The Possessed and the Dispossessed

A detailed and academic analysis of possession, and the issues that surround it, in Malagasy culture.

• Contents
• Figures
• Plates
• Textual Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Map
• 1. Introduction: Possession, Identity, and Power: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations
  • Critical Approaches to the Study of Affliction
    • Health and Critiques of Capitalism
    • Moving Beyond Class-Based Analysis: Understanding the Migration Experience in Northwest Madagascar
    • Understanding Indigenous Notions of Power
    • Historical Considerations
  • Investigating Possession: Social Change, Marginality, and Religious Experience
    • Ritual, Symbolic Action, and Power
    • The Question of Possession and Marginality
    • The Body as a Natural Symbol
  • The Logic and Methods of Inquiry
    • The Setting
    • Research Methods
    • The Organization of the Study
    • Notes
• Part I. Historic, Political-Economic, and Social Levels of Experience
• 2. The Political Economy of the Sambirano
  • Ambanja, A Plantation Community
    • The Town and its Environs
  • An Economic and Political History of the region
    • Precolonial History: The Bemazava-Sakalava
    • The Establishment of French Control
    • The Development of the Sambirano
    • Effects on Land Tenure
    • Zaloky’s Homestead
  • Local Power and Reactions to Colonialism
    • Local Authority and Power
    • Resistance and Revolt in the Sambirano
    • The Social Construction of Work
    • Notes
• 3. National and Local Factions: The Nature of Polyculturalism in Ambanja
  • National Factions: Regionalism and Cultural Stereotypes
    • Ethnic Categories
    • The Malagasy
    • Non-Malagasy Strangers (Etrangers)
    • Malagasy Ethnic Groups: How Difference Is Perceived
    • Geographical Territory and Ethnicity
    • The Highlands versus the Coast
    • The Tanindrazana or Ancestral Land
    • Economic Specialization
    • Religious Affiliation
  • Social and Cultural Divisions in Ambanja
    • The Social Categories of Ambanja
    • Malagasy Ethnic Groups and Their Points of Origin
    • Local Territory and the Ancestral Land
    • Ethnicity and Economic Specialization
    • Religion
    • Islam
    • The Catholic Church
    • Protestantism
    • Fomba-gasy, or Malagasy Religion
  • The Effects of Polyculturalism
    • Sakalava Perspectives
    • Defining Tera-Tany and Vahiny
    • Notes
• 4. Tera-Tany and Vahiny: Insiders and Outsiders
  • Migrant Stories
    • Antandroy Migrants: The Story of Guardian
    • The Traveling Merchants from the High Plateau
    • Roland’s Cookware Factory
    • The Antaisaka Handcart Team
    • The Botabes
    • Mme Razafy, Merina Schoolteacher
    • “Te Ho Mody”: I Want to Go Home.
  • Patterns of Association and Means for Incorporation
    • Preserving Ethnic Distinctions: Mutual Aid Associations
    • Polycultural Groups
    • Changes to Sakalava Social Structure
    • Marriage Across Ethnic Lines
    • Post-Partum Practices as a Form of Ritual Incorporation
    • Notes
• Part II. Spirit Possession in the Sambirano
• 5. The World of the Spirits
  • The Dynamics of Tromba in Daily Life
    • Tromba in Royal Contexts
    • The Popularization of Tromba
    • The Organizing Principles of Tromba
  • The Possession Experience
    • Angeline’s Tromba Ceremony
  • Other Members of the Spirit World
    • Other Spirits of Human Origin: Razan̂a and Lolo
    • Nature Spirits that Require Mediums: Tsin̂y and Kalanoro
    • Evil Spirits
    • Njarinintsy, Masoantoko, Shay-tuan
    • Bilo
    • Responses to Possession Sickness
    • Notes
• 6. Sacred Knowledge and Local Power: Tromba and the Sambirano Economy
  • Tromba as Ethnohistory
    • Dead Men Do Tell Tales: Possession as Collective Memory
