Nuriaty, the Saint and the Sultan: Virtuous Subject and Subjective Virtuoso of the Post- Modern Colony Author(s): Michael Lambek Reviewed work(s): Source: Today, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), pp. 7-12 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2678234 . Accessed: 30/01/2012 09:05

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http://www.jstor.org Rouyer,Alwin R. 1994. least treated that caste leaders and local The between official ExplainingEconomie way by people (1955). opposition rigid knowledge Backwardnessand Weak who pressure the backward classes commissions to recog- and fluid practical knowledge that Scott dwells on, and in GoverningCapability nize their claims.9 Moreover, individuals or households that is also popular in constructivist writing on social and BiharState in India.South can cross class boundaries their social economic cultural stems from the same Asia,17 (2):63-89. (when group divisions, metaphys- Scott,James C. 1998.Seeing situation changes) and thus move in and out of eligible cat- ical pathos of bureaucracy. Many prefer small and flexible Likea State.How Certain egories. Caste criteria apply only to groups. Individuals from the bottom up to general and rigid from the top down. Schemesto the Improve cannot move in and and this obstructs the The idea of a dominant state that HumanCondition Have out, flexibility imposes rigidity and sup- Failed.New Haven and needed to solve the 'creamy layer problem'. presses flexible local knowledge well fits the common London:Yale U. P. Scott stresses that Seeing Like a State should not be read dislike of bureaucracy and the equally common pessimism Shah,Ganshyam. 1991. as a 'blanket condemnation' of modernization and scien- about its Reservation in SocialBackwardness and workings. policy India, however, Politicsof Reservations. tific knowledge (1998: 352, 6, 96-97). Practical shows that a plea for metis-fnendly institutions as a prin- Economicand Political knowledge, he observes, 'is often inseparable from the ciple of institutional design is a mistake if that plea Weekly,March (14), pp. of domination, and exclusion that assumes the of metis. 601-10. practices monopoly, flexibility offend the modern Uberai The There are other to make Sivaramayya,B.1996. The sensibility' (ibid: 7). point reasons, however, metis-fnendly MandaiJudgement: A is not that practical knowledge is 'the product of some institutions. Incorporating metis in government institu- Brief and Description mythical, egalitarian state of nature,' but that 'formal tions is democratic.10 A plea for doing so does not require in M.N. Critique, schemes of order are untenable without some elements of characterization of the nature of metis. A well Srinivas,ed., Caste:Its positive TwentiethCentury Avatar. the practical knowledge they tend to dismiss' (ibid.). known argument in discussions on affirmative action in NewDelhi: Viking, pp. But there is more to Scott's argument. If viability were India can illustrate. Criticizing Indian anthropologists 221-244. the the for institutions' such as B?teille and Srinivas for caste based Sowell,Thomas. 1990. only point, plea 'metis-fnendly opposing PreferentialPolicies: An with which Scott ends the study would not make much reservations, Gerard Heuz? (1991) argues that caste is InternationalPerspective. sense. Clearly there is also a strong suggestion that metis- important to people in India, and that therefore the gov- New York:William friendliness is better than what ernment should it in affirmative action Marrow& Co.Inc. high-modernist recognize (see Srinivas,M. N. Employment governments want to impose. This suggestion comes from Srinivas 1992 for a reaction). Metis on caste may be rigid Quotasin India. Scott's own examples of disaster, but it also comes from - indeed Heuz? says it is rigid - but that is irrelevant to the ANTHROPOLOGY the connotations of the and democratic that the should TODAY,Vol.8, No. 2, positive fluidity flexibility principle government recog- April,pp. 19-20. ascribed to metis in contrast to the rigidity ascribed to offi- nize and incorporate what is important to people. In the ?1996. Caste:Its Twentieth cial knowledge. Alvin W. Gouldner wrote that the theory same spirit there is increasing support among intellectuals CenturyAvatar. Edited by of involves sentiments of and in India for the colonial - abandoned M. N. Srinivas.New bureaucracy pessimism reinitiating practice which he called Arthur O. 'meta- after - of Delhi:Viking. fatalism, (after Lovejoy) independence registering caste identities in the Thimmaiah,G. 1993.Power physical pathos', and argued that people often subscribe to Census of India (cf. Omvedt 1998). Whether or not this Politicsand Social theories, not because these theories are choice makes sense as a democratic however, is Justice:Backward Castes 'cerebrally principle, in Karnataka.New Delhi: inspected and found valid', but because their metaphysical a normative question. A priori claims about the nature of SagePublications. pathos resonates with people's own moods and sentiments metis can only obscure the issue. D

