Water into Bones
Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar
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"Families in northern Madagascar conceptualize water as a spiritual realm where magical creatures and some ancestors live, and believe that infants are born with a special connection to the spirit world that makes them "still full of water" (mbola rano) and lacking bones. Over the course of their lives, Malagasy understand that they will transition from this malleable state of being through the solidifying structures of marriage, reproduction, and societal belonging, ending as entombed bones which symbolize their legacy as ancestors and become objects of their descendants' care and remembrance...
"Families in northern Madagascar conceptualize water as a spiritual realm where magical creatures and some ancestors live, and believe that infants are born with a special connection to the spirit world that makes them "still full of water" (mbola rano) and lacking bones. Over the course of their lives, Malagasy understand that they will transition from this malleable state of being through the solidifying structures of marriage, reproduction, and societal belonging, ending as entombed bones which symbolize their legacy as ancestors and become objects of their descendants' care and remembrance. Where earlier works have summarized this transition as a progression from a mother's womb to a father's tomb, Water into Bones explores the ways that Malagasy women in the northern port city of Diâego Suarez actively enable their infants to acquire "bones" and establish belonging within their communities. Though their movements along the life course are often less straightforward compared to concurrent patrilineal customs and traditions, these women fundamentally alter their children's lives by entering relationships of reciprocity with midwives and healers, observing taboos (fady), choosing to give birth in their ancestral homelands, and performing public and private rituals. Navigating pluralistic social environments that allow them to borrow from a multitude of religious, ethnic, and familial traditions to welcome babies into their families, Malagasy mothers secure their children's status as distinctive individuals who are also firmly grounded in their ancestral legacies. In rich ethnographic detail, Water into Bones reveals the vast possibilities for creating community, identity, and sacred power through northern Malagasy women's personal experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood"--
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