The Possessed and the Dispossessed: Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town

The Possessed and the Dispossessed

COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF

HEALTH SYSTEMS AND MEDICAL CARE

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The Possessed and the Dispossessed

Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town

Lesley A. Sharp

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley Los Angeles London

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press

London, England

Copyright © 1993 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

First Paperback Printing, 1996

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sharp, Lesley Alexandra.

The possessed and the dispossessed: spirits, identity, and power in a Madagascar migrant town I Lesley A. Sharp.

p. cm.— (Comparative studies of health systems and medical care; no. 37)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-520-20708-4 (alk. paper)

1. Sakalava (Malagasy people)—Rites and ceremonies. 2. Sakalava (Malagasy people)—Religion. 3. Sakalava (Malagasy people)—Social conditions. 4. Spirit possession—Madagascar—Ambanja. 5. Ancestor worship—Madagascar—Ambanja. 6. Ambanja (Madagascar)—Religious life and customs. I. Title. II. Series.

DT469.M277S358 1993

306’.089'993—dc20 92-37296

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

123456789

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. @

For Mimi (ô Dady é!), so that she may be remembered as an ancestor;

for my parents, who have always encouraged my ideas; and for Paula and Erik, zandriko.

Contents

Contents

Figures

Plates

Textual Notes

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER I Introduction: Possession, Identity, and Power

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF AFFLICTION

INVESTIGATING POSSESSION: SOCIAL CHANGE, MARGINALITY, AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

THE LOGIC AND METHODS OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER II The Political Economy of the Sambirano

AMBANJA, A PLANTATION COMMUNITY

AN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE REGION

LOCAL POWER AND REACTIONS TO COLONIALISM

CHAPTER III National and Local Factions

NATIONAL FACTIONS: REGIONALISM AND CULTURAL STEREOTYPES

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVISIONS IN AMBANJA

THE EFFECTS OF POLYCULTURALISM

CHAPTER IV Tera-Tany and Vahiny

MIGRANT STORIES

PATTERNS OF ASSOCIATION AND MEANS FOR INCORPORATION

CHAPTER V The World of the Spirits

THE DYNAMICS OF TROMBA IN DAILY LIFE

THE POSSESSION EXPERIENCE

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD

CHAPTER VI Sacred Knowledge and Local Power

TROMBA AS ETHNOHISTORY

TROMBA, WAGE LABOR, AND ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

TROMBA AND COLLECTIVE POWER IN THE SAMBIRANO

CHAPTER VII Spirit Mediumship and Social Identity

SELFHOOD AND PERSONHOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF POSSESSION

TURNING OUTSIDERS INTO INSIDERS: MEDIUMS’ SOCIAL NETWORKS AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

MIASA NY TROMBA: MEDIUMSHIP AS WORK

CHAPTER VIII The Problems and Conflicts of Town Life

MALAGASY CONCEPTS OF HEALING

SICKNESS AND DEATH

WORK AND SUCCESS

LOVE AND MONEY, WIVES AND MISTRESSES HYPERLINK \l noteT_8_5 8

CHAPTER IX The Social World of Children

THE POSSESSED YOUTH OF AMBANJA

THE DISORDER OF A FRAGMENTED WORLD

CHILDREN AND SOCIAL CHANGE

CHAPTER X Exorcising the Spirits

SAKALAVA PERCEPTIONS OF POSSESSION AND MADNESS

CATHOLIC AND MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES ON POSSESSION

THE FIFOHAZANA OR PROTESTANT EXORCISTS

THE POWER OF PROTESTANT HEALING

Conclusion

Appendices

APPENDIX A Glossary of Malagasy Terms

APPENDIX B: LIST OF THE POSSESSED (CONTINUED)