the Saint and the Sultan Nuriaty,

Virtuous subject and subjective virtuoso of the post-modern colony

MICHAEL This paper was originally prepared for the panel on Appropriated by France in 1841 and subjected to a harsh Postcolonial Subjectivities in Africa at the Manchester regime of sugar plantations through the early part of this LAMBEK '99 Visions and Voices Conference, University of century followed by relatively benign neglect until the Michael Lambekis Manchester, October 27-31 1999.11 was intrigued to par- mid 1970's, May otte chose in vigorously contested refer- Professor of ticipate by the way Richard Werbner's invitation enda conducted in 1974 and 1976 not to sever its ties with Anthropology,University conjured the notion of subjectivity as simultaneously France in order to join the emerging independent republic of Toronto,and has about subjection to power, moral agency, and being the of the Comores, of which it was certainly geographically served as Visiting of one's own the kind of where and a distinctive V?rin CentennialProfessor at subject experience, space culturally part (Lambek 1995, the LondonSchool of a number of ostensibly competing theories might be made 1994). May otte received instead the status of Collectivit? Economics in 1997. He to meet. My interest lies at present in moral practice, in Territoriale, an ambiguous designation that in practice is currentlyworking on a the conditions of and for acting with dignity and self includes government by a French prefect alongside an book about the system of respect and making situated judgments. I draw from an elected local assembly and deputies to the French legisla- Sakalava kingship,spirit Aristotelian perspective in which practical knowledge is ture. This is not the place to go into the of the mediumsand historical complexities understood not as detached from or but and status or the local consciousness in being becoming, legal political lively politics. as constitutive of them 1983: seek to Suffice it to that the Mahorais of Mahajanga,northwest (Bernstein 146), yet say (people Mayotte) Madagascar. understand the way ambivalent subjects are able to make understood themselves to know what they were doing. existential choices with respect to power. My subject here And, despite the inevitable continuation of colonial atti- is a spirit medium who, subjected to power and history, tudes on the part of the French, the Mahorais have been nevertheless manages to constitute herself as a subject in quite successful at getting what they thought they her own right. wanted.2 With respect to the postcolonial, the locus is an anom- Since 1976 Mayotte has undergone a striking transfor- alous one; May otte remains one of the few previously mation with respect to the economy, to social services, in colonized places that is not exactly post-colonial, or particular education, and to the outlook of the population. rather, that has defined coloniality in an original, even Mayotte has been transformed into a post-traditional post-modern way, in which the emphasis is on the second in which subsistence rice cultivation has been rather than the first morpheme of postcolonial. entirely abandoned in favour of wage work and welfare

