Earth Shakers of Madagascar

An analysis of how the complex rituals of Sahafatra culture are used to transform a once barren landscape into agricultural land. Introduction: the wasteland and its people and history; the bigger picture - background and theory; the authority system in the wasteland; competing idioms of power; testing - the process of becoming a senior panjaka; the potency of the panjaka; the 'raising up' of the panjaka as human alchemy; funerary and commemorative practices; conclusion: composite power and the cult of creation.