Forget Colonialism?: Sacrifice and the Art of Memory in Madagascar (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity) [Hardcover]

Jennifer Cole (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520228456 | ISBN-13: 978-0520228450 | Publication Date: November 5, 2001 | Edition: 1

While doing fieldwork in a village in east Madagascar that had suffered both heavy settler colonialism and a bloody anticolonial rebellion, Jennifer Cole found herself confronted by a puzzle. People in the area had lived through almost a century of intrusive French colonial rule, but they appeared to have forgotten the colonial period in their daily lives. Then, during democratic elections in 1992-93, the terrifying memories came flooding back. Cole asks, How do once-colonized peoples remember the colonial period? Drawing on a fine-grained ethnography of the social practices of remembering and forgetting in one community, she develops a practice-based approach to social memory.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best book-length study of colonial memory available.... Cole provides a way out of the dichotomy in which memory is viewed as either individual or 'collective.' " - Rosalind Shaw, coeditor of Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism/ The Politics of Religious Synthesis; "A remarkably lucid and self-assured analysis of social memory.... The book is a pleasure to read." - Michael Lambek, author of Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte

From the Inside Flap

"The best book-length study of colonial memory available... Cole provides a way out of the dichotomy in which memory is viewed as either individual or 'collective.'"--Rosalind Shaw, coeditor of Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis

"A remarkably lucid and self-assured analysis of social memory. . . The book is a pleasure to read."--Michael Lambek, author of Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 361 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520228456
• ISBN-13: 978-0520228450
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,689,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.