Ethnohistory 2001 48(1-2):171-204; DOI:10.1215/00141801-48-1-2-171
Duke University Press
Power and Meaning on the Periphery of a Malagasy Kingdom
Karen Middleton
University of Oxford
Abstract.
This paper explores the historical narratives of the Karembola, a people
who settled a highly marginal region of southern Madagascar as
Maroseraña subjects but who subsequently subverted royal ritual to make
themselves "lords in their own land." In contrast to Malagasy
peoples who either identify as "royal followers" or,
alternatively, reject symbols of monarchy, Karembola attitudes to monarchy are
shown to be profoundly ambivalent. Focusing on the politics of landscape and
ceremonial exchange, the analysis highlights the capacity of ancestor-focused
rituals to enable the contestation of authority and to foster the
relocalization of power from center to periphery.

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Copyright 2001 by American Society for Ethnohistory