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000 1. Theresearch, writing and benefits; in which a whole generation has been introduced covered a logic of practice inherent in succession to medi- deliveryof the have paper to French schooling, some proceeding all the way through umship (Lambek 1988, 1993). Asking who comes to be beensupported by grants fromthe Social Sciences and the bac; in which people achieved social mobility and possessed by which spirit turned out to be much more HumanitiesResearch Council white collar jobs; and in which many inhabitants were interesting than simply asking why some people rather of Canada.I thank especially able to relocate to La R?union and even metropolitan than others become possessed. One of the central figures mycollaborator Jacqueline France. has become a desirable in of Solwayfor her substantive Conversely, Mayotte my description the dynamics of succession was a contributionsto this essay but location for outsiders: for metropolitan French seeking woman named Nuriaty, the eldest daughter of Tumbu and absolveher of responsibility romantic escape in a tropical island that has an ever Mohedja, people with whom I had lived and worked for forthe final interpretation. I tourist of some time and other in their amalso greatly indebted to increasing infrastructure, supply European who, among things produc- NuriatyTumbu and her amenities, and the security of the known; for desperately tive and well-rounded lives, have been active spirit and theuse of family regret poor Comorians, especially Anjouanais, who often mediums. Soon after her first marriage Nuriaty too began A of pseudonyms. portion arrived on the beach at and were to take to the main senior who also Nuriaty'sstory, placed within night willing acquire spirits, notably spirit a broadertheoretical frame, employment on any terms; and for Malagasy from the possessed her father. This occurred with her father's tacit waspresented in a lecture Mahajanga region eagerly seeking work papers and acquiescence and perhaps even with his encouragement. commemoratingRoy on old connections to French cit- Tumbu on his of and Rappaportdelivered at the drawing acquire passed knowledge curing sorcery Universityof Michigan,15 izenship. Mayotte has become a local hub of movement extraction and Nuriaty took up his therapeutic practice as April1998; later versions and a whir of activity and opportunity. But in the back- he withdrew from it. Within Nuriaty the senior spirit con- weredelivered at Trent remain all those who did not achieve the tinued to look after the welfare of the extended Universityand the ground people family. Manchesterconference. I mobility, the education, the white collar jobs, the con- Nuriaty also began to be possessed by two of the spirits thankthe audiences at each sumer items, and the respect that comes with them. who possessed her mother.3 Nuriaty's actions fitted my occasion, Ray especially Originally despised for its political dependency and model of succession to well, Kelly,Heike Behrend, and mediumship very exempli- RichardFardon for incisive subsequently envied for its economic success (albeit rela- fying a process that includes mutual identification, criticismand Paul Stoller, tive and artificial), and certainly less buffeted by the introjection, negotiation of issues of connection and sep- DickWerbner, and Jonathan effects of economic forces than its and and Benthallfor their enthusiasm. global neighbours, aration, ultimately, displacement, growth has a to 2. PerhapsMayotte awaits Mayotte experienced rapid transition, transition reproduction which resonate both on deep psychological its FrantzFanon. which Nuriaty, the woman at the centre of this paper, and on social levels (Lambek nd b). 3. Theyhad not held their stands as moral witness. Yet this transition was Succession success and I that ceremoniesor had the something implies expected Nuriaty desired. When marks would continue to her role as opportunityto announcetheir generally neighbouring Madagascar expand host to the main namesbefore they were independence day by means of French custom (military spirit who had possessed her father. However Nuriaty's displaced. parades, food, bises), the Malagasy are celebrating not career has not as either I or her had 4. Muchof thiswas developed parents from France but to be I was disconcerted to find on a to describedto meby Nuriaty's only independence independence anticipated. trip Mayotte ex-mother-in-law,who like France, to be another commensurable nation state in 1995 that Nuriaty was no longer an active medium of wishedto both her justify within the international order of nation states. In this aspi- any of the family spirits. Social change had destroyed the ownactions and to praise ration are out of date. which is not whole I and indeed the in Nuriaty. perhaps they Mayotte, pattern, assumed, changes 5. As anothermedium, only like France, but a part of France, stands as the first Mayotte were enormous. But not quite so. What had hap- whothought she had heard a instance of a place that grasped the possibility of post- pened was that Nuriaty's moral horizons had shifted. rumourto theeffect that the in the new order for enhanced forms of is a warm, and sainthad left his tombput it, coloniality global Nuriaty jovial, slightly aggressive thesaint was undoubtedly sad connection and mobility. woman whom I have known since 1975 when, as a mother to havethe sound of Islamic of 3 sons, she seemed much older than me, although in recitationreplaced by pop she is She likes to eat musicfrom the radio. reality approximately my age. well, 6. 'Goodpeople' are here To generalize about subjectivity risks engagement with pays relatively little attention to her appearance, and describedas Muslimsable to the oxymoronic and so I turn to case history, a suitably unlike most people in the village of Lombeni in 1995, still in theoutward indulge signs Mancunian method that I have found indispensable. The lived in a wattle and daub thatch-roofed house. She has of piety:beautiful clothes and scent,an elegance story is that of Nuriaty Tumbu (a pseudonym). Modest in been married 6 times. One of her sons died at a young age characteristicof the epoch of her range and abilities by comparison to some of the and since then, to her great sadness, she has had no full Muslim hegemony. sophisticated spirit mediums I have since encountered in term pregnancies. She has also raised a sister's daughter, 7. Football(soccer) was , like them she is both a a in fact,a majormeans by Madagascar, subjective virtuoso younger brother, and now the former's daughter. whichthe French attempted and virtuous subject. It was her infertility that broke up the marriage that was to reorientand discipline The moral practice of spirit mediums in Mayotte and otherwise the happiest. Her husband at the time had never youthand a civil promote that is to their exercise of been married and had no children of his own. ratherthan a Muslimidentity. Madagascar, say, situated, yet previously 8. Themost important of imaginative judgment, is evident in at least three respects. After several years during which Nuriaty sought to give the whom these, spirit The most obvious is the way that they demonstrate flex- birth, he listened to his mother's advice to have children sharedwith her Nuriaty ible role and disinterestedness in their elsewhere and took the to follow the father,continued occasionally shifting, empathy opportunity socially to adviseher in hersleep. The interactions with clients, each other, and their general approved scenario which until then he had avoided, others,she said, left outright. 'public,' both from within and outside states of active namely to marry a virgin. This was an expensive proposi- the Nuriatyemphasized 1993: The second is the moreover the had inflated Sultan'sobjection to thenon- possession (Lambek 37Iff). way tion; requirements enormously Islamicpractices of theother mediums come to be possessed by particular spirits rather since Nuriaty herself had married as a virgin (Lambek spirits,especially the drink than others, thereby reproducing and initiating specific 1983, Solway and Lambek nd). Thus, while she lived in andthe whereasher noise, social relations and certain social connec- she knew her husband was aside fatherpointed out that the emphasizing great simplicity putting Sultanis a kingand kings tions over others (Lambek 1988, 1993: 320ff). The third, most of his earnings towards gifts for the new bride. The rulesingly. on which I focus here, is the way that some mediums husband decided that polygyny would be too difficult and 9. Regularprayer was come to assume a kind of consciousness - and conscience so when the time was he left She understood taken older ripe Nuriaty. commonly upby - andpost-menopausal women. of history (Lambek 1998a, 1998b, nd a). Their virtu- the reasons and even attended the wedding, which Onthe complex links osity is evident in the skill with which they can shift included a lavish display of gifts - a sewing machine, 70 betweenIslam and spirit between historically distinct subject positions; their virtue cloth wrappers, a watch, and several pieces of gold. possessionin Mayottesee Lambek1993. in their combination of social advocate and social critic, Nuriaty herself contributed an item to add to the gifts he 10. Thisis notto suggest of exemplary monarch (most spirits are former rulers) and brought.4 thather life has day-to-day exemplary subject. The new wife, more than a decade younger than changedmuch. In 1995she wasstill embroiled in the I began some time ago to trace generational continuity Nuriaty and her husband, was a school graduate with a dailyaffairs of herparents' among mediums and spirits in Mayotte and thereby dis- clerical job. She had enough money to build a fashionable

