The Possessed and the Dispossessed: Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town
Lesley Sharp
Abstract
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 ... More
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.
Keywords:
Madagascar,
spirit medium healers,
peasants,
plantation economy,
tromba,
spirit possession,
Africa
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 1994 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520080010 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520080010.001.0001 |
