The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar

by Michael Lambek

Book Overview

In The Weight of the Past, Michael Lambek explores the complex ways that history shapes, constrains, and enables daily life. Focusing on ritual performances of spirit mediumship in a multifaceted religious landscape, Lambek's analysis reveals the multiple ways that Sakalava 'bear' history. In Mahajanga, Madagascar, to bear history is at once a weighty obligation, a creative re-birthing, a scrupulous cultivation, and an exuberant performance of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403960682
• ISBN13: 9781403960689
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.4"