A cultural politics of bedchamber construction and progressive dining in antananarivo: Ritual inversions during the fandroa.na of 1817

Journal of Religion in Africa

Volumn 27, Issue 1-4, 1997, Pages 239-269

  Larson, Pier M ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0007324379     PISSN: 00224200     EISSN: 15700666     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157006697X00144     Document Type: Review

References (64)

1. Highland Madagascar, central Madagascar and Imerina are employed synonymously throughout this article. Imerina once comprised only a small area around Antananarivo (before the very late eighteenth century), but now designates the entire modern Province of Antananarivo. I employ the modern definition of Imerina throughout this article. Similarly, by 'highland Malagasy' I designate the ancestors of people now known as Merina. The highland Malagasy kingdom in question, then, is conventionally known by the ethnonym of its people-the Merina kingdom. For a history of Imerina as toponym and Merina as ethnonym see Pier M. Larson, 'Desperately Seeking "The Merina" (Central Madagascar): Reading Ethnonyms and their Semantic Fields in African Identity Histories' Journal of Southern AJlinan Studies, 22,4 (1996).
2. For a general introduction to the history of central Madagascar during the early nineteenth century see Mervyn Brown, Madagascar Rediscovereth A Histoiy from Early Vines to Independence (Hamden: Archon Books, 1979)
3. Michel Prou, Malaga.sy 'Un Pas de plus': Vers l'hzstoire du 'Royaame de Madagascar' as XIX' siicle, I, (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1987).
4. For histories of Andrianampoinimerina, the founder of Radama's kingdom, see Jean Valette, 'Pour one histoire du rgne d'Andrianampoinimerina (1787-1810),' Revue Françaioe d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer 52,2 (1965), No. 187, 277-285
5. Hubert Deschamps, 'Andrianampoinimerina, ou la raison d'etat au service de l'unité malgache' in C.-A. Julien (ed.) Las Aftisains (Paris: Editions Jeune Afrique, 1977), IT, 77-97
6. Hubert Deschamps, 'Tradition and Change in Madagascar, 1790-1870' in J.E. Flint (ed.) The Cambridge History of Africa Volume 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 393-417. Histories of Radaina conventionally begin in about 1816 sith the British alliance and ignore Radama's early years of struggle for influence at his own court between 1810 and that time.
7. The Mascarene islands were comprised of two principal islands, Mauritius and Bourbon (now Reunion), each lying some 900 kilometers east of the central coast of Madagascar. Since the first European occupation of the islands (there was no indigenous population) Madagascar was an important source of both food and slave labor. For a history of the economic relationships between Madagascar and the Mascarenes see Auguste Toussaint, Histosre des lies Moscareignes (Paris: Berger-Levrault 1972).
8. For the slave trade specifically see J.M. Filliot, La Iraite des esclaves vers los Mascareignes ass XVIII' siècle (Paris: ORSTOM, 1974).
9. See Anthony J. Barker, Slavery and Anti-Slavery in Maurilius, 181 0-33: The Conflict Betureen Economic Espanswn and Hwnammrwn Reform Under British Rule (London: Macmillan, 1996).
10. For examples of such narratives see HOM, II, 144-198
11. Jean Valette, Etudes szr le règne de Radama I" (Tananarive: Imprimerie Natinnale, 1962)
12. Hubert Deschamps, Hi.stoire de Madagascar (Paris: Berger Levrault, 1972)
13. Hubert Deschamps, 'Tradition and Change in Madagascar, 1790-1870' in Cambridge History of Africa Volume 5(1976), 393-417
14. Ludvig Munthe, Charles Ravoajanahary and Simon Ayache, 'Radama I et les Anglais: les negotiations de 1817 d'aprCs les sources malgaches ("sorabe" inédits)' Omaly y Avon No. 3-4 (1976), 9-102
15. Jean Valette, 'Radama I, The Unification of Madagascar and the Modernization of Imerina (1810-1828)' in Raymond K. Kent (ed.) Madagascar in History. E.rsays from the l970s (Mbany: The Foundation for Malagasy Studies, 1979), 168-196
16. Michel Prou, Malosgasy un pas de plus: to royaume de Madagascar an XIX' siècle, (Paris: Editions l'Harmattan, 1987), 43-45
17. Francoise Raison-Jourde, Bible et pouvoir a Madagascar au XIX' siècle: invention d'une identiti chritienne et construction de l'i(at (1 780-1880) (Paris: Karthala, 1991), 113-126
18. Pierre Vérin, Madagascar (Paris: Karthala, 1994), 91-99.
19. Gilbert Ratsivalaka has recently revealed that Andrianampoinimerina is likely to have sojourned in Mauritius as a child. Gilbert Ratsivalaka, Madagascar darts to sud-ouest de l'Ocian Indien (circa 1500-1824): pour une relecture a'e l'histoire do Madagascar These pour l'obtention du doctorat d'etat, Universitb de Nice, 1995, I, 153-155.