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000 extendedfamily and lived house of durable materials, something which was still nifies the unity and pre-colonial autonomy of Mayotte. He extremelymodestly. beyond Nuriaty's grasp (she is counting on her grown sons is recognized throughout the island and is granted greater 11.To mywife, who had alsoknown her a decade to help her build). There had been no comparable oppor- honour than the Sakalava monarch with whom he inter- earlier,she appeared harder, tunities for schooling when Nuriaty was young. Living in acts, replaying by means of spirit possession in the late herwarmth coloured a by relative poverty or at least materially simpler conditions, 20th Century their alliance in the early 19th Century that streakof bitterness(J. she watched cousins and nieces white collar and was in French In Solway,pers. comm.). younger gain preceded implicated conquest. 12.In addition, the jobs and incomes and display the associated signs of mate- effect, the relationship between Maouana Madi and his of security uneducated rial prosperity and physical ease. trumba counterpart, Ndramanavaka stands for the social womenhad radically When I arrived in 1995 to tell me about of as a union of declined.With rising Nuriaty began composition Mayotte (a majority of) domesticcosts, declining a series of dreams in which she witnessed how a saint had Shimaore speakers with (a minority of) Kibushy subsistenceproduction, and left his tomb which was located on the adjacent beach. (Malagasy)-speaking Sakalava. Nuriaty herself is a female local immigration, Sharif Bakar was from Arabie; to his but Maouana Madi in an old ver- womenwere increasingly according legend Kibushy speaker speaks vulnerableto abandonment burial took place well before the founding of the village, sion of Shimaore. In the present Maouana Madi is sought by theirspouses and found it possibly several centuries ago. His tomb had been the site out by important, sophisticated clients, including, Nuriaty harderto their support of sacrifices until a few earlier. the leaders of the dominant movement children.For the different community years Recently said, political sortsof difficultiesfaced by the beach had become the destination of Sunday visitors (Mouvement Populaire Mahorais: MPM) that engineered youthseducated under the from town, young people in large numbers who arrived in Mayotte's present political status. Certain clients have Frenchsystem see Vidal cars and and who to move to a that she has so 1994. motorcycles drank, played ball, urged Nuriaty town, request 13.The Sultan sported a caroused, and possibly urinated on the tomb. In Nuriaty's far forthrightly declined despite the fact that they have spotlesswhite shirt, long dreams, the saint and his wife (the first I had ever heard of offered to buy her a house. Ironically, some of these waist clothbelt, wrap, lacy her) withdrew in anger from the pollution.5 clients she classifies as vazaha. scarf,fez-like red hat, and European, staff.The items were very The saint did not simply quit his tomb. Nuriaty saw Perhaps most astonishing, once Maouana Madi had risen expensive;some were Maouana Madi, the Sultan of Mayotte prior to the French in Nuriaty and his identity had been confirmed following andher purchasedby Nuriaty takeover in 1841, arrive in a boat to fetch him, in effect to Nuriaty's participation at the annual ritual at the central husband,others were gifts fromdevotees of theSultan. rescue him. Here is a paraphrase of her account: shrine, the Sultan announced that he found the presence of Healso consumes rose water, Nuriaty's other spirits polluting and he wished for them to betel anda drinkmade of nut, The day they cleared the bush from aroundthe tomb [in leave her. Someone of his stature - and there is no one powderedsandai wood, all orderto create a football first had the dream. in - should not have to with their longout of fashionin field] Nuriaty higher Mayotte put up Mayotte. Sharif Bakar and his wife got up and left angrily. Maouana company. These spirits, the cumulative result of Nuriaty's 14.See Lambek and 1995 Madi came and said to Nuriaty,"Let's fetch SharifBakar, he possession activities to that date, who had formed the sub- Lambekand Breslar 1986 for can't there. MaouanaMadi asked her to she's his stantive connection with her had looked after her briefaccounts of aspectsof stay help; parents, thiscampaign and the helper. She saw both Maouana Madi and Ndramanavaka family, and had served as the carefully cultivated basis of referendum. [leaderof the Sakalavatrumba spirits, former Sakalava king her career, agreed not to rise in her any longer.8 Nuriaty still 15.Clients should and of Maouana Madi, and the man who over as a curer but means of Maouana Madi. remuneratespirit mediums ally signed performed only by withgifts (ishima) rather than Mayotte to the French] invite him to join them. A vedette That meant she entirely gave up participating in the pos- payment;the amount is upto came, filled with beautifully dressed people. They per- session ceremonies of other villagers. Once a devoted thedonor (Lambek 1993: 95- formed the Maulida [musical and dance in carouser at ceremonies, she now observed 8, 361)and is anindex of Shengy poem spirit merely respect.While Nuriaty may honourof the Prophetperformed by women], then took the from the sidelines. Moreover, at the urging of the Sultan, anticipatethat the Sultan will Saint and his wife with them in the launch [to the Sultan's Nuriaty took up regular Muslim prayer.9 receivelarger gifts from own tomb on the other side of Mayotte]. They speak in It was an act of some courage for to shift from wealthypoliticians than her Nuriaty otherspirits received from Shimaoreto Nuriaty. They are good, beautiful people, ulu the spirits of her parents who provided her a stable, highly villagesupplicants, she tsara. Their smell is very sweet, manitry. They left with connected identity and a modest means for earning a cannotbe sureof this. gold, a golden armchair,fauteuil dahabo and gold clothes living as a curer to a spirit whose significance is island- Moreover,any indications of greedwould immediately on the chair.6After they left she woke up. She has had the wide and whose appearance transformed her into a player underminethe authority of dream3 times. in the public arena, opening up a whole new set of clients themedium. while Hence, and demands, of relations and sources of but also notirrelevant, material respect, left considerationsare unlikely to The Saint has for good. You can still do a fatiha of pitfalls. No one in her family or her community had had be centralin Nuriaty'sshift in [Muslimprayer] at the tomb, but the tomb is now empty. He this spirit; no one expected her to get it. Her mother, an practice. and all the elders, ulu be were angry at how the tomb was medium, was as astonished and as 16.1am to The accomplished spirit referring used as the site of ball etc. The bemused as I was. it the himself who Poetics(Aristotle 1947) and treated, games,7 picnics, Moreover, was spirit TheEthics (Aristotle 1976). elders couldn't put up with drunkenpicnics [as she speaks took the definitive step of asking all the other spirits whom Foran elaboration of the we heartrucks full of noisy people leaving the beach]. Sharif she had acquired over the past 20 years to move aside. theoretical argument Bakarwas to see his house used in this so he In has shifted from herself concerningthe general value angry way, got effect, Nuriaty constructing of anAristotelian up and left. to making history. Nuriaty plunged from a highly con- perspective,see Lambekin nected position on the family and village scene to a central forsubstantiation with press; thus undertook to serve as a modest witness to on the island did this respectto poiesis, see Nuriaty yet precarious position stage.10 Why Lambek1998a. Beattie the changes taking place in Mayotte and the violation of happen? In conversation and daily action Nuriaty had (1977)provides an earlier, respect to elders and predecessors. But the fact that the come to express a degree of resentment that I had not somewhatmore literal Sultan included her in this scene had even noticed when she was One can of treatmentof spirit greater signifi- younger.11 speak mediumshipas theatre,as cance. The second thing that had happened to Nuriaty (and Nuriaty's personal setbacks, her relative deprivation. doesLeiris (1958). was partly realized through the first) was that the Sultan, However her acts cannot be described as mainly selfish or 17.Moreover, are things Maouana Madi, now her. Not that, but she instrumental. In she be the decline of a changingso fastin Mayotte possessed only part may declaring thatshe may become unable was apparently the only recognized medium of Maouana kin and village-based mode of solidarity and mutual sup- to attractand retain the Madi on the island, the previous medium, a woman who port, yet she also gave up practices that had afforded her a degreeof socialrespect had lived in town (L'Abattoir) and whom Nuriaty had good deal of pleasure and security. She had devoted much necessaryfor her own self- respect. never met, having died some years previously. energy to developing mature relationships with her pre- 18.Richard Fardon This is astonishing on several grounds. First, Maouana vious spirits and had been comfortably established with admonishedin hiscomments Madi - and hence Nuriaty as his only medium - is a figure them. In abandoning them in her mid-forties she made a on thispaper that agency oughtto remaina question of 'national' importance. A ritual of island-wide import is leap into the unknown, took a tremendous risk. ratherthan an answer. held at his shrine on an annual basis. Maouana Madi sig- Despite its edge of grandiosity, Nuriaty's act was not a

