Constructing History, Culture and Inequality : The Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar /
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During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slaves established a frontier society in the no-man's-land of the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar. First settlers skilfully deployed a fluid set of Malagasy customs to implant a myth of themselves as tompon-tany or "masters of the land". Eventually, they created a land monopoly to reinforce their legitimacy and to exclude later migrants. Some of them were labelled andevo ("slave" or "slave descent"). The tompon-tany prohibited the andevo from owning land, and thereby from having tombs. This book focuses on the plight of the tombless andevo, and how their ascribed impurity and association with infertility, illness, death and misfortune made them an essential part of the tompon-tany world-view.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004492417
9789004124608
Ritual imagination : a study of tromba possession among the Betsimisaraka in eastern Madagascar /
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Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession.
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1 online resource (xi, 326 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004223875 :
0169-9814 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Greek and Roman historiography in late antiquity : fourth to sixth century A.D. /
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This book is the first comprehensive study of Greek and Latin historiography from Constantine to the end of the sixth century AD. It aims to examine the development of late antique historiography, stressing chiefly the relations between pagan and Christian historians, their polemics but also their often neglected agreements. Of special importance is the study of the Church historians who are considerable but not adequately known sources for the political and social history of the period. Greek and Latin Historiography in Late Antiquity is a highly valuable and useful reference tool for both scholars and students. Greek and Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity has been selected by Choice as Outstanding Academic Title (2005).
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1 online resource (viii, 540 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047400189 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religious practices and Christianization of the late antique city (4th-7th century) /
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In Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City , historians, archaeologists and historians of religion provide studies of the phenomenon of the Christianization of the Roman Empire within the context of the transformations and eventual decline of the Greco-Roman city. The eleven papers brought together here aim to describe the possible links between religious, but also political, economic and social mutations engendered by Christianity and the evolution of the antique city. Combining a multiplicity of sources and analytical approaches, this book seeks to measure the impact on the city of the progressive abandonment of traditional cults to the advantage of new Christian religious practices.
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1 online resource (vii, 243 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004299047 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
East and West in late antiquity : invasion, settlement, ethnogenesis and conflicts of religion /
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East and West in Late Antiquity combines published and unpublished articles by emeritus professor Wolf Liebeschuetz. The collection concerns aspects of what Gibbon called 'the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. This interpretation is now much criticized, but the author agrees with Gibbon. Topics discussed are defensive strategies, the settlement inside the Empire of invaders and immigrants, and the modification of identities with the formation of new communities. Liebeschuetz is interested in both the eastern and the western halves of the Empire. In the East he is particularly concerned with Syria, the expansion of settlement up to the edge of the desert, and Christianisation. The book ends with an examination of the role of the Christian Arab Ghassanids in the defense of the Syrian provinces in the century leading up to the conquest of the provinces by the Islamic Arabs.
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1 online resource (xxix, 477 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004289529 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in Jewish and Christian history /
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Elias J. Bickerman, who passed away a quarter of a century ago, was one of the twentieth century's great historians of the ancient world. His innovative genius and breathtaking erudition are evident in his writings, many of which are now considered classics. Bickerman's contributions to the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity remain particularly significant but his three volume collection, Studies in Jewish and Christian History , has been out of print for some time. Thus, the publication of this new edition of Studies, now entirely in English, along with Bickerman's most famous book, The God of the Maccabees , is designed to bring Bickerman's central studies on ancient Judaism and early Christianity to a new generation of students and scholars.
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English, French, and German. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047420729 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Building God's kingdom : Norwegian missionaries in highland Madagascar, 1866-1903 /
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Building God's Kingdom studies how the encounter with nineteenth century Madagascar influenced the Norwegian Protestant mission. Drawing upon rich Norwegian and Malagasy sources, entangled and multivocal stories are allowed to unfold, revealing the complex dynamics of mission encounters. Tracing Malagasy agency and pursuit of churchly independence in pre-colonial and colonial Madagascar, this study explores the power-struggles between the Malagasy, the missionaries and between the mission in Norway and Madagascar. Through careful attention to context and agency, Karina Hestad Skeie provides new perspectives on the interplay between the local and the global in Christian missions, and on the centrality and restrictions of local agency on mission policy.
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1 online resource (xix, 296 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-292) and index. :
9789004242128 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
David Griffiths and the missionary "History of Madagascar" /
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In 1838, William Ellis of the LMS published a History of Madagascar-considered a key primary source for nineteenth-century Malagasy history. Four years later, David Griffiths, longest serving member of the Madagascar Mission, published Hanes Madagascar ("History of Madagascar") in Welsh. Campbell's study explores the intriguing relationship between these works and their authors. It analyses the role of Griffiths; presents evidence that much of Ellis' History derived from Griffiths' research; and presents the first ever translation of Hanes Madagascar (with extensive annotations). This study suggests that the tensions arising from the different cultural perceptions of Welsh and English missionaries moulded the destiny of the Madagascar mission. It will hopefully inspire re-evaluation of other missions and their relationship to British imperial policy.
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1 online resource (xxi, 1177 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [1015]-1055) and index. :
9789004195189 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Islamic sufi networks in the western Indian Ocean (c. 1880-1940) : ripples of reform /
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In the period c. 1880-1940, organized Sufism spread rapidly in the western Indian Ocean. New communities turned to Islam, and Muslim communities turned to new texts, practices and religious leaders. On the East African coast, the orders were both a vehicle for conversion to Islam and for reform of Islamic practice. The impact of Sufism on local communities is here traced geographically as a ripple reaching beyond the Swahili cultural zone southwards to Mozambique, Madagascar and Cape Town. Through an investigation of the texts, ritual practices and scholarly networks that went alongside Sufi expansion, this book places religious change in the western Indian Ocean within the wider framework of Islamic reform.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004276543 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.