African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 466
and ritual performances help mediate the contradictions attending the rapid expansion of
agrarian capitalism in the region.
As Madagascar’s relative insularity gives way to a variety of global horizons,
Malagasy folklore is increasingly entering the realm of public culture. Many Malagasy,
for example, living in the United States, France, and Japan, have established
organizations that, with the help of folklore performances, allow them to define and
celebrate their national and group identities (one example is the Washington D.C.-based
Madagascar Cultural Alliance). Folklore is also proving to be an important part of
Madagascar’s rapidly developing ecological tourism industry. Ownership of and access
rights to the four and a half million hectares of land now enclosed by close to forty
protected areas is currently a highly contested issue. A surprising feature of this ongoing
struggle over labor and land is that the folklore forms of many of the Malagasy groups
living beside the enclosures have simultaneously served the interests of the groups
themselves and the protected area planners (Hanson 1997). As the two preceding
examples suggest, exciting directions do exist for the study of Malagasy folklore.
References
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