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000 The Sultan, Maouana Modi, in possession of Nuriaty Tumbu.Mayotte, August 1995. Photo: J. S. Solway

Antze,Paul and Michael Lambek,eds. 1996.Tense Past:Cultural Essays in Traumaand Memory. NewYork.: Routledge. Aristotle[1947]. 'Poetics' in Introductionto Aristotle, ed. RichardMcKeon. NewYork: Random House. ?[1976]?//hcs.J.A.K. Thomson,trans. Hugh Tredennick,rev. direct expression of envy or an attack upon those more for- 'mimetic faculty' and strong powers of identification, Harmondsworth:Penguin. tunate. Instead, she viewed her situation as a product of desire, and fantasy, clearly are will, commitment, and Beattie,John. 1977. Spirit 'the times' and it was to historical forces she turned for moral imagination. The Sultan is concerned with main- Mediumshipas Theatre. and for redress. It is clear from her dreams and the of the RoyalAnthropological meaning taining dignity Saint, and Nuriaty is concerned InstituteNews. June 1977, from the identity of her new spirit that her concerns were about respect not only for the Sultan, but dignity for her- No. 20. not merely personal ones. They had to do with the dis- self and her peers. Nuriaty likewise acknowledges that the Bernstein,Richard. 1983. effects of social on the entire locus of action has shifted BeyondObjectivism and turbing rapid change significant political definitively Relativism:Science, community, the withdrawal of previous icons of authority from the village to the island-wide scene. Hermeneutics,and and their displacement by new sources of knowledge, Praxis.Philadelphia: U. wealth, power, prestige, and pleasure, a process which left of PennsylvaniaPress. Bloch,Maurice. 1971. not only Nuriaty but large numbers of villagers, especially What Nuriaty offers is not just a representation or unmedi- Placingthe Dead: Tombs, women of her age, out in the cold. Especially acute, for ated expression of problems, but both a consciousness of AncestralVillages, and people of this last cohort not to receive French schooling, the historical process and a conscientious intervention in KinshipOrganization in was the that a Madagascar.London: way people decade or more younger had dis- that process. To serve as a witness is not to be passive. The SeminarPress. placed and rendered them marginal. Her personal Saint's tomb did not simply sink into oblivion; its passing ?1986. From to Blessing situation, made more poignant by her ex-husband's new was marked and articulated in a meaningful scenario as Violence:History and was no means the Saint and his wife in Ideologyin the marriage, by unusual; Nuriaty's experience withdrew dignity, accompanied CircumcisionRitual of the indexed that of a whole generation. It had become, as by the celebratory strains of the Maulida. As Maouana Merina of Madagascar. Nuriaty's next younger sister put it, a 'papaya world' Madi, Nuriaty goes further. The Sultan comes to escort the CUP. Cambridge: in as on a the saint from his Comaroff,Jean. 1997. (dunia papay) which, papaya tree, smaller, polluted environs, and thereby acquiesces to ConsumingPassions: younger fruit rest above the larger ones. change, but knowingly and on his own terms. And while Child Abuse,Fetishism, More than this, the community sentiment once expressed the Saint abandons the community, acknowledging, in and'The New World in reverence to the saint was now as the its abandonment Order'.. 17:7-19. dissipated village effect, of him, the Sultan does the Comaroff,John L. andJean itself was increasingly permeated and fragmented by reverse, moving into the community and into Nuriaty her- Comaroff.1998. Occult external forces and eroded by internal divisions of wealth, self. The particularity of the village is thus transcended by Economiesand the consumption, and class.12 By 1995 a large number of village 'national' (island) identification, but this time on terms Violenceof Abstraction: residents Notesfrom the South worked elsewhere during the week. And on week- that Nuriaty sets. AfricanPostcolony. Max ends their beach was invaded by privileged and It is important to note that Nuriaty's position is not one GluckmanMemorial disrespectful picnickers. Moreover, while the sacrifice at of conservatism. She is not averse to se Lecture. simple change per the saint's tomb had been to for it as another so much as to the in Edkvist,Ingela. 1997. The pray rain, was, way which the past has been forgotten Performanceof Tradition: villager pointed out, no longer necessary since the rice and, in effect, violated. Dressed in his glistening white An the Ethnographyof growing community I had observed in 1975 had 20 years Muslim garb,13 the Sultan himself quietly pointed out to HiraGasy Popular later not a who still cultivated rice. me how he had served his the Theatrein Madagascar. single family long [in previous medium] Uppsala:Almqvist and If the saint has withdrawn from his tomb, Nuriaty was interests of the Mouvement Mahorais, guiding the leaders Wiksell. there as a witness. And if the saint was abetted by in their [ostensibly secular] campaign to intensify French Max.1963. The Gluckman, Maouana who was at the treat- ReasonableMan in Madi, justifiably outraged presence on the island.14 MPM party leaders continued to BarotseLaw. In Order ment of his comrade, so too was it Maouana Madi who consult with the Sultan before [hotly contested] elections andRebellion in Tribal brought Nuriaty as a witness. Despite the retreat of the and major decisions and to inform him of the arrival of Africa.London: Cohen Saint, the Sultan has shown his determination to perse- political leaders from the 'The land has andWest, pp. 178-206. Metropole. LaFontaine, Jean. 1997. vere, as manifested by his appearance in Nuriaty. Behind changed', pronounced the Sultan, 'So we all change. We Speakof theDevil: her acts, ostensibly passive and obviously drawing on a all agree now to follow France. But before any major