Notes

References

Index

Figures

1.1 Map of Madagascar Facing page 1

2.1 Detail Map of Northwest Madagascar 31

2.2 Map of the Town of Ambanja 32

2.3 Sakalava Dynasties of Madagascar 37

2.4 Rulers (Ampanjakabë) of the Bemazava-

Sakalava Dynasty 46

3.1 Malagasy Ethnic Groups 53

3.2 Present Distribution of Malagasy Ethnic

Groups 55

3.3 A & B Distribution (and Migration) of Malagasy during the Twentieth Century 62

3.4 Population Figures for the Town of Ambanja,

1950-1986 66

3.5 Population Statistics for Major Ethnic Groups

of Ambanja District (Sambirano Valley), 1950-1971, 1986 (Totals) 67

3.6 Sakalava Conceptions of Other Malagasy 77

4.1 Roland and His Kin: The Cookware Factory 88

4.2 Antaisaka Handcart (Posy-Posy) Team 90

4.3 The Botabes 91

4.4 Village Kinship Terms: Female and Male Egos 102

4.5 Town Kinship Terms: Female and Male Egos 104

4.6 Postpartum Practices and Ethnicity 111

5.1 Spirits and Mediums Present at Angeline’s

Ceremony 132

5.2 Spirits of Ambanja 135

6.1 Partial Genealogy of the Zafin'Pmena,

Baka Atsimo Tromba Spirits 150

7.1 Table of Mediums 176

7.2 Mediumship and Kinship Bonds 183

7.3 Tromba Lunar Phases 191

10.1 Characteristics of Possession and Madness

(Sakalava Interpretations) 247

Plates

1. Main Street, Ambanja 29

2. Tsaramandroso, the site of the Thursday and smaller daily market 34

3. Women at work at a local enterprise 51

4. Medium entering trance 131

5. A Grandchild spirit 148

6. Tromba ceremony (romba ny tromba) 149

7. Tromba spirit giving advice to a client 210

8. Fifohazana exorcist 257

Textual Notes

In this study I will follow Malagasy systems of spelling, thus:

*The following letters do not exist in Malagasy: c, q, u, w, and x.

*The letter o is pronounced like a long u or double-o in English (thus tromba is pronounced troomba).

*The letter j is pronounced like a z or dz (as in Ambanja).

*The nasal n sounds (both velar and palatal) of northern Sakalava (as in ranao and tsiny) are written as n, following the preference of local informants (who may also write it as gn; see also Baré 1980, 1983; compare, however, Feeley-Harnik 1991). The sound in English which most closely approximates this is the ng in sing.

*In Malagasy there is no difference between singular and plural noun forms. Since the term tromba, for example, may refer to one or many spirits, throughout the text I have sought to clarify the number.

Unless otherwise stated, all Malagasy terms are given in the Sakalava dialect. The following abbreviations have been used where it was necessary to specify different dialects or languages: SAK for the Sakalava dialect, HP for high plateaux (Merina), FR for French. All foreign terms used in the text are italicized the first time they appear only. I have sought to limit my use of foreign terms; the most important ones appear in the glossary in Appendix A.

The national currency of Madagascar is the Malagasy franc (franc malgache or fmg). During the first six months of 1987 the exchange rate was approximately 750 fmg to U.S. $1. In mid-July there was a devaluation and the franc dropped to approximately 1,300 fmg per U.S. $1.

Acknowledgments

This research would not have been possible without the generous financial support provided by numerous institutions. Two consecutive Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships (1984-1986) at the University of California, Berkeley, enabled me to study Malagasy prior to my departure for Madagascar. The following organizations provided funding for fieldwork: the United States Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program (Grant number G00864345), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Sigma Xi Foundation, and the Lowie Fund of the University of California. The Regents and Alice Galloway Memorial Fellowships, also of the University of California, enabled me to devote much of my energies to writing during the first eighteen months that followed my return from the field. Finally, I am grateful to the Academic Grants Committee of Butler University, whose funds allowed me to prepare this manuscript for publication during the summer of 1991; and to Paul Yu for his enthusiastic support of faculty scholarship.

Many people have given of their time throughout the various stages of this project. I owe much to Burton Benedict, Fred Dunn, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Michael Watts for their expert guidance throughout the course of the research and beyond. Gillian Feeley-Harnik and Michael Lambek each reviewed a draft of this manuscript with great care, providing invaluable advice on this study of Madagascar as well as helpful suggestions on other related topics. In turn, I have always found their respective research in the Indian Ocean to be informative and inspiring. The following individuals, through conversations and written communication, provided additional comments I have much appreciated: Nancy Abelmann, Elizabeth Colson, Nicole Constable, Steve Foster, Nelson Graburn, Linda Green, Ivan Karp, Jean La Fontaine, and Mary Beth Mills. I also wish to thank those individuals who provided highly skilled technical support. These include Colleen Baker, for the care with which she prepared the maps, and Joe Ader and others at the Butler Computer Center for their time-consuming efforts to reproduce several of the figures. Paula Sharp and Robin Rudell had the kindness and patience to carefully proofread this manuscript at various points, and Marcy Assalone provided superb editorial and other support at the final stage of preparation.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank, as well, a few members of the staff at the University of California Press. These include my acquisitions editor, Stan Holwitz, for his enthusiastic support of this manuscript throughout its various stages; and Michelle Nordon, for her friendliness, patience, and great skill as a project editor. I am fortunate to have had Diane Mark-Walker as a copy editor, for she is truly gifted at her craft. Finally, I wish to thank Diana Feinberg and others for their artwork. Thank you, too, to the countless others at the Press without whose assistance the completion of this project would not have been possible. Any mistakes that remain result from my own carelessness.

