The Malagasy World

The Malagasy World integrates the archaeology of Madagascar within linguistic, historic, and genetic inquiry and presents and synthesizes the most up-to-date knowledge from across these fields, with an emphasis on archaeology and material culture. The volume explores the complex questions of origins, settlement, and Indian Ocean history, interweaving linguistic, genetic and material evidence. Attention is given to the role of Madagascar as an important site for exploring the ancient exchange of foods and animals between Africa, South Asia and South East Asia as well as for understanding the flourishing medieval trade that took place across the Indian Ocean, alongside the introduction to the island of practices informed by Islam. Diverse and elaborate mortuary practices and megalithic traditions that are found throughout the nation currently and historically are examined along with the co-evolution of people and landscapes, the emergence of socio-political complexity in different parts of the island, the material poetics through which claims to sovereignty were articulated, and the effects of these changes on local communities. Finally, the changing context of the Western Indian Ocean in the last 500 years after the arrival of Europeans is investigated, particularly early colonial encounters, and the uneven effects and consequences of the trade in enslaved people. The Malagasy World is aimed at archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and linguists interested in Africa, the Indian Ocean and environmental history.