10 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000 Allegationsof Satanic political event they have to inform the rightful masters of Nuriaty's practice would fall on the mimetic pole. Yet ChildAbuse in the land, tompin tany. It is right that the politicians come clearly this too is insufficient; Nuriaty exhibits a conscious- ContemporaryEngland. here when need as did before the last ness of her historical situation and local Cambridge:CUP. they something, they skillfully applies - Lambek,Michael. 1983. election, yet they remain ungrateful for their victories.' He knowledge to it acting within the traditional terms of spirit VirginMarriage and the was angry, but admitted, 'What can [we] elders, ulu be do? possession, yet saying something of relevance to the present Autonomyof Womenin Elders are treated like ulu be pringa the its means. Moreover, she is making a practical interven- Mayotte.Signs 9(2):264- garbage, [literally by 81. weeds at the edge of the village where garbage is dumped tion - in both her personal circumstances and in the history ?1988. SpiritPossession, and children defecate].' Some visitors do bring a small gift15 of her society. She is exercising judgment over the situation; Succession: Spirit Aspects and the Sultan insists that he continue to be informed of she is addressing the contingent by means of values which of SocialContinuity is vision of amongMalagasy political needs: "They [the living political leaders, the transcend it; she articulating a historical action; Speakersin Mayotte. people of Mayotte] are my responsibility, re tarimiku." He she is acting with reason for the good. All this falls within American Ethnologist added that he did not discriminate between political parties the scope of what Aristotle terms phronesis (Aristotle 1976). 15(4):710-31. and would assist all comers so as did not advocate What shows us is neither detached ?1993. Knowledgeand long they Nuriaty contemplative Practicein Mayotte: union with the other Comoro Islands. reason nor fully impassioned identification alone but prac- LocalDiscourses of The spirit's viewpoint is composed of several inter- tical wisdom, that is, the understanding of how to make and Islam,Sorcery, Spirit one sense of the the involved in the Possession.Toronto: U. twined strands. It is a nationalist stance, that plays up particular, judgment timing, of TorontoP. the internal unity of Mayotte and its opposition to the neigh- in the particular incarnation, in the articulation of the ?1995. 'Chokingon the bouring islands. Yet while the sentiment is modern in this dreams, and so on. The judgment is confirmed to the degree Quranand Other respect and by no means opposed to the current policy of her actions are acknowledged by others as fitting and to the ConsumingParables from theWestern Indian Ocean increased integration into the French state, it remains at degree that it brings her a degree of equanimity or happiness Front',in ThePursuit of arm's length from that policy, evincing a deep suspicion on and her fellow subjects an increased consciousness of his- ed. Certainty, Wendy moral grounds of the permeation of Mayotte by French tory and the place of their own agency within it. We can James,ASAMonographs, values. It also draws on the of and war- of what she has done not as rational or London:Routledge, pp. picture competition speak irrational, 252-275. fare among the pre-colonial Sultans and fear of the rulers of accurate or inaccurate, clear or mystified, critically radical ?1997. MonstrousDesires the larger and more powerful islands. Nuriaty emphasizes or blindly conservative, but (in Aristotelian terms) as ele- andMoral Disquiet: Reflectionson Jean Islam as the basis for both the unity and continuity of gant or clumsy, wise or foolish, courageous or cowardly, Comaroffs Consuming Mayotte, albeit by means of an idiom, spirit possession, that dignified or undignified, virtuous or incontinent. Passions:Child Abuse, has often been opposed by Islam. Hers is a picture of a tra- I do not mean to idealize Nuriaty or to suggest that she or and'The New Fetishism, ditionalist unlike the more arrived reformist else does not act out of mixed emotions or does not WorldOrder'. Culture 17: Islam, recently anyone 19-25. and transnationalist strains that provide the basis for another harbour internal conflicts. I worry that she is over her head.17 ?1998a. TheSakalava kind of political response to French influence. But to argue that people are political or desirous subjects Poiesisof History: These ideological strands are condensed in the authorita- does not preclude them from being moral subjects, living Realizingthe Past through of the and his in The Sultan or the means which do so. SpiritPossession in tive figure Sultan place history. virtuously seeking by they may Madagascar.American insists on his own continuing relevance, on the importance, As Gluckman (1963) observed, most hold an 106- Ethnologist25(2): characteristic of societies more generally, of image of persons as reasonable and upright. Moreover, as 127. Malagasy ancestral authorization for actions and Mauss that act from self-interest ?1998b. Bodyand Mind in gaining present-day (1966) recognized, people Mind,Body and Mind in choices (Bloch 1971, 1986, Edkvist 1997, Middleton, ed. does not prevent them from acting simultaneously with dis- Body:Some 1999), of recognizing what I would call the sanctification of interest. Similarly for Aristotle, virtuous action straddles the Anthropological the the mean between self-interest and Interventionsin a Long present by past. self-abnegation. Nuriaty Conversation,in M. herself put it this way: 'The senior spirits, lulu maventy are Lambekand A. Strathern, angry that all the sacred spots (places of pilgrimage), ziara eds., Bodiesand Persons: Most anthropological readings of Nuriaty's practice would are being destroyed. [As a result,] people with spirits ComparativePerspectives fromAfrica and divide along theoretical interests in psychological motiva- (mediums) suffer. The spirits come and cry in our sleep.' Melanesia.Cambridge: tion - desire or resentment - and political resistance - What may remain troubling for such an analysis is the fact CUP. 103-123. pp. power. Both of these arguments rest ultimately on some idea that Nuriaty did not claim her choices; they claimed her. The ?in TheAnthropology press of self-interest and in that sense are similar to came and cried in her Her stemmed of Religionand the perceived spirits sleep. knowledge Quarrelbetween Poetry each other rather than real alternatives, though they appear from dreams and her acts were carried out via the dissocia- and Current Philosophy. to be grounded in opposed theoretical positions. I do not dis- tion of spirit possession. But the act of entering a dissociated Anthropology.(June but alone neither of them what I find of state is not itself a dissociated act. The what 2000) pute them, captures question is, ?nd a. 'Memoryin a greatest significance. Drawing from an Aristotelian per- were her relations to her possession and her dreams, to the MaussianUniverse'. spective,16 I would emphasize the following. First, with Sultan and the Saint? Was she simply their blind servant; or presentedat the Paper to the content of her dream narrative and her was she their instrumental manipulator? It conferenceFrontiers of respect per- conversely, Memory.London, formances as the Sultan she engages in a virtuoso poiesis should be obvious that I reject both these alternatives, September18, 1999. (crafting) of history, complete with plot, character, scene seeing rather the expression of her cultivated subjective dis- ?nd b. in Practice: 'Fantasy and so on. Second, with respect to her judicious, situated position by means of an available cultural idiom and Projectionand interventions and as the and scenarios. Possession entails the disavowal of but IntrojectionOr, the Witch with Sultan, including having agency; andthe Spirit Medium.' recounting her dreams, her practice is a virtuous one. Hers that should not prevent us from understanding it as neither atthe Paperpresented are acts of and of of more nor less spontaneous or calculated than any other act. The dignity indignation, courage, imagina- symposium of concern and for herself and for of It is a of action and The Repressedand Its Come tion, respect others, complex intertwining passion. Backs:Anthropology in recognizing the indebtedness of the present to the past, of knowledge Nuriaty brings to possession is composed both theShadows of integrity. She speaks for collective values, for what, in her of a techne, of the skill of knowing how to speak in posses- Amsterdam Modernity. makes life and fruitful. Her sion or as a and of of how to Schoolfor Social Science understanding, meaningful Sultan, phronesis, knowing Research.Amsterdam, means are traditional; her end is human flourishing. Her acts make significant and timely interventions. Although she June11, 1999. are an expression of who she is, not a calculation or manip- could stand back and talk wryly in a common-sense and ?Lambek,Michael and Jon ulation of external And while her about her circumstances and the Breslar.1986. Ritual and knowledge. clearly fairly objective way SocialChange: The Case practice is embodied, embodiment as a paradigm does not changes she had witnessed, the Sultan gave her an addi- of Funeralsin Mayotte.In cover the case. tional and more powerful vehicle with which to realize her Madagascar:Society and If we were restricted to the terms of Plato's concerns, to both and them, to render eds.Conrad opposition embody objectify History, and and to and Kottak,Jean-Aim? between poetry and philosophy, between mimetic engage- them available to herself others, dignify Rakotoarisoa,Aidan ment and distanciated contemplation (Lambek in press), authorize them. Mediumship expanded both her agency and