I am forever indebted to Hanta and Chris Rideout, who prepared me for the field, and to their kin in Madagascar, who took care of me when I was there. Praise is.also due to Marijosée Carlson who patiently tutored me in the Sakalava dialect. Once in the field, any success there was due largely to assistance from the following scholars: Suzy Ramamonjisoa, Fulgence Fanony, Jean-Aimé Rakotoarisoa, Susan Kus, Victor Rahari- jaona, Hilarion Rakotovololona, Ann-Marie Ralaivola, and Père Robert Jaovelo-Dzao. Innumerable residents of Ambanja and neighboring areas assisted me as well. Space alone prevents me from listing all of their names, but I wish to acknowledge at least the following people: Ampan- jakabe Tsimiaro III and his wife and mother, Ambanjakabe Amada and his wife, Dr. A. as well as Mme B. for their warm friendship and hospitality, Members of the Club A., Mme K., Maman‘i’H. and Papan‘i’H., Mme Z., Mama Rose, Mr. J., and Mr. and Mme E. H.. I am forever indebted to Maman‘i’F. for her infinite patience and her expertise as a research assistant, who kept me going and who never lost her interest in this project, and to Mlle. B. A. who led us to many tromba ceremonies. I also owe much to Marie, Mariamo, and a host of other mediums and their spirits, who were my tromba guides. Misoatra Zana- hary. Final and special thanks go to Andy Fox: despite crazed omby, giant wasps, and unfamiliar smells, he learned to love living—and running—in Ambanja. I wish to thank him, too, for suggesting the title for this book and for his steady support throughout the entire course of this project.

Figure 1.1. Map of Madagascar. Sources: After Bunge (1983: 51); Madagascar-FTM (1986); Société Malgache (1973: 2).

CHAPTER I

Introduction: Possession, Identity, and Power

Theoretical and Methodological

Considerations

Women, migration, and power: these are the themes that frame this study of spirit possession and identity in northwest Madagascar. The setting is Ambanja, a booming migrant town in the heart of a prosperous plantation region called the Sambirano Valley. Here identity is shaped by polyculturalism and manipulated through religious experience. Healing rituals, involving possession by ancestral tromba spirits, provide an important arena in which to articulate the problems of urban life. In this latter respect this is a study in medical anthropology.

Identity in Ambanja is dynamic and multifaceted, defined in reference to a subjective conceptualization of self, an individual’s role as social actor, and cultural—or ethnic—origin. In this migrant town, these three levels of experience are bounded by competing statuses of insider and outsider. Insiders are, specifically, the indigenous Bemazava-Saka- lava;¹ outsiders are other Malagasy speakers who have come to this region as wage laborers searching for work. Ethnicity is the most important marker for defining identity and status in Ambanja. Although migrants form the majority of the valley’s population, the Sakalava comprise the largest single ethnic group.

These competing statuses define the powerful and the vulnerable, where local ancestors and access to land are pivotal. To some extent, length of stay and material wealth may affect one’s position in local arenas of influence, yet indigenous notions of power require that one be symbolically rooted to the land. The Sambirano Valley is the tanindr azaña (HP: tanindrazana\ or ancestral land of the Sakalava. The significance of this concept is reflected in indigenous terms that are used to distinguish insiders from outsiders: Sakalava are the tera-tany (the children or possessors of the soil) or the original inhabitants of the Valley; while migrants are referred to as vahiny (guests). These symbolic distinctions also carry significant economic weight, ultimately affecting success or, even, survival. It is Sakalava tera-tany who most often control access to and hold rights over the use of the most important local resource: arable land.

