Tombs and Conservatism Among the Merina of Madagascar

This article is concerned with the importance of tombs for the Merina of Madagascar. In this culture the tomb is a conceptually fixed point in an apparently fluid social organisation. Hence, the Merina social system is one of those systems in which the element of continuity is obtained by stressing people's relation to things rather than their relation to corporate groups. The case is of particular interest in that the allegiance which is expressed through attachment to a tomb is clearly not accountable in terms of economic and political gain. In most systems where allegiance to particular groups and things is stressed, the political and economic aspect is so important that these allegiances can be explained solely in terms of the material benefits which accrue to the individual, obscuring the importance of allegiance qua allegiance. The nature of the Merina example forces on us the consideration of this latter aspect. The Merina, who are sometimes referred to as the Hova, live in the northern part of the central plateau of Madagascar. They number approximately II million, and speak one of the many dialects of the Malayo-Polynesian language spoken throughout the island. The Merina divide themselves into two categories based on physical differences. The first, which they call fotsy, 'white', refers principally to the descendants of the 'free' Merina, who are usually described as being of Malay type; the other, which they call mainty, 'black', refers principally to the descendants of slaves who are usually described as negroid. This article deals only with Merina of free descent. The literature on the Merina is very large indeed (e.g. Andriamanjato I957; Chapus Deschamps I959; Ellis I838; Grandidier & Grandidier I908), but is mainly descriptive. Attempts at understanding Merina culture and society have been few. Although all writers on the Merina mention their large monumental tombs which offer a striking contrast to their much poorer impermanent dwellings, and many mention the dramatic exhumations which are the most elaborate Merina ceremonies, very few try to explain why such massive tombs are built or why such ceremonies are carried out., In this article I intend to suggest answers to these questions in an attempt to make such behaviour comprehensible. By this I simply mean to convey what these tombs mean to the actors. The understanding of meaning must be to a certain extent subjective, but this understanding is in itself one of the greatest advantages gained from continued close contact with the subjects of the enquiry, which is what we mean by participant observation. This understanding comes from a thousand signs and remarks which establish in the mind of the anthropologist the structure of the culture he is studying. The anthropologist realises his assimilation