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000 11 Southalland Pierre V?rin, her moral horizons. her disposal, the unity of means and ends in her practice, DurhamN. C: Carolina Agency is a tricky concept. Leave it out and you have a and in people like her, that ought to be among the central AcademicPress. determinisi or abstract it in and risk instru- of a Leiris,Michel. 1958. La model, put you topics postcolonial anthropology. Possessionet ses Aspects mentalism, the bourgeois subject, the idealized idealistic Th??trauxchez les individual, etc.18 But we can see how agents are always Conclusion Ethiopiensde Gondar. partly constructed through their acts - through acts of I have characterized Nuriaty's practice in terms of histor- Paris:Pion. acknowledgment, witnessing, engagement, commitment, ical consciousness. But it is clear that in taking on the Mauss,Marcel. 1966. The refusal and consent. In and ren- burden of in the heroes of the Gift.Ian Cunnison, trans. assuming responsibility history, witnessing past London:Routledge & dering themselves subject to liturgical, political, and crying in her sleep and withdrawing in anger from their KeganPaul. discursive regimes and orders, people simultaneously lay tombs, and in carrying on despite her material circum- ed. 1999. Middleton,Karen, claim to and accept the terms through which their subse- stances and despite the lack of recognition from Ancestors,Power & quent acts will be judged (Rappaport 1999). People are contemporary political leaders, Nuriaty does more than Historyin Madagascar. Leiden:Brill. agents insofar as they choose to subject themselves, to display a heightened consciousness of history; she Rappaport,Roy A. 1999. perform and conform accordingly, to accept responsi- embodies an historical conscience. Religionand Ritual in the bility, and to acknowledge their commitments. The portrait I have painted and the mood I have evoked Makingof Humanity. In their combination of action and passion and in their are very different from the frantic sense of loss visible Cambridge:CUP. denial of their tacit in or permit- elsewhere in facets of the African memory crisis (Werbner Solway,Jacqueline and explicit agency choosing MichaelLambek. nd. ting themselves to be possessed by particular spirits, and 1998), the witchcraft epidemic in South Africa (Comaroff "ThereAre No More then in following out the consequences of such possession, and Comaroff nd) or Kinshasa (de Boeck, personal com- Virgins":Towards the spirit mediums like Nuriaty speak to universal aspects of munication), or, for that matter, in the epidemic of an Historyof African moral The success of be accusations of Satanism and recovered memories of of practice. Nuriaty's practice may System Marriage.' America and northern Presentedat the 1996 clarified by, and perhaps help illuminate, Zizek's argument sexual abuse in North Europe AnnualMeeting of the (drawing on Elster's Sour Grapes) that respect and dignity (Comaroff 1997, Lambek 1997, Antze and Lambek, eds American cannot be successfully 'planned in advance or assumed by 1996, La Fontaine 1997) in which ancestral and parental Anthropological means of a conscious decision.' (1991: 76) 'If I con- figures are violently rejected in response, perhaps, to what Association. to or to arouse the is understood as their absence, their impotence, or their V?rin,Pierre. 1994. Les sciously try appear dignified respect, Comores.Paris: Karthala. result is ridiculous; the impression I make, instead, is that withdrawal of protection. Spirit mediums like Nuriaty Vidal,Jean-Michel. 1994. of a miserable impersonator. The basic paradox of these capture a particular moment in the process of change, seen Adolescencein Mayotte: states is that although they are what matters most, they from a particular angle; the internalization of an ancestor and History,Change elude us as soon as we make them the immediate aim of our (or as here, an historical precursor) in the very act of with- Paradoxes.An The to them about is not to center drawal and thereby a kind of transference of the ancestor AnthropoclinicalStudy of activity. only way bring external scene to the internal one. In so Identity.Doctoral our activity on them but to pursue other goals and hope that from the public, dissertation(in French), they will come about "by themselves". Although they do doing, the medium allows herself to be subjected by the Universit?de Montr?al. pertain to our activity, they are ultimately perceived as ancestor, but equally to be empowered and enlightened, to Werbner,Richard, ed. 1998. something that belongs to us on account of what we are and become a subject. It is the obverse of projection, and the Memoryand the not on account of what we do.' obverse of witchcraft. There are flashes of bravado; a Postcolony. London: Zed (1991:77) Books. Nuriaty is not a prophet, she is not extraordinary. She is, rustle of anger at the inverted and inequitable papaya Zizek,Slavoj. 1991. Looking rather, a good citizen and a mensch, an exemplary political world in which dignity for some is hard to come by; an AnIntroduction to Awry: subject, engaged with the past and future of her society. undertone of knowing sadness. JacquesLacan through She lacks the self-confidence to be an ?bermensch, but In that same slow, deliberate way, Nuriaty's elegy to the PopularCulture. not the best citizens. comes to own of CambridgeMA: MIT then ?bermenschen are always receding past possess my Press. Nuriaty is doing what she can. It is the ends and means at Mayotte. D