Tromba, as the spirits of dead Sakalava royalty, define the key features of contemporary Sakalava identity.² Amid rapid social change, they remain the guardians of local sacred space and they are significant historical actors for collective experience. Possession by the dead is deeply rooted in Sakalava history: among the earliest surviving written accounts is one recorded by Luis Mariano, a Portuguese Jesuit who described this phenomenon when he visted the island in 1616 (Lombard 1988: 23, who in turn cites A. and G. Grandidier, eds. 1903-1920, vol. 2: 251,255). Spirit possession as an institution subsequently accompanied the rise of royal dynasties and their associated kingdoms in the sixteenth century. Because spirit possession is central to Sakalava culture, descriptions of this form of possession provide a means through which to trace the historical development of the Sakalava as a people, who today are organized into a chain of kingdoms along the west coast of Madagascar (Kent 1968; see also S. Ramamonjisoa 1984). In turn, since tromba spirits are known, historic personalities, spirit possession is an indigenous form of recorded history where Sakalava preserve knowledge of royal genealogies and, ultimately, of who they are more generally. In everyday terms, it is the tromba spirits that define who Sakalava are in contrast to the ever-increasing influx of migrants.

Tromba possession is a mainstay of everyday life in Ambanja. Tromba spirits address the living through mediums, the majority of whom are female. In precolonial times (prior to 1896) there was only a handful of mediums who served as counselors to members of the royal lineages. Within the last fifty years, however, there has been a virtual explosion in the incidence of tromba possession throughout Sakalava territory. Today, tromba spirits proliferate, especially in Ambanja. In this town of approximately 26,000,³ perhaps 60 percent of all women are possessed, of whom nearly 50 percent are non-Sakalava migrants. Tromba mediums are respected by both commoner Sakalava and nonSakalava as powerful healers and as advisers on personal affairs. Through the assistance of tromba spirits and their mediums, insiders and outsiders may manipulate their statuses and their personal relationships in this town.

In Ambanja, tromba is perhaps the most significant local instititution for both Sakalava and non-Sakalava, and its importance is reflected in several ways. First, as a key aspect of indigenous religion, it is dynamic, constantly changing in form so as to remain a central defining principle of what it means to be Sakalava. In turn, as an essential Sakalava cultural institution, it also manages or regulates the incorporation of outsiders into the Sakalava community. An important feature of tromba in this polycultural town is that most non-Sakalava may, over time, actively participate in tromba, either as observers, mediums, or mediums’ clients. Tromba is the only local institution that enables migrants to permanently transform their identities. Through a complex fictive kinship system, non-Sakalava mediums are symbolically redefined as Sakalava. In this way they become enmeshed in local networks that increase their access to local institutions of power. Since tromba mediumship is primarily a female experience, tromba facilitates the incorporation of migrant women over men, and no comparable institution exists for men.

Tromba possession as ritual has a performative dimension (G. Lewis 1980: 22ff) where the actions, gestures, words, and knowledge communicated during large-scale possession ceremonies and smaller, private healing sessions reveal indigenous conceptions of well-being. For Am- banja’s residents, well-being does not hinge simply on one’s physical state; it is also mediated by one’s status as tera-tany or vahiny. Tromba mediums, as the embodiment of royal ancestral power, assist others in their attempts to cope with the problems they encounter while living in this urban community, one that is dominated by a plantation economy. Thus, embedded in the symbolic order of tromba are critiques of community life and its tensions, the meaning of work, the local political economy, and the dynamics of local power relations over time.

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF AFFLICTION

The politics of identity in this town is multifaceted, requiring an integrative theoretical approach. In order to comprehend the many levels of meaning and experience inherent to life in Ambanja, this study will draw from theory in medical anthropology, migration studies, and the study of ritual. A historical dimension is also necessary if we are to comprehend the meaning of power at this particular point in time.

HEALTH AND CRITIQUES OF CAPITALISM

This study is framed by theory generated within the field of critical medical anthropology. In many ways this is highly contested terrain: various authors argue that since the term critical is (neo-)Marxist in origin, it is this theoretical stance that should be the primary (or even exclusive) orientation. As a result, there are writers who, assuming the more conservative position, advocate a return to the older label, political economy of health. Still others strive for a more loosely defined or eclectic approach that draws from interpretative, phenomenological, and epistemological frames of reference.⁴ (For more details on this debate see, for example, Baer 1982, 1986; Baer et al. 1986; Doyal 1979; Eiling 1981; Frankenberg 1988; Morgan 1987, 1990; Morsy 1979; Navarro 1976a, Scheper-Hughes 1990; Singer 1896.)

