Includes bibliographical references and index.

The village -- The Betsimisaraka, history and the spread of tromba -- Localising tromba -- A spirit world of movement and change -- Making connections: spirits, persons and places -- Tromba nights of clapping, song and dance -- The judgement bath -- Tromba and the radical imaginary -- Tromba, translocality and the magic of the Malagasy nation -- Epilogue: magic and political imagination.

"Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession."--Publisher's website.

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