People of the sea
Subtitle: identity and descent among the Vezo of Madagascar
By: Rita Astuti.
Series: Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ;; 95
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
Subjects: Vezo (Malagasy people); Vezo (Malagazy people) -- Ethnic identity.; Betania (Madagascar) -- Social life and customs.
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.