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Title: | A Cultural Politics of Bedchamber Construction and Progressive Dining in Antananarivo: Ritual Inversions during the Fandeoana of 1817 |
Author: | Larson, Pier M.![]() |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
Volume: | 27 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | August |
Pages: | 239-269 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Madagascar |
Subjects: | foreign policy Merina polity kingship rituals Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1581740 |
Abstract: | During the second week of August 1817 James Hastie, a British envoy to the Merina kingdom of highland central Madagascar, participated in an innovative and politically significant royal ritual. The practices and festivities that accompanied that ritual - the 'fandroana' or new year according to the lunar calendar employed by the people of highland central Madagascar - were centred on the royal court and on the king, Radama I. This article explores the political and cultural symbolism of Hastie's participation in the 'fandroana' of 1817. It argues that Radama choreographed Hastie's participation in the ritual to invert customary ritual sequence and to thereby communicate to his subjects both his intentions for political alliance with Britain and his administrative independence as a young ruler who languished within the shadows of a popular predecessor and father, Andrianampoinimerina. Notes, ref. |