    • Grandparents
    • Children
    • Grandchildren
    • Spirits for Common Folk: Zaman’i’bao, Raleva, Mampiary, Djao Kondry, and Be Ondry
  • Tromba, Wage Labor, and Economic Independence
    • Tromba and Their Fady
    • Working in the Sambirano
    • Tromba as a Critique of Capitalist Production and Relations
    • Berthine’s Past Experiences as an Enterprise Laborer
    • Angeline’s Problems with Coffee
  • Tromba and Collective Power in the Sambirano
    • Malagasization and Economic Development
    • The Fishery in Nosy Be
    • The New High School
    • Bemazava Spiritual Authority and Economic Development
    • Notes
• 7. Spirit Mediumship and Social Identity
  • Selfhood and Personhood in the Context of Possession
    • Shifting Selves
    • The Social Persona, or Mediumship and Personhood
    • Gender, Age, and Possession
    • The Cultural Persona: Changing Ethnic Identity
    • Migrants as Mediums
  • Turning Outsiders into Insiders: Mediums’ Social Networks and Personal Relationships
    • Basely and the Angry, Unrequited Spirit
    • Tromba as Fictive Kinship: Spiritual Polyandry and Polygyny
    • Going In and Out of Trance: Male Versus Female Identities and Their Associated Kinship Ties
    • Tromba in the Home
    • Alice and Her Merina Husband: Tromba and Marriage
    • Mediums and Their Rangahy
    • Monique and Her Medium Friend, Marie
  • Miasa Ny Tromba: Mediumship as Work
    • Time and Possession: The Tromba Calendar and Client Consultations
    • Marie and Mampiary: Problems at Work and Spiritual Intervention
    • Feeding the Spirits: Medium-Client Relationships
    • Marivola’s Bad Medicine
    • Notes
• Part III. The Conflicts of Town Life
• 8. The Problems and Conflicts of Town Life: The Adult World
  • Malagasy Concepts of Healing
    • Fanafody-Gasy, Fanafody Vazaha
  • Sickness and Death
    • Witchcraft Accusations against Old Mama Rose
  • Work and Success
    • Doné and His Troubles at Work
    • Status, Success, and Power
    • The Case of Fatima
  • Love and Money, Wives and Mistresses
    • The Story of Lalao
    • Notes
• 9. The Social World of Children
  • The Possessed Youth of Ambanja
    • Sosotra and the Njarinintsy
    • Schoolyard Posssession
    • Njarinintsy Possession and Social Status
  • The Disorder of a Fragmented World
    • Colonial Policies and National Trends: Educational Dilemmas
    • Children and Polyculturalism
    • Self-Advancement and Fanafody
    • Coping with Pregnancy
  • Children and Social Change
    • Displaced Sakalava and Invading Spirits
    • Responses to Schoolyard Possession: Sakalava Revivalism
    • Notes
• 10. Exorcising the Spirits: The Alternative Therapeutics of Protestantism
  • Sakalava Perceptions of Possession and Madness
    • The Case of Victoria
    • The Limitations of Clinical Medicine
  • Catholic and Muslim Perspectives on Possession
    • Catholic Enculturation and Attitudes toward Possession
    • Islam
  • The Fifohazana or Protestant Exorcists
    • Exorcism as Therapy
    • The Protestant Toby (Camps) or Curing Retreats
    • Seeking Cures for Possession: Three Case Studies
    • Vivienne
    • Elisabeth
    • Zaloky
  • The Power of Protestant Healing
    • Redefining the Symbolic Order through an Alternative Epistemological System
    • Work, Independence, and Empowerment
    • Structural Shifts and Redefining Identity
    • Joining a Community of Strangers
    • Notes
• Conclusion: Toward a Reassessment of the Possessed and Dispossesed
• Appendices
  • A. Glossary of Malagasy Terms
  • B. List of the Possessed
• Notes
• References
• Index

• This title is no. 37 in the series.

Refer to the glossary for definitions of terms used to describe the condition of items.

• Culture > Malagasy > Tromba/Spirit Possession