the political economy of death: communication and change in Malagasy colonial history

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Abstract
The competition for labor associated with the incorporation of the Sakalava of northwestern Madagascar into polities of steadily increasing scale has involved the ongoing reorganization of social relations through the symbolism of death. During the precolonial period Malagasy spoke a common language of ancestors and relics by which to negotiate relations of labor and loyalty. French colonists sought to destroy Malagasy institutions and substitute their own language of law. As they failed to do so, they reverted to what they had learned of customary practices, thereby placing all parties outside the law as originally imposed. The contemporary association between a moribund economy and a lively preoccupation with the dead takes a distinctively Malagasy form among the Sakalava, but its general features may be widespread. [political economic change, religion, death, language, law]