The Possessed and the Dispossessed

Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20015459
AutoresL A Sharp (0000-0003-3262-1218, autor correspondente), Lesley Sharp
Ano1994
Páginas345
Data de publicação1994-01-06
Open AccessNão
TipoBOOK
PeriódicoThe possessed and the dispossessed (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/california/9780520080010.001.0001
OpenAlexW4205160383
ISBN9780520080010
Open LibraryOL1732613M
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14

This finely drawn portrait of a complex, polycultural urban community in Madagascar emphasizes the role of spirit medium healers, a group heretofore seen as having little power, and whom, the book argues, are far from powerless among the peasants and migrant laborers who work the land in this plantation economy. In fact, the book's wide-ranging analysis shows that tromba, or spirit possession, is central to understanding the complex identities of insiders and outsiders in this community, which draws people from all over the island and abroad. This study also reveals the contradictions between indigenous healing and Western-derived Protestant healing and psychiatry. Particular attention to the significance of migrant women's and children's experiences in a context of seeking relief from personal and social ills gives the book's investigation importance for gender studies, as well as for studies in medical anthropology, Africa and Madagascar, the politics of culture, and religion and ritual

Archaeology · Context (archaeology) · Ethnology · Indigenous · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Possession (linguistics) · Power (physics) · Protestantism · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Ecology · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Ambanja · Ancestor worship · Madagascar · Religion · Religious life and customs · rites and ceremonies · Sakalava (Malagasy people) · Social conditions · Spirit possession