Ethnohistory 2001 48(1-2):123-155; DOI:10.1215/00141801-48-1-2-123
Duke University Press
Austronesian Mortuary Ritual in History: Transformations of Secondary Burial (Famadihana) in Highland Madagascar
Pier M. Larson
The Johns Hopkins University
Abstract.
This article identifies historical transformations in the fluid and
regionally varied secondary burials, or famadihana, of highland Madagascar.
While secondary burials were known during the early nineteenth century, most
mortuary ritual at that time focused on primary interment. From the 1820s
practices of secondary burial re-emerged from long-distance repatriation of
soldiers' remains and from ceremonies of tomb-to-tomb transfer as kin built
new sepulchres of stone. Because they consumed time, energy, significant
financial resources and tended to strengthen local networks of loyalty and
authority, famadihana and the persons who practiced them came into conflict
with highland Malagasy royalty from the reign of Radama I.

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Copyright 2001 by American Society for Ethnohistory