This present study is situated primarily within the latter (more eclectic) camp; nevertheless, it seeks to draw from the strengths of each. A key assumption that runs throughout this study from Madagascar is that, first, inequality and power are often significant (or critical) factors for understanding health and well-being. This is true not only within highly complex and stratified Western societies, but also in smaller (and, in this case, urban) communities in the Third World, where colonial policies and relations have either introduced new forms of inequality and stratification or exacerbated older ones.

Second, literature written in the genre of the political economy of health assumes the pervasiveness of biomedical (or what I will refer to as clinical) medicine worldwide and focuses on the advantages as well as the disadvantages of biomedicine; nevertheless, this is not the most appropriate focus in Ambanja. Tromba mediums and other indigenous healers are preferred by many local inhabitants over biomedically trained practitioners because they have a clearer understanding of indigenous conceptions of illness and disorder. In terms of daily practice, biomedicine is not hegemonic or heterodox in nature (Baer et al. 1986: 95—98) but instead is perceived as ineffective and is less valued than indigenous forms of healing. Unlike tromba mediums, for example, clinicians do not comprehend or embrace their patients’ beliefs about the relationship between the cosmos and the social world. In addition, it is not medicine per se that must be the primary focus of the research but, rather, affliction, as a broadly defined category of human experience. Thus, in this study from Madagascar, it is not solely disease or sickness that will be investigated, but individual and collective problems that are social, economic, and political in nature.

A third assumption is that the human body provides a rich terrain upon which these problems may be played out or expressed. This becomes apparent during healing sessions and other ritual settings. The body may also provide an appropriate medium for transformations in identity, through dress as well as action. This may occur during the pageantry of possession ceremonies, but these in turn may have longlasting effects on a medium’s life and sense of self. Finally, comprehensive critical interpretation requires the investigation of linkages between political-economic, symbolic, and historical elements.

If we begin with critical approaches to affliction, Morgan’s (1987: 132) definition of the political economy of health proves useful:

… a macroanalytic, critical, and historical perspective for analyzing disease distribution and health services under a variety of economic systems, with particular emphasis on the effects of stratified social, political, and economic relations within the world economic system.

Morgan advocates that we analyze medicine (and, by extension, medical systems more generally) in reference to competing modes of production; take into account the significance of social class; give greater attention to history, including colonial as well as precolonial periods; and explore capitalism’s effect on the declines as well as the improvement of health status (1987: 146).

Although a Marxist orientation offers valuable tools for understanding the effects of capitalism on the local political economy, and on indigenous social relations and healing practices, this definition requires a few adjustments. First, a purely macroanalytic stance (not necessarily something that Morgan herself would advocate) overlooks key aspects of everyday life which are so much a part of anthropological analysis. Thus, for the purpose of this study, the microlevel will be the primary unit of analysis. Following Morsy’s approach (1978; 1991: 205ff), the phenomenon of spirit possession will be analyzed against historically based, macrolevel developments.

Second, as Morgan notes, too often the political economy of health relies heavily on world systems and dependency theory, yet such an orientation on its own is outdated. In turn, it is also too restrictive because, as J. Comaroff explains, the total penetration of the world capitalist system … denies determination to forces outside itself (Comaroff 1985: 154, as cited in Morgan 1987: 141). Specifically, what is at stake here is local determination. As the present study will show, the inhabitants of Ambanja are not passive victims of capitalistic forces; rather, ritual forms enable them to transcend and transform labor relations, the meaning of work, and future economic development of the region.

MOVING BEYOND CLASS-BASED ANALYSIS: UNDERSTANDING THE MIGRATION EXPERIENCE IN NORTHWEST MADAGASCAR

A class-based analysis is an essential element in the study of inequality from a Marxist perspective, but this concept, as Strathern (1984: 3ff) has illustrated, does not necessarily translate well cross-culturally. As Comaroff and Comaroff (1991: xi) ask, how is [consciousness] mediated by such distinctions as class, gender, and ethnicity? Throughout Madagascar, ethnicity is generally a far more important unit of analysis. At times it may correspond with Western conceptions of class; elsewhere it operates independently. For example, on a national scale, the Merina and Betsileo of the central high plateaux have the greatest access to Madagascar’s resources, and it is they who form a significant proportion of this nation’s elite. This is an issue that is of prime importance to the Sakalava of Ambanja. As case studies throughout this work will illustrate, ethnicity is a much stronger determinant than class for local power relations in this town.

