Constructing History, Culture and Inequality: The Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar (African Social Studies Series) [Paperback]

Sandra J. T. M. Evers (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9004124608 | ISBN-13: 978-9004124608 | Publication Date: October 1, 2002

During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slaves established a frontier society in the no-man's-land of the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar. First settlers skilfully deployed a fluid set of Malagasy customs to implant a myth of themselves as tompon-tany or "masters of the land". Eventually, they created a land monopoly to reinforce their legitimacy and to exclude later migrants. Some of them were labelled "andevo" ("slave" or "slave descent"). The tompon-tany prohibited the andevo from owning land, and thereby from having tombs. This work focuses on the plight of the tombless andevo, and how their ascribed impurity and association with infertility, illness, death and misfortune made them as essential part of the tompon-tany world-view.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an outstanding book, ethnografically sophisticated as well as theoretically rigorous. Anyone interested in social inequality...absolutely must read this book . Lesley Sharp

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004124608
• ISBN-13: 978-9004124608
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,102,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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