to the literature on ritual and religion.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
A Cultural Politics of Bedchamber Construction
37
The Importance of the House
71
The Anxieties of Succession in
103
Identity
145
Eating Young Men Among the Zafimaniry
175
Sacrifice Narratives and Experience in East Madagascar
191
Circumcision Death and Strangers
219
The Construction of History and Culture in the Southern
257
Social Competition and the Control of Sacred Places
283
Painful Memories
319
Index
349
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About the author (1999)

Karen Middleton, D.Phil. (1988) in Anthropology, University of Oxford, is the author of several articles on the culture and history of the Karembola of southern Madagascar.

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