20. The citation is fromJean Vallette's published version of this journal: 'La mission de Chardenoux aupres de Radama pr (1816)' Bulletin de Madagascar No. 207 (1963), 691-692. Evidence of Farquhar's early interest in Madagascar can be found in the collection of the Governor's papers relating to the history, culture, language, politics, economy and natural resources of Madagascar now located in the British Library Manuscripts Division (Additional Manuscripts 18117- 18141-the Farquhar Papers).
21. The preceding two paragraphs are based on chapter six of my forthcoming book: Pier M. Larson, Identities of a Crisis: The Slave Trade, Gender and the Rise of Meri.na Ethnic Identity in central Madagascar, 1770-1822.
22. The foregoing conclusions are based upon what James Hastie wrote in his journal, an account of his perceptions and activities kept both for his own interest and for the purpose of documenting his activities in Madagascar for Governor Farquhar of Mauritius. James Hastie's journals from Madagascar were written in English. Copies of fragments of these journals, each covering a period of a few to several months, can be found in various places in the Public Record Office (London) among the dispatches of the Governor of Mauritius to the Colonial Office and in the National Archives of Mauritius (Coromandel). The version of James Hastic's diary that covers the period of the fandroana of 1817 (this particular journal fragment runs from 6 August 1817 through 1 September 1817) is a French translation from an English language manuscnpt that I have been unable to locate (Gwyn Campbell footnotes an English language 1817 journal of Hastie in the Public Record Office, series COl 167)34, but I have been unable to locate such a journal in that volume or verify its precise dates: Gwyn Campbell, 'The Structure of Trade in Madagascar, 1750-1810' The International Journal of African Historical Studies 26,1 (1993), 118, n. 18).
23. The French translation employed in this article was published by the Académie Malgache in 1903 for the interest of its members but without indication of who was in possession of the original manuscript: James Hastie, 'Le voyage de Tananarive en 1817: Manuscrit de James Hastie' Bulletin de l'Acaddmie Maagache vol. 2, 3 trimestre (1903), 173-178.
24. Quotations pertaining to dates other than 6 August 1817 through 1 September 1817 are from English manuscript versions of Hastie's diaries and are fully cited where employed. Hereafter specific pages of the 1817 journal published by the Académie Malgache are cited only where lengthy or particularly important quotations from it are placed in the text. For criticisms of the methods and procedures employed by the Academic Malgache to publish French versions of Hastie's English journals see Jean Valette, 'Etude sur les journaux de James Haslie (18 16-1826)' Bulletin de Madagascar No. 259 (1967), 977-986
25. Jean Vallette, 'Réflexions pour une edition des journaux d'Hastie' Bulletin de Madagascar No. 264 (1968), 472-474.
26. Entry for 8 August 1817, p. 174. His informant may well have been one of Radama's two younger brothers who had spent several months with Hastie in Mauritius during 1817. These young men, Ratafika and Rahovy, are mentioned below in the text.
27. Approaches to cultural encounter in European expansion take a variety of forms and operate through different paradigms. See, for example, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Eoopire, 1875-1914 (New York: Vintage Books, 1987)
28. Ranajit Guha & Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (eds.), Selected Subaltern Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988)
29. Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technotsgy, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989)
30. Marshall Sahlins, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities. St,uctore in the History of the Sandwich Islands Ifingdom (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1981)
31. Stuart B. Schwartz, 'Expansion, Diaspora, and Encounter in the Early Modern South Atlantic' Itineraria 19,2 (1995), 48-59
32. Stuart B. Schwartz (ed.), Implicit Understandings: Observing Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Eariy Modem Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
33. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 'Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography' in In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York: Methuen, 1987), 197-221
34. Gyan Prakash, 'Subaltern Studies as Postcolonial Criticism' American Historical Reuiew 99,5 (1994), 1475-1490.
35. Unless otherwise noted, all information in this section comes from the previously cited Academic Maigache edition of Hastie's 1817 diary.
36. This scene is also described, although with less color, in Hastie's journal, 9 August 1817, p. 175. Because none of the missionaries accompanied Hastie in 1817 this passage and others treating Hastie's sojourn in Antananarivo in 1817 printed in HOM (principally HOM, II, 159-201) most plausibly derive from some version of Hastic's journal, not an independent source or third party.
