The Weight of the Past

The Sakalava are one of the Malagasy ethnic groups of Madagascar. In this work, Michael Lambek starts from the basis of the mediumship and ritual which is the basis of an ancestral religious cult in Sakalava a cult that survives (controversially in some cases) alongside Christianity and Islam. These religious practices are more than mere religion. They are the site at which Sakalava historical memory, politics, and the economy are developed, generated, and extended. Ultimately, Lambek traces the concentric circles outward to provide a look at how subjectivity, the citizen, and a sense of identity is generated in a very different manner than the 'possessive individualism' of the West. The book makes contributions to the study of mediumship, religious practice, historical consciousness, psychological anthropology, and postcolonial politics. Its exploration of the distinct notion of the Sakalava self can be read as an implicit critique of Western culture.