
The Possessed and the Dispossessed
Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town
- 399 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Possessed and the Dispossessed
Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town
About this book
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. These women, Leslie Sharp argues, are far from powerless among the peasants and migrant laborers who work the land in this plantation economy. In fact, Sharp'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. Sharp's 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 Sharp'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.
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. These women, Leslie Sharp argues, are far from powerless among the peasants a
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Figures
- Plates
- Textual Notes
- Acknowledgments
- CHAPTER I Introduction: Possession, Identity, and Power
- CHAPTER II The Political Economy of the Sambirano
- CHAPTER III National and Local Factions
- CHAPTER IV Tera-Tany and Vahiny
- CHAPTER V The World of the Spirits
- CHAPTER VI Sacred Knowledge and Local Power
- CHAPTER VII Spirit Mediumship and Social Identity
- CHAPTER VIII The Problems and Conflicts of Town Life
- CHAPTER IX The Social World of Children
- CHAPTER X Exorcising the Spirits
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- References
- Index