Gender is also a significant category, one that extends beyond the limits of social class or ethnicity. It is especially important to the understanding of the migration process in northwest Madagascar. An assumption running throughout studies of voluntary migration in Africa is that it is predominantly an adult male experience. This process is rooted in colonial policies and subsequent demands of capitalist labor, where indigenous peoples have experienced shifts in the division of labor by gender. Men have become the primary wage earners, while women remain in rural areas, caring for the land, animals, homestead, and offspring. Laborers send remittances home to support kin, and the presence of women in the villages ensures the reproduction of future generations of labor (see, for example, Cohen 1969; Epstein 1958; Mayer 1971; Meillassoux 1982; Murray 1981; Powerdermaker 1962; Richards 1951).

Madagascar provides important contrasts. As Little (1973) and Schuster (1979) have shown, migration can be a liberating experience for women who relocate on their own to towns. In Madagascar, women migrate, often alone. The majority of my female informants in Ambanja were the sole heads of their households, and they were the primary wage earners, often supporting three generations: themselves, their children, and their aging mothers. Women experience the freedom that accompanies migrating alone, but they must also endure the obstacles of migrant status. If migrants are to succeed economically and socially, they must establish networks that will enable them to settle and become integrated into their new community. An important focus of this study is to unravel how women accomplish this. Age is yet another dimension: children may also figure prominently in the migration process, although they are relatively invisible in studies on this topic. This problem will be explored in chapter 9.

More generally, capitalism shapes the nature of social relations, and anthropological approaches offer important tools for analyzing the manner in which indigenous forms of social structure respond or are transformed, as well as how capitalist relations are perceived and experienced. Throughout Madagascar a premium is placed on kinship, since it is kin-based networks that one may exploit in times of need. In Ambanja, strangers are very vulnerable. They can rely on no one, and so the newly arrived migrant engages in a passionate search for kin or others from the same ancestral land who can help them find work as well as housing, loans, food, child care, and, perhaps, over time, land. Tera-tany status has these advantages, but integration for migrants is very difficult, because Sakalava dislike outsiders. Although marriage is one way in which to become integrated locally, marriage unions in Ambanja are generally short-term and tenuous, making this an unsatisfactory solution.

Kinship and wage labor define opposing categories of social relations in Ambanja. Wage labor is perceived simultaneously as an economic and social relationship, one based on inequality and involving payment in cash for services by an employer to an employee. Wage labor may generate income, which for migrants is essential to survival, but it does not carry with it the permanent and obligatory social ties that characterize kinship. Kinship, on the other hand, is defined by reciprocal relationships that involve the dual exchange of goods and services.

Capitalism and, more generally, colonialism, as social and political forces, have also affected social structure by undermining indigenous power. In the precolonial era, Sakalava defined themselves in relation to their royalty. Throughout the colonial period the French sought to undermine royal authority. As a result, structural rules that defined the relationship between commoner and royalty broke down. This process in turn affected Sakalava principles of commoner kinship. More recently, the opposed categories of insider and outsider have become the most important social categories for daily interactions in Ambanja; these are shaped by national and local ethnic factionalism. Tromba possession is among the few institutions that mediate between the competing statuses of insider and outsider. It also offers its participants a means through which to opt out of wage labor and capitalist relations by embedding them in an alternative social world defined through fictive kinship.

UNDERSTANDING INDIGENOUS NOTIONS OF POWER

If we are to comprehend the nature of inequality in Ambanja, it is necessary to construct a clear definition of power; specifically, we must explore how it is indigenously conceived. Arens and Karp note that anthropological discussions of power rely heavily on Weber’s definition (Macht) (Weber 1947, as quoted in Arens and Karp 1989: xv). Weber focuses on social actors engaged in rational and mutually acknowledged exchanges that are based within established and accepted arenas of authority (ibid. 1989: xiii ff). Arens and Karp argue for the need to break from universalist (and thus ethnocentric) definitions of power to more culturally specific ones, especially in reference to cosmological systems. For the purposes of this study, the greatest limitations of Weber’s definition lie in his focus on individual action over collective experience and his preoccupation with formal authority. This study will also explore how power is symbolically expressed.

