Ethnohistory 2001 48(1-2):13-30; DOI:10.1215/00141801-48-1-2-13
Duke University Press
The Hazomanga among the Masikoro of Southwest Madagascar: Identity and History
Jeanne Dina
University of Toliara, Madagascar
Abstract.
In this article Masikoro identity is linked to the Sakalava of western and
northwestern Madagascar. An analysis that associates two ritual objects, the
hazomanga (a wooden pole symbolizing a lineage, sometimes shaped like a cross,
upon which sacrificial blood is consecrated to ones raza or ancestors) and the
jiny (ancestral relics), is presented in support of the Sakalava-Masikoro
link. A number of rituals involving jiny and hazomanga are considered,
including circumcision and adoption of a new member into a lineage. The role
of women in relation to these ritual objects is historicized and compared
briefly to a contemporary politicized context.

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Copyright 2001 by American Society for Ethnohistory