The non-modern constitution of famines in Madagascar's spiny forests: “water-food” plants, cattle and Mahafale landscape praxis

This essay draws on Bruno Latour's exegesis of modernity to explore modern and non-modern conceptions of famines and prickly pear cacti in the African island of Madagascar. Using Latour's concept of the “non-modern constitution,” I argue that Mahafale famine history highlights “cactus pastoralism” as a model of non-equilibrium landscapes and nature-society hybrids, adding to the shift away from the paradigm of “nature-tending-toward-equilibrium.” When considered not as occurrences of nature out of balance, famines serve to complicate and nuance recent discussions of human induced change to Madagascar's environments. Latour's framework assists in excavating various conceptions of famines and cacti, which in turn furthers the discussion on modernity by suggesting that cactus pastoralists make their own kind of modernity – an alternative modernity.