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Divination in Madagascar:
The Antemoro Case and the Diffusion of Divination |
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Pierre Vérin and Narivelo Rajaonarimanana |
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Divination remains a fundamental necessity in the everyday lives of the Malagasy people, whatever their religious affiliation. Since February 28, 1868, when the queen and her prime minister converted to Christianity (Chapus and Mondain 1953:163), divination as well as the "idol cults" have been said to be disappearing from the realm of the "acceptable" beliefs, and it is now assumed, mostly among local Protestant circles, that divination has been completely rooted out in the Uplands. Nevertheless, divination practices are still in use, not only in the "pagan" coastal areas but also in the very heart of Imerina and Betsileo country, even though they may appear inconspicuous to the casual observer. |
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Divination as practiced in Madagascar has aroused scholarly interest for more than one hundred years. As early as 1877 Lars Dahle published some texts about sikidy divination in his Specimens of Malagasy Folklore, and several years later he wrote an important contribution on sikidy and vintana (1886). In subsequent years, many investigators have touched on divination in Madagascar; the Grandidiers' three-volume bibliography of Madagascar (190557) lists more than three hundred items concerning Arabico-Malagasy documents and divination materials. Unfortunately, much of the relevant archival material remains untranslated. |
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Our aim in this essay is not only to provide a synthesis of previous contributions but also to devise a new approach to understanding the divination system. Contrary to what many authors have contended, the intellectual process through which the diviner draws his conclusions is not an uncritical, mechanical use of the column configurations of the sikidy system. In fact, the scholar who has obtained a correct list of sikidy configurations is only beginning the research. Materials in the native archives which we are deciphering and translating show clearly that the diviner, after arranging the seeds, has at his disposal several options for interpreting his client's destiny. Examples of the choices made, as recorded by Vig (1977) and |
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