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This essay was translated by Martine Motard-Noar and Philip M. Peek. The translators sincerely thank the authors for reviewing the translation and Lee Haring and John Mack for their generous aid in clarifying citations and offering other editorial advice. |
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1. These procedures are found in the Republic of Malagasy Ordonnance no. 60-074, July 28, 1960. |
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2. Used by diviners in southeastern Malagasy for over three hundred years, the Arabico-Malagasy script records the Malagasy language in Arabic characters. Roman characters have been used in Antananarivo since 1820. |
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3. Moasy in the northwest; mpimasy in the central area. |
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4. The word mpamintanana comes from vintana, the general word for "destiny," a term of Austronesian origin (see Dempwolff 1938, vol. 3:31, under bintan, "star"; also Hébert 1965). The association with astrology is clear from the phrase miandra vintana, "to study the stars.'' |
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5. Specifically from the system called ilm al-samb, "the science of sand" (kitab al-Fasl fi usul 'ilm al-rml by Sheyk Muhamad al-Zanati); see Ferrand and Vérin (1985) and Ferrand (1891-1902). |
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6. See Bloch (1971, 1986), Mack (1986), and Vérin 1990:122-27 concerning the importance of the ancestors for the Malagasy people. |
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7. Providing our earliest record, Flacourt devotes two chapters to "ombiasses" (ombiasy) of the extreme south. |
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8. See Bloch (1968:280-83), Mack (1986:33-38), and Vérin (1986:79-89). |
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9. For further discussion of the role of Antemoro diviners in Madagascar's political history, see Bloch (1968:284-86), Mack (1986:38), and Rajaonarimanana (1990). |
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10. See Vig (1977:13), Délivré (1974:149), and Ruud (1960:29). |
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11. See Bloch (1968:288-89, 1986:52). |
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12. Ruud relied on Vig's work as well as Callet (1974; first published 1953-58) and materials collected among the Antanosy. |
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13. The causes of diseases are then listed (A. and G. Grandidier 1917:620): |
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One falls ill on the first [day of the month] if three pieces of wood are planted on the eastern side of his house, on the second because one has made a rope with ravenal bark to tie up a young man or a quadruped, on the third because one has felled a tree in the shadow of which people used to protect themselves from the sun, etc. . . . If, when one is ill, one would like to avoid death or at least avoid worse sickness, one must not: during the three days of Alahamaly destiny, that is to say the first three days of the lunar month, allow a blacksmith to approach oneself nor eat skate, eel, turtle, or the heart of the lafa; during the two days of Adaoro destiny, that is to say during the fourth to fifth day of the month, allow strangers to enter into the house, nor eat honey, wild birds, and so on, each one of the twenty-eight days having its special prohibitions. |
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14. Many Arabico-Malagasy manuscripts of sacred esoteric knowledge have been collected, but few containing material on divination have been translated. One is Ferrand's partial translation (1905) of a manuscript from the Bibliothèque Nationale. The manuscript collected by Grandidier will appear in a forthcoming book on Malagasy divination by Rajaonarimanana. |
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15. The Antemoro call the sixteen columns tale, consulting person; maly, object or money given for the consultation; fahatelo, the third or the client's brother; bilady, residence; fenaha, child; abidy, mother; betsimisay or alisay, wife; fahavalo, enemy; fahasivy, spirit of the dead; ombiasa, the diviner; haza, food; Haky, God; solotany, king; sely, young people; lala, road; and trano, house. Regional variation may be seen by comparing this list with the terms in fig. 4. |
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