Abstract
Spirit possession is a common experience shared by many women in northwest Madagascar. In the town of Ambanja, possession by volatile and dangerous Njarinintsy spirits is an affliction which strikes young, adolescent schoolgirls. When Njarinintsy is contrasted with tromba, another well-known class of spirits found in this region, it becomes clear that Njarinintsy possession is a relatively recent phenomenon, and its victims form a discrete and unusual group. These girls are, in essence, young migrants, who have moved alone to town in order to attend school. Close examination of their experiences reveals that these young girls must cope, on their own, with the conflicts and contradictions that plague the shift from rural to town life, and from youth to adulthood. Such problems are further complicated by those associated with educational policy in Madagascar. These children, more than any other members of this community, suffer from the contradictions of a fragmented world. Possession provides them with a means through which to express the chaos inherent in their daily lives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, S.E., and Raymond L.M. Lee 1981 Communication and Cognitive Pluralism in a Spirit Possession Event in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 8(4):789–99.
Andriamihamina, R., N. Trevet, T. de Commarmond, J. L. Rabenandrasana, and R. Perier 1987 Ambanja. État actuel. Antananarivo: Ministère des Travaux Publics, Direction de l'Architecture de l'Urbanisme et de l'Habitat. Projet Urbain dans les Faritany.
Ariès, Philippe 1965 Centuries of Childhood. à Social History of Family Life. Robert Baldick, translator. New York: Vintage Books.
Bloch, Maurice 1971 Placing the Dead. Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar. New York: Seminar Press.
Boddy, Janice 1988 Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possession and Trance. American Ethnologist 1(1):4–27.
Burbank, Victoria K. 1988 Aboriginal Adolescence: Maidenhood in an Australian Community. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Condon, Richard G. 1987 Inuit Youth. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Covell, Maureen 1987 Madagascar: Politics, Economics and Society. London: Frances Pinter.
Crapanzano, Vincent 1977 Introduction. In Case Studies in Spirit Possession. V. Crapanzano and V. Garrison, eds. Pp. 1–39. New York: John Wiley.
Crowder, Michael 1964 Indirect Rule — French and British Style. Africa 34(3):197–205.
Davis, Susan Schaefer and Douglas A. 1989 Adolescence in a Moroccan Town. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Durkheim, Emile 1961 Moral Education. A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education. E.K. Wilson and H. Schnurer, translators. New York: The Free Press.
Durkheim, Emile 1968 Suicide. A Study in Sociology. J.A. Spaulding and G. Simpson, translators. New York: The Free Press.
Estrade, Jean-Marie 1977 Le Tromba. Un culte de possession à Madagascar. Paris: Editions Anthropos.
Gifford, Prosser, and Timothy C. Weiskel 1974 African Education in a Colonial Context: French and British Styles. In France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. P. Gifford and W.R. Lewis, eds. Pp. 663–711. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Giles, Linda L. 1987 Possession Cults on the Swahili Coast: A Re-examination of Theories of Marginality. Africa 57(2):234–258.
Gottlieb, David, Jon Reeves, and Warran D. TenHorton 1966 The Emergence of Youth Societies. A Cross-Cultural Approach. New York: The Free Press.
Grossman, Rachel 1979 Women's Place in the Integrated Circuit. Southeast Asia Chronicle 66:2–17.
Harris, Grace 1957 Possession “Hysteria” in a Kenya Tribe. American Anthropologist 59(6):1046–1066.
Hollos, Marida, and Philip E. Leis 1989 Becoming Nigerian in Ijo Society. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Kent, Raymond K. 1968 Madagascar and Africa: II. The Sakalava, Maroserana, Dady and Tromba Before 1700. Journal of African History 9(4):517–476.
Kottak, Conrad P. 1980 The Past in the Present. History, Ecology, and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagascar. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Kulin, Howard E. 1988 Adolescent Pregnancy in Africa: A Programmatic Focus. Social Science and Medicine 26(7):727–735.
Lambek, Michael 1980 Spirits and Spouses: Possession as a System of Communication Among the Malagasy Speakers of Mayotte (Comoro Islands). American Ethnologist 7(2):318–331.
Lancaster, B. (ed.) 1986 School-Age Pregnancy and Parenthood. New York: De Gruyter.
Lasch, Christopher 1977 Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Mead, Margaret 1939 From the South Seas. Studies of Adolescence and Sex in Primitive Societies. New York: William Morrow and Company.
Minge, Wanda 1986 The Industrial Revolution and the European Family: “Childhood” as a Market for Family Labor. In Women's Work: Development and the Division of Labor by Gender. E. Leacock and H. Safa, eds. Pp. 13–24. New York: Bergen and Garvey, Publishers.
Molet, L. 1959 L'Expansion Tsimehety. Modalités et motivations des migrations intérieurs d'un groupe éthnique du Nord de Madagascar. Mémoires de l'Institut Scientifique de Madagascar (Paris), IRSM Series C, 5:1–96.
Ong, Aihwa 1987 Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Factory Women in Malaysia. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ong, Aihwa 1988 The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 15(1):28–42.
Ramamonjisoa, Suzy-Andrée 1986 Symbolique des rapports entre les femmes et les hommes dans les cultes de possession de type tromba à Madagascar. Bulletin Académie Malgache 63(1–2):99–110.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy, and Margaret Lock 1987 The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1(1):1–36.
Wilson, Peter J. 1971 Sentimental Structure: Tsimihety Migration and Descent. American Anthropologist 73:193–208.
Worthman, Carol M., and John M. Whiting 1987 Social Change in Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Mate Selection, and Premarital Pregnancy Rates in a Kikuyu Community. Ethos 15(2):145–165.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sharp, L.A. Possessed and dispossessed youth: Spirit possession of school children in Northwest Madagascar. Cult Med Psych 14, 339–364 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117560
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117560