Christel Mattheeuws

In memory of Razafindrabe: the difficult skill of astrologers in West Bezanozano, Central East Madagascar

Abstract

Astrologers in Madagascar, in West Bezanozano in particular, play a very important role in creating the land of extended families giving it direction. In a previous paper I compared that land with a plaiting work where life is carried on in upward- and downward movements twisted into all kind of patterns and shapes according to the directions into which the strands are interwoven. The art of doing astrology in West Bezanozano is weaving the destinies into the land by way of holding, opening, closing, avoiding, removing or adjoining destinies. Like a craftsman, his knowledge grows 'from the crucible of his practical and observational engagements with the beings and things around him' (Ingold 2013: Making. Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture).

The paper I wish to present at the annual Sophia conference 2015 will follow the practices of astrologers in creating the fundaments of villages, houses and tombs giving them a suitable destiny in relation to the surroundings and the people concerned. I will also follow an astrologer/mason who was in charge of making a particular memory stone. The memory stone had to deviate a direct line between village and tomb caused by a mistake in the tomb building having killed two astrologer in their work. Finally I will show the central importance of the astrologer during the ritual of the famadihana where the destinies of the dead and the living have to be mediated to protect the living from the dead. General speaking, a good astrologer will never become rich, since he has to hold not only good destinies but also bad ones. The work of an astrologer can be extremely dangerous since he deals with real forces. During difficult assignments, people offer him a cock that accompanies him during work since people believe that the cock will die before any human, also an astrologer, in case of danger.

Biography

I obtained my Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in 2008 with the thesis "Towards an Anthropology in Life. The Astrological Architecture of Zanadaroandrena Land in West Bezanozano, Madagascar." My work is influenced by Tim Ingold, Goethean Science and Malagasy astrology, holding a life-centric worldview, exploring the relationships between human beings and the earth-sky world they (and we) live in, which I present at different conferences that focus on anthropology, astrology or the extraordinary that have resulted in different publications.