Arens and Karp suggest that anthropologists consider an alternative definition provided by D. Parkin:

Power rests [not simply] on the acquisition of land, myth, and material objects but rather that which comes from unequal access to semantic creativity, including the capacity to nominate others as equal or unequal, animate or inanimate, memorable or abject, discussor or discussed. (Parkin, ed. 1982: xlvi)

Even though Parkin’s definition focuses on power through discourse, it still offers an appropriate alternative, since it marks a break from a materialist orientation characteristic of Weberians (and neo-Marxists). For the sake of this analysis, I would replace Parkin’s term semantic with symbolic. Furthermore, although nominate implies formal political action, the process of determining status is essential in Madagascar, specifically in reference to ethnic factions that characterize life at national and local levels.

Arens and Karp also prefer Parkin’s definition because this perspective moves us away from an exclusive emphasis on the exercise of power and provides room for examining the relationship between power and consciousness (1989: xiv). These authors are especially interested in Weber’s distinction between authority and power and stress the importance of exploring the latter: Power is multicentered and, further, … the idea of a center may itself be produced through the ideology of power. As the examples in their volume illustrate, the source of power resides in the interaction between natural, social, and supernatural realms (1989: xvi, xvii).

In Ambanja, it is clear that power may be exercised in different arenas: through formal structures (for example, by the French colonial government or the present state of Madagascar), ritual authority (tromba mediumship), and individual action (by Sakalava tera-tany over non-Sakalava vahiny). It also may be manifested through legal action or ritual. Tromba provides an important example for the study of power. It is formal and institutionalized, yet the authority previously invested in living royalty has been transferred almost completely to the spiritual realm. As will become clear below, a consciousness of power relations may be articulated in ritual forms that can have temporary or longlasting effects.

HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS

As Bloch (1986: 157ff) has illustrated in his study of Merina circumcision, rituals may change form over time in response to transformations in power relations on a national scale. In turn, historical and other forms of knowledge, as well as power, may be embedded in ritual, so that ritual may operate as a force of resistance and change against the state or other forces (Apter 1992; see also Fry 1976 and Lan 1985; Sahlins 1985). This pairing of history and power is an important theme underlying tromba possession, since it is not a static religious institution, but one that has responded in unique and creative ways to ever-changing political, economic, and social forces. These transformations are rooted in the manner in which the Sakalava of Ambanja conceive of their recent history, which they divide into three major periods: the precolonial (prior to 1896), the colonial (1896-1960), and postcolonial (1960 to the present). Transformations to the precolonial order is a theme of chapter 3; here I would like to provide a brief summary of recent national developments since they inform contemporary Sakalava perceptions of urban life.

The evolution of the Sambirano into a lucrative plantation economy is rooted in the colonial period. Three policies under the French administration are significant here. First, following conquest, the French removed the Bemazava-Sakalava from the most fertile regions of the valley in order to make room for large-scale plantations. Second, when the Bemazava refused to work as wage laborers, local planters recruited migrant labor from other areas of Madagascar. Third, as part of French pacification policies, the colonial government sought to undermine the authority of Bemazava royalty (see chapter 2).

These policies lie behind more recent changes that have occurred within the last three decades. The postcolonial era in turn may be broken down into two major periods. From 1960 to 1972 marks the period of the Malagasy Republic (République Malgache). President Philibert Tsiranana, who served throughout this period, retained many of the colonial structures and continued to employ French advisers and administrators. Also, major industries remained in the hands of private citizens, many of whom were French expatriates. In the final years of his presidency, Tsiranana witnessed the rise of malagasization/ a nationalist movement that was socialist and anti-French. Originally its advocates demanded that all school curricula be taught in the Malagasy language so as to define and reflect a national—rather than foreign—culture; later they demanded the expulsion of French technical advisers working in the upper echelons of the government. The collapse of the Tsiranana administration was precipitated by a strike of university students in March 1972, followed by a peasant uprising and military coup (the May Revolution) (Covell 1987: 45—46). Tsiranana was expelled, and the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of Madagascar (Re- poblika Democratika Malagasy, République Démocratique de Madagascar).⁶