Social moral differentiation, authority

and Islam in public Egypt

The path of Mustafa Mahmud

decades has been second to the revered ARMANDO An original path to Islamic authority probably only In recent years Islamic authority has been subject, in shaykh Muhammad Mutawalli Shacrawi (for the early SALVATORE Egypt, to a process of transformation, fragmentation and ascent of this popular religious personality see Lazarus- recomposition. At issue is the occupation, use or reap- Yafeh 1983). The case summons back, extends and ArmandoSalvatore is of different media - from the minbar the to Islamic authority devel- SeniorResearcher at the propriation [pulpit] complexifies approach of the to TV, from booklets to cassettes - in Patrick Gaffney's of preachers (Gaffney Instituteof Social mosque oped study Mahmud shares Sciences,Humboldt through shaykhs and other religious personalities. 'Lay' 1994; see also Gaffney 1991). Mustafa University,Berlin, and at intellectuals join and extend this panoply of activities, with preachers of Gaffney's type of advocates of 'reli- the Centrefor Advanced too. Here, I examine an articulation of moral authority giously inspired modernity' an emphasis on 'creativity Studiesin the Humanities that claims to draw inspiration and legitimacy from and adaptation' as a method. He has certainly accumu- in Essen, He is - Germany. Islamic faith, and has gained a growing appeal through lated authority and visibility through his mosque and thefounder and different media and social activities - on a composite, charitable association, like Shaykh Uthman, who coordinatorof the web- middle class centred, embodies this in 1994, based networkof young though public. type Gaffney's study (Gaffney in the of access of Mustafa scholars,Forum of Social It is the case of Mustafa Mahmud, whose popularity pp. 208-232). However, path Research. Egypt as an Islamic moral authority during the last three Mahmud to public notoriety has been singular, and the

12 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 16 No 2, April 2000