37. Information for the first two paragraphs of this section comes from James Hastie, 'Le voyage de Tananarive en 1817: Manuscrits de James Hasde,' Bulletin de l'Acadimse Malgaclie 2, 2 trimestre (1903), 91-114.
38. This journal fragment covers 19 July 1817 through 5 August 1817.
39. Hastie journal, 9 August 1817, pp. 175-176.
40. Modern orthography: Andriamanitra.
41. Maurice Bloch, 'The Ritual of the Royal Bath in Madagascar: The Dissolution of Death, Birth and Fertility into Authority' in David Cannadine and Simon Price, (eds.) Rituals of Rqyaly: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge Univershy Press, 1987), 27 1-297.
42. Bloch, 'Ritual of the Royal Bath,' 284.
43. Bloch, 'Ritual of the Royal Bath,' 293. I have omitted Bloch's designation of 'funeral,''blessing,' and 'resolution' sequences from the illustration because they are not relevant to the present argument.
44. '1hen, in the middle of the night, came the bath itself at the very moment of the turn of the year.' Bloch, 'Ritual of the Royal Bath,' 280
45. In this way the ritual symbolism of the new year paralleled the symbolism of the rise of a new king. Historical traditions hold that on the evening Andrianampoinimerina felt his death to be near he issued orders for Radama to be confined in the royal house called Masoandro (the sun) inside the court at Antananarivo. Only at daybreak, after a night of mourning, did Radama emerge from Mosoandro to reign as a new sun over the kingdom. See HOM, I, 100.
46. Unmarried adolescents, conceptualized as those who are in between generations, vital yet lacking domestic commitments. See Maurice Bloch, From Blessing to Violence: Histosy and Ideologo in the Circumcision Ritual of the Merina of Madagascar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 56-57.
47. Marina is a word of complex and multiple significances. For a critique of the histriringraphy of marina and its substantive, hasina, see Pier M. Larson, 'Multiple Histories, Gendered Voices: Remembering the Past in Highland Central Madagascar' The International Journal of African Historical Studies 28,2 (1995), 305-309.
48. Bloch suggests (p. 282) that this occurred the same night following the sovereign's bath but in practice it usually took place during the following day, the first day of Alahamady.
49. Many people moved in and out of the walls of the rosa daily. The tremendous influence that 'private' events within the rosa could have for the people of the kingdom is perhaps best illustrated by the 'secret' baptism of Queen Ranavalona II and Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony in 1869. Details of the baptism became widely known, and the event touched off a mass of conversions to Christianity during Use ensuing months. Raison-Jourde, Bible et pouvoir a Madagascar, 296-306.
50. Tantara, 673, 760, 932.
51. B. Hugon, 'Aperçu de mon dernier voyage a ANC OVA de l'an 1808,' BL/MDI Add.Mss./l8l37/16r.
52. Hastie employs the term 'captain' in his journal to refer specifically to Radama's highest military officers. See, for example, Hastie's entry for 7 August 1817 where the British envoy explains that Brady, a British officer serving Radama, was no longer a soldier but had been promoted to a 'captain.' (Brady was considered a 'general' of the army and was in charge of training elite troops in European military techniques.) Later in the entry for that day, Hastie indicates that the deliberations about the slave trade in the western Indian Ocean took place in Hastie's quarters, which were full of people, 'among which were all his captains.' It is clear from this passage that by the term 'captains' Hastie meant to distinguish Radama's highest officers and counselors from lower level members of his entourage.
53. All quotations from this document below are from Taniara, 167-168.
54. Sahlins, Histescal Metaphors and Mythical Reatitiss.
55. Larson, IdenWies of a Crisis, chapter six.
56. David Jones to Rev. George Burder, Antananarivo, 3 May 1821: LMS/ 1/2/C.
57. A. Coppafle, Voyage a to capitale du roi Radasna 1825-1826 (Tananarive: Association Malgache d'Archeologie), 1970, 56
58. Tsy misy andnamanitra fa izaho no andriamanitra, boy izy. Tantora, 1104.
59. See, for example, Journal of Barnsley from 12 December 1821 to 30 June 1822: MNA/HB/7/87/205.
60. Journal of James Hastie from 14 November 1817 to 19 May 1818: Entry for 12 January 1818: MNA/HB/10/2/19-23.
61. Journal ofJames Hastie from 14 November 1817 to 19 May 1818: Entry for 9 January 1818: MNA/HB/10/2/19-23.
62. HOM, I, 101-2.
63. For the little we know, Andrianampoinimerina could have been of similar personal disposition toward royal ritual. For excellent studies of Andrianampoinimerina's innovation and management of royal ritual see Gerald Berg, 'The Sacred Musket: Tactics, Technology, and Power in Eighteenth-Century Madagascar' Comparative Studies in Sociey and Hrtto-y 27,2 (1985), 26 1-279
64. Gerald Berg, 'Sacred Acquisition: Andrianampoinimerina at Ambobimanga, 1777-1790' Journal of African Histo-y 29,2 (1988), 191-211.