The Socialist Revolution, which spanned the period from 1971 to 1975, was marked by violence and drastic changes in political orientation under three separate presidents. Following the assassination of Colonel Ratsimandrava, who held office for less than a week in 1975, Didier Ratsiraka was named president (and continues to hold this position today; he was reelected in 1989)/ Ratsiraka’s early policies included the rejection of institutions based on French models and, subsequently, the withdrawal of much foreign capital. Until 1987, Ratsiraka’s administration had been fiercely isolationist and advocated self-sufficiency. The nation’s strongest allies have been located in (what was then) Eastern Europe, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea. It was only recently (in mid-1986) that Madagascar chose to strengthen its ties with Western powers. (For more detailed discussions of the recent political history of Madagascar see Althabe 1980; Covell 1987: 29-75; Rabenoro 1986; and Rajoelina 1988.)

Although Madagascar by name is a socialist state, its economy may be defined more clearly as a form of state capitalism, where the ownership of all major industries and land holdings rests with the national government.⁷ In the Sambirano, capitalism, and not socialism, shapes the bulk of economic relations. Informants from the Sambirano report that only a few changes in the economic order occurred following the Revolution, the greatest involving land reform policies. In this regard, the holdings of foreign planters were seized by the state, and portions were then resold to local residents, with preference shown for those who could prove that they were tera-tany—that is, whose ancestral land was the Sambirano. Since the Socialist Revolution, state-owned plantations have been referred to as enterprises (FR: entreprises). The enterprises are among the few profitable export businesses of Madagascar, and several operate fairly independently from the government. Also, state- and privately owned businesses exist side by side in the Sambirano. In the transition to state ownership, workers experienced no major structural changes in their places of employment. Labor unions have been legalized, but they are associated with the national party, AREMA, and so loyalty to the state is mandated by the unions. Some workers report that the most significant change was that their hours were shortened, which in turn shrunk their monthly earnings.

INVESTIGATING POSSESSION: SOCIAL CHANGE, MARGINALITY, AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

An assumption running throughout anthropological studies of religion is that through the study of belief and ritual we may grasp indigenous

* As this book was going to press, national elections were held. On March 27, 1993, Albert Zafy was sworn in as Madagascar’s new president.

conceptions of the world; ritual especially provides fertile ground for the expression of social tensions or for coping with sudden change (see, for example, La Barre 1970; Linton 1943; Wallace 1956; and Worsley 1968). Studies set in colonial Africa explore the effects of forced resettlement, migration, and urbanization on the web of social life, and the manner in which religion functions as a means for expressing conflict (Colson 1971; Epstein 1958; Gluckman 1954; Mayer 1971; Mitchell 1956; Powdermaker 1962; Richards 1951; Scudder 1966). Furthermore, it is well documented that the incidence of spirit possession often rises dramatically in times of social disruption and crisis. Colson, for example, found that possession occurred with greater frequency among the Gwembe Tonga (in what is now Zambia) when they were relocated by force after the British colonial administration decided to dam and then flood their valley (1969, 1977). The works of Colson and others remain influential in studies of possession, since this phenomenon continues to be investigated in light of the tensions and uncertainties of everday life. A problem underlying these studies, however, is that indigenous peoples are generally portrayed as powerless victims of change who do not fully comprehend the forces that are responsible for new predicaments in which they find themselves.

RITUAL, SYMBOLIC ACTION, AND POWER

More recent studies of religion have sought to go beyond a functionalist analysis, relying instead on a neo-Marxist framework.⁸ These studies are historically situated and set within the complex of unequal relations that characterize colonized societies in the Third World, and they are concerned with economic oppression and exploitation. A primary focus is the dispossessed, the marginal and powerless members of societies who are victims of a world capitalist system. Examples include investigations by such authors as J. Comaroff (1985), Nash (1979), Ong (1987), and Taussig (1980a, 1987), in southern Africa, Bolivia, Malaysia, and Colombia, respectively.

These authors do not reject religious experience as evidence of false consciousness (see Marx 1964: 43-44); instead, religion reveals an indigenous awareness of the inequalities that characterize capitalist economic relations. Although this level of consciousness is not fully articulated in everyday action and discourse, it is, nevertheless, richly interwoven in the symbolic imagery of religious expression. Nash and J.