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“'Birth Is Our Spear Battle': Pregnancy, Childbirth and Religion in a Northern Malagasy Port City” Erin Kate Nourse Corp

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“'Birth Is Our Spear Battle': Pregnancy, Childbirth and Religion in a Northern Malagasy Port City” Erin Kate Nourse Corp “‘Birth is our Spear Battle’: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Religion in a Northern Malagasy Port City” Erin Kate Nourse Corpus Christi, Texas B.A., Trinity University, 2005 M.A., University of Virginia, 2011 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia December, 2014 “‘Birth is our Spear Battle’: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Religion in a Northern Malagasy Port City” Abstract “‘Birth is our Spear Battle’: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Religion in a Northern Malagasy Port Town,” is an ethnography of the religious practices around birthing and infant care in Madagascar. I focus on newborn infants as a point of departure for understanding how Malagasy use the birth of a child as an opportunity to articulate and ritually construct various historical narratives and religious identities. Through an observational study of the rituals and special objects Malagasy parents use to protect the newly born from spiritual illnesses, I highlight the particular processes by which Malagasy introduce their children to the sacred by way of haircutting ceremonies, rituals of baptism and circumcision, and through the use of “growth medicines” (aody be), teething necklaces, and special jewelries meant to embed the newly born in the powerful legacies of their ancestors. The setting for this research is the northern port city of Diego Suarez, Madagascar and thus offers a window into the rich religious diversity prevalent in Madagascar’s urban spaces. I examine ancestral veneration, not at the time of death, but around the most quintessential of new beginnings – the birth of a child. I contend that an investigation into the prevalence of ancestor spirits and ancestor related customs around the birthing and blessing of children has the potential to change our understanding of the importance of ancestors in Malagasy religions and in African religions more broadly. For it reveals that Malagasy peoples invoke their ancestors, not because they are preoccupied with death or overly concerned with a remembrance of the past, but also, and perhaps primarily, because they are invested in the future. This research contributes to our understanding of the centrality of ancestors in Malagasy rituals and also to the dynamic medical and religious atmospheres in which parents are bringing children into the world. For with the rapid growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic religious practices on the island, some Malagasy are beginning to question the role of ancestors in their and their children’s lives. The birth of a child is a particularly salient moment for the construction of historical narratives and religious identities. Through Malagasy mothers’ stories, the complex religious and cultural influences that shape how parents deliver and welcome children into their respective ethnic and religious communities, come to life. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vii Maps ................................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction: “The Ancestors Have Made Her Pregnant”.............................................................1 Reframing the Importance of Ancestors in African Religions ..................................................5 Caring for Baby Ancestors ..................................................................................................... 12 The Religious Culture of Infancy ........................................................................................... 18 Research Methodology .......................................................................................................... 27 Chapter One: Childbirth and Change in the Malagasy Port City of Diego Suarez ...................... 47 The Medicalization of Childbirth ........................................................................................... 47 Religious and Ritual Aspects of Childbirth ............................................................................ 57 A History of Childbirth in Madagascar .................................................................................. 66 The Politics of Birthing and Birth “Choices” in Twenty-First Century Madagascar ............... 69 Background Information ........................................................................................................ 73 Madagascar’s Ethnic and Religious Diversity..................................................................... 75 Research Site: Diego Suarez .............................................................................................. 84 The New Hospital: A Beacon of Hope or a Sign of Sorcery? ................................................. 89 Being Foreign (vazaha) in Madagascar .................................................................................. 95 Chapter Two: Turning “Water Babies” into “Real Human Beings”: Rituals of Blessing for Infants in Northern Madagascar .............................................................................................. 107 The Malagasy Life Trajectory (From Water into Bones) ...................................................... 110 The Importance of Water in Malagasy Cosmology .............................................................. 112 Malagasy Understandings of the Body ................................................................................. 117 Protective Measures for “Water Babies” and Other Soft (Malemy) Bodies ........................... 120 Teething Buttons and Amulets ......................................................................................... 121 Walking the Most Difficult Path ....................................................................................... 124 Knives under pillows ....................................................................................................... 126 Asmara Becomes a Real Human Being ................................................................................ 130 The Ideal World versus the Real World ............................................................................... 136 Haircutting as a Redemptive Act.......................................................................................... 142 Making Girls and Boys into Women and Men ..................................................................... 150 Conclusion: Adding Nuance to the Malagasy Life Trajectory .............................................. 151 Traces of Closure and Loss on the Hill ............................................................................. 154 iv Chapter Three: Bathing and Seclusion: Postpartum Rituals that Produce Mothers Who Will Bless their Babies ............................................................................................................................. 169 A Mother’s Baptism: Hot and Cold Post-Partum Bathing .................................................... 173 Bathing in Ancestral Blessing .............................................................................................. 175 Grandmothers as Custodians of Birthing Customs (Fomba Fiterana)................................... 183 “Emerging from the Chrysalis”: Women’s Rites of Incorporation ........................................ 187 Conclusion: Childbirth is a Rite of Passage Unlike All other Rites of Passage ..................... 191 Chapter Four: Birth is our “Spear Battle”: Stories of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood .. 196 A Young Mother’s Sadness ................................................................................................. 202 Adeline ............................................................................................................................ 204 When Mothers Bear Family Discord .................................................................................... 210 Marie ............................................................................................................................... 211 Motherhood as a Newfound Sense of Belonging .................................................................. 220 Nasreen ............................................................................................................................ 223 Spiritual Discipline as an Empowering Choice .................................................................... 230 Camellia........................................................................................................................... 231 “The Fruit of Our Love” ...................................................................................................... 240 Céline .............................................................................................................................. 241 Conclusion: Birth, a “Spear Battle” that Extends Beyond the Act of Giving Birth ................ 246 Chapter Five: Malagasy Midwives Deliver More than Babies ................................................. 254 Midwives are Religious Specialists ...................................................................................... 258 Bernadette .......................................................................................................................
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