Ritual Imagination: A Study of Tromba Possession Among the Betsimisaraka in Eastern MadagascarBRILL, 2011 M09 30 - 326 pages Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession. |
Contents
Chapter One Introduction | 1 |
Chapter Two The Village | 19 |
Chapter Three The Betsimisaraka History and the Spread of Tromba | 37 |
Chapter Four Localising Tromba | 57 |
Chapter Five A Spirit World of Movement and Change | 83 |
Spirits Persons and Places | 111 |
Chapter Seven Tromba Nights of Clapping Song and Dance | 139 |
Chapter Eight The Judgement Bath | 167 |
Chapter Ten Tromba Translocality and the Magic of the Malagasy Nation | 251 |
Epilogue Magic and Political Imagination | 275 |
Appendix I The Spirits Ethnic Origin Kind Gender and Age | 281 |
Appendix II The Mediums and their Spirits | 283 |
Appendix III Extracts of Conversations with SpiritsMalagasy Version | 305 |
Appendix IV Tromba Vocabulary | 311 |
313 | |
321 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adult amin'ny añareo ancestral rituals Antandroy Antemoro argues associated bad medicine Betsileo Betsimisaraka Bloch called Castoriadis chapter church clients cloth coast Cole colonial connected context cultural curers curing spirits dance deceased human diviner dynamics Emoff engaged ethnic fanafody fieldwork forces groups hasina identity Ilaka images imaginary instance invocation izany Jaona Lambek living Madagascar Mahajanga Malagasy male elder Mananjary Marofero Marolambo Mayotte Merina miaramila mirror mpañano tromba mpiandry organised participants people’s play political raha Ralahy Randrianja Rangahy Ravao Ravavy Ravavy’s relation relationship rice ritual bath ritual practice rombo Sakalava social social imaginary society soldier songs sorcery speech spirit arrives spirit possession taboos tangalamena tion Toamasina tombs translocal tromba activity tromba imagination tromba in Marofatsy tromba possession tromba practice tromba rituals tromba Sakalava tromba spirits tromba world Tsimivalo Vatomandry vazaha village Volambita water spirit zañahary