Book Description
The first serious ethnomusicological study of Malagasy music, Recollecting from the Past evokes the complex sound and performative aesthetic in Madagascar called maresaka.Maresaka pertains not only to musical expression but extends into ways of remembering the past, aesthetics of everyday life, and Malagasy concepts of self and community.

Ron Emoff focuses on tromba spirit possession ceremonies in which Malagasy use devotional practice as an occasion to expressively re-figure worlds often impeded by colonialism and postcolonial phenomena, extreme material poverty, and widespread illness. Malagasy not only preserve the past, butthey interpret, revalue and transform it to their own ends. Music is crucial to these performances since powerful ancestral spirits will not enter into the present if not enticed by masterful musical performances, and so music itself provides a complex symbolic system with which Malagasy can recall and reconstruct the past. This groundbreaking study will be of interest to readers in the fields of anthropology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, African studies, postcolonial and performance studies. ... Read more

Book Description
s a field biologist, Heather Heying has been to some of the most remote, creature-filled places on the globe. But nothing she had previously experienced quite prepared her for the three seasons she spent in Madagascar studying poisonous frogs. An anciet island, it is also a scientists paradisealmost all of the wildlife there is endemic. However, Madagascars society is almost as unique as its nature. Language and cultural barriers, combined with bureaucratic red tape, can make it a scientists worst nightmare. Through anecdotes that are in turn hilarious, insightful, and beautiful, Heather recounts her adventuresfrom run-ins with naked sailors and unusually hostile lemurs to tropical hurricanes and greedy tourist entrepreneurs. As she carefully navigates a path through many obstacles, she not only reaches a gradual understanding of her place as a female Westerner in a foreign society, but reaffirms her intense love for and desire to save the stunning wildlife that surrounds her there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A very enjoyable insight into Madagascar
I read this when traveling to Madagascar to get a sense of what the place was like.I found this book to be very descriptive, informative and enjoyable.Heather is a frog researcher.I was a bit bothered by how frogs are marked and what I learned about frog research, but setting that aside the rest of the book was very good.Heather talks about the nitty gritty of travel - getting from point A to B, what there is (or isn't) in the way of facilities and food, etc.But, mostly, she focuses on her interactions with the local Malagasy people and her life on the isolated island of Nosy Mangabe.Although she was there in the late 1990's, she probably didn't begin to foresee that Nosy Mangabe would become such a tourist island.Today, it is easier to reach and well worth the trip if you get to Madagascar.I found reading this gave me a much deeper appreciation and perspective on my trip than I would otherwise have had.

Transporting
A writer who can transport someone from the hard concrete unnatural world of NYC to a bambo well thousand of miles away in a remote tropical forrest has to be one I love!Really loved the connection to nature this brought for me.I'd love to read another travel log of Ms. Heyings.

A great look at Malagasy culture from a western viewpoint.
This book is focuses on what it's like for a western biologist (herpetologist) to go to Madagascar to study frogs. Heather Heying has a wonderful way with words that creates vibrant images of what she saw, heard, and felt while living there. Most of the focus is on cultural issues, including her own culture shock. Wildlife is used as a means of conveying her experiences and the experiences of the Malagasy people, not as the thrust or purpose of the book. I highly recommend this if you are at all interested in the people of Madagascar. This is a very well-written, engaging account.

A great read
Heying is a terrific writer and a keen observer of the world around her. She has traveled to Madagascar to research the behavior of tiny poisonous frogs but finds herself equally challenged by the strange behavior of the island's human inhabitants. The book is a thoughtful exploration of the predicament faced by forest creatures, the Malagasy people, and ultimately, the author herself. For those not lucky enough (or brave enough) to live in a remote tropical forest, this book provides a vivid portrait of the experience. ... Read more

Book Description
Madagascar has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

Book Description
Unwrapping the Textile Traditions of Madagascar presents the first extensive treatment of Madagascar's textile traditions region by region, giving a systematic overview of the woven products of each part of the country. It includes types of cloth that have previously been overlooked and explores contrasting uses and meanings among the highly varied cultures of the island. It also publishes for the first time many of the remarkable cloths from the collection assembled by Ralph Linton in 1926 and 1927 for the Field Museum.which represents perhaps as much as 50 percent of the textile heritage of Madagascar.

Beautiful color illustrations and scholarly commentary make this book useful for scholars, connoisseurs, and heritage-preservation experts, as well as weavers interested in reviving traditional techniques and designs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

place of textile garments in multicultural African society
As major Madagascar art forms, shawls, dresses, loose-fitting shirts, and also burial shrouds are "fundamental to an individual's ethnic, ideological, spiritual, social, political, and economic identities." These and similar garments have such a place because of the "ease with which cloth can be manipulated." Among some groups in Madagascar, textiles woven by hand and simple, age-old, tools are central in relations between the living and deceased ancestors with the changing of decayed burial shrouds for new ones. Eleven essays by authors with a surprisingly eclectic background--including college teachers in archaeology and ethnology, museum curators, a biologist, and a poet--focus on particular topics of this African island nation's textiles attracting wide notice because of their quality of production, colorfulness, and social significance. An island that has for centuries been a crossroads of trade and migrations from southern Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Madagascar textiles are particularly complex and diverse; and because of this historical background, they have special meaning for the different groups of the society, as well as for interaction among groups. Textile traditions in different geographical areas, reviews of collections of textiles, the wear of textiles at social events, and the island's silk moths are among the topics. Numerous color photographs, some close-ups in which the weave of a garment can be seen, make for appreciation of the varied textiles; while other photographs exhibit inhabitants of Madagascar wearing the textiles in social activities or ceremonies.
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Book Description