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Book Cover
Book
Author Astuti, Rita.

Title People of the sea : identity and descent among the Vezo of Madagascar / Rita Astuti
Published Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  305.8993 Ast/Pot  AVAILABLE
Description Electronic book
x, 188 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Series Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 95
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 95
Contents 1. Introduction -- 2. Acting Vezo in the present -- 3. People without wisdom -- 4. Avoiding ties and bonds -- 5. Intermezzo -- 6. Kinship in the present and in the future -- 7. Separating life from death -- 8. Working for the dead -- 9. Conclusion
Summary The Vezo, a fishing people of western Madagascar, are known as 'the people who struggle with the sea'. Dr Astuti explores their identity, showing that it is established through what people do rather than being determined by descent. Vezo identity is a 'way of doing' rather than a 'state of being', performative rather than ethnic. However, her innovative analysis of Vezo kinship also uncovers an opposite form of identity based on descent, which she argues is the identity of the dead. By looking at key mortuary rituals that engage the relationship between the living and the dead, Dr Astuti develops a dual model of the Vezo person: the one defined contextually in the present, the other determined by the past
Analysis Ethnography
Madagascar
Notes Title from publishers bibliographic system (viewed on 22 Dec 2011)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology no:95
Subject Vezo (Malagasy people)
Vezo (Malagasy people) -- Ethnic identity.
Vezo (Malagasy people) -- Funeral customs and rites.
Betania (Madagascar) -- Social life and customs.
LC no. 94028378
ISBN 0521433509 (hardback)