Contents

• Textual Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Map

• 1. Introduction
• I. Historic, Political-Economic, and Social Levels of Experience
  • 2. The Political Economy of the Sambirano
  • 3. National and Local Factions: The Nature of Polyculturalism in Ambanja
  • 4.  Tera-Tany and Vahiny: Insiders and Outsiders
• II. Spirit Possession in the Sambirano
  • 5. The World of the Spirits
  • 6. Sacred Knowledge and Local Power: Tromba and the Sambirano Economy
  • 7. Spirit Mediumship and Social Identity
• III. The Conflicts of Town Life
  • 8. The Problems and Conflicts of Town Life: The Adult World
  • 9. The Social World of Children
  • 10. Exorcising the Spirits: The Alternative Therapeutics of Protestantism1
  • Conclusion: Toward a Reassessment of the Possessed and Dispossesed

• A. Glossary of Malagasy Terms
• B. List of the Possessed
• Bibliography