Ethnohistory 2001 48(1-2):237-256; DOI:10.1215/00141801-48-1-2-237
Duke University Press
When Origins Matter: The Politics of Commemoration in Northern Madagascar
Andrew Walsh
University of Northern British Columbia
Abstract.
This article discusses different understandings of the origins of a ritual
associated with the Antankaraña polity of northern Madagascar. If we
are to understand how history is "made" differently at different
points in time, we must consider the interrelatedness of historical narratives
and the sociopolitical contexts in which they are produced and interpreted. By
focusing on one purportedly commemorative rite and the different ways in which
it has been interpreted at different points in Malagasy history, this essay
suggests one example of how acts of commemoration and the historical
narratives they imply might be studied in relation to the political interests
they serve.

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Copyright 2001 by American Society for Ethnohistory