Suchergebnisse

The circumcision ritual of the Merina of Madagascar is seen by them primarily as a blessing, involving the transfer of the love and concern of the ancestors of their descendants. Yet the ritual ends in an act of ciolent wounding of the child. Similarily, while the ritual involves a symbolic assault on women, it is nonetheless welcomed by them as a mark of receiving the blessing of the ancestors. In this book, Maurice Bloch provides a detailed description and analysis of the Merina circumcision ritual today, offers an account of its history, and discusses the significance of his analysis for anthropological theories of ritual in general. Pursuing the theme of the combination of religious joy and illumination with violence, Professor Bloch explains how, at various times, the circumcision ceremony can be a familial ritual as well as glorification of a militarist and expansionist state, or associated with anti-colonial nationalism. Describing changes that have occurred in the form of the ritual over two centuries, Professor Bloch argues that in order to understand the properties of ritual in general, it is necessary to view it over a longer time scale than anthropologists have tended to do previously. Adopting such an historical perspective enables him to identify the stability of the Merina ritual's symbolic content, despite changes in its organisation, and dramatically changing politico-economic contexts. As well as presenting an original historical approach to the anthropological study of ritua;, Professor Bloch discusses a range of general theoretical issues, including the nature of ideology, and the relationship between images created in ritual and other types of knowledge. The book will appeal widely to scholars and students of anthropology, history, African studies, and comparative religion

How to Read a Folktale offers the first English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Ibonia is a folktale on epic scale. Much of its plot sounds familiar: a powerful royal hero attempts to rescue his betrothed from an evil adversary and, after a series of tests and duels, he and his lover are joyfully united with a marriage that affirms the royal lineage. These fairytale elements link Ibonia with European folktales, but the tale is still very much a product of Madagascar. It contains African-style praise poetry for the hero; it presents Indonesian-style riddles and poems; and it inflates the form of folktale into epic proportions. Recorded when the Malagasy people were experiencing European contact for the first time, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner. Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales. His definitive translation, originally published in 1994, has now been fully revised to emphasize its poetic qualities, while his new introduction and detailed notes give insight into the fascinating imagination and symbols of the Malagasy. Haring's research connects this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism.

1. A Virtual Tour through Little Masoala; 2. Intention and Perception ; 3. Zooming In on Morality; 4. A Kind of People; 5. The Coconut Schema; Extract from 'Marrakech', written by George Orwell in 1939; 6. Living with the Masoala National Park; 7. The Banana Plant and the Moon; 8. The Island of the Wanderer ; 9. Who Are 'They'?; 10. Historical reflections; Conclusions.

Abstract
Managing power relations is a development concern, and this study adds to research addressing questions of power and gender balance in local community development projects. It analyses power relations and gender roles within a Malagasy congregational asset-based community development project called "Use Your Talents". In local communities as well as in larger society, power relations and gender injustice are interlinked. This paper is part of a qualitative study with data collected in 2018 at four Lutheran congregations in Madagascar with forty-one female and male informants. In analysing the interview, the following themes emerged: "power over" in favour of adult men, 'power to' that differentiates between women's and men's possibilities and limitations, 'power with' as collaboration between women, men and young people and activities based on gender and age, and "power within" from God and from skills based on gender. The study revealed that Use Your Talents mostly emphasises the 'power within/with', and where power is exercised 'to and over', it is mainly adult men exercising power. The study also found that women contributed significantly to congregational community development projects. The study concludes that the church provides both women and men opportunities for development through the Use Your Talents approach, but they exercise different aspects of power. This is reinforced by Use Your Talents and affected their roles, relations and activities in congregational community development. The difference in power favours adult men, while limiting economic and social possibilities for women.

3. With regard to the Malagasy people brought to France under the reign of Louis XIV, A. Lombard-Jourdan describes the way the western rulers made use of the arrival of these "exotic" people to enhance their own prestige.

This paper examines the attempt of British missionaries on Madagascar to use medicine and the mission hospital as a way to convert the Malagasy people during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In their attempt to educate the Malagasy about the benefits of Western civilization, which was often defined through science as well as Christianity, missionaries were challenged by Malagasy culture and the local environment. To counter the ability of the Malagasy to challenge Western methods through their cultural beliefs and healing practices and so convert the Malagasy to Western ways, British missionaries had to carve out a space isolated from the Malagasy environment. Medicine, particularly the mission hospital, offered a space to champion Western science and Christianity. In their attempt to bring civilization to Madagascar, missionaries directly tied together science and Christianity while domesticating the space of the hospital.

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the interrelatedness of two sorts of speculation undertaken by Malagasy sapphire miners and traders involved in the northern Malagasy sapphire trade: first, the speculating that these people do in sapphires, and, second, the speculating that they do about the uses to which sapphires are put by foreigners. Although Malagasy people involved in the local trade know a great deal about how sapphires might be profitably traded, most of them do not know why foreigners are so interested in these stones. Dubious of foreign traders' assurances that sapphires are used in the production of jewelry, they speculate a variety of alternate, secret uses for them. In this article, it is argued that these speculations emerge out of a variety of locally developed assumptions about how the sapphire trade works, and specifically, the significant roles that deception and knowledge differentials play in its operation.