Society
Mikea are subject to national laws like all Malagasy citizens but in practice national laws, government and social services do not reach this population while dwelling in the forest. Within Mikea forest encampments an egalitarian form of self-government predominates, with the eldest male family member having the main decision-making authority for the group. This is in contrast to certain ethnic groups, such as the Merina, who had a complex form of social organization that overlaid a caste system with specific social roles assigned to particular family groups. In 1991, an estimated 1,500 Malagasy were living the Mikea lifestyle, primarily around the Mikea Forest, an area that receives limited rainfall. This number was estimated at several hundred in the 1950s, suggesting a growth in population. The true number of people living from forest scavenging is difficult to estimate with accuracy, as the label "Mikea" is very flexible, and the degree of reliance on scavenging as opposed to seasonal farming can vary significantly at any given time depending on economic and environmental conditions. The Mikea are subject to social stigma [8] linked to their image as primitive or uncivilized people. [9]
Housing and social organization among the Mikea can vary from one individual or community to the next. Some Mikea remain in the forest their entire lives, while others live part of their lives in villages or towns. While living in the forest, groups of Mikea typically move seasonally between encampments nearest to critical resources. In the rainy season, they often live in groups of 30-50 people near tracts of virgin forest in proximity to their newly cleared and planted corn fields. The houses in this settlement are square with peaked roofs, as elsewhere in Madagascar, and are typically made of thatch and bark on a wooden pole frame. These houses are loosely clustered with generous space between each lodging. The rainy season encampment serves for three to five years as a base for forest foraging before resource depletion requires a move to a new location. Those working the corn fields may live in simple grass shelters alongside their crops until April or May, when they return to the bark houses. [8] During the dry season from May to October, the encampment splits into smaller groups that relocate deeper into the forest [8] to settle near babo tuber patches, with dwellings limited to brush shelters and thatch sunshades, and some individuals not living in shelters at all. In both types of settlements furniture is nearly non-existent and Mikea typically sleep in the sand or pits dug at the base of giant termite mounds. [8]
The Mikea struggle to ensure the quality of life they seek. While the forest has long provided for their basic needs, deforestation and population growth are straining resources. In addition, Mikea are increasingly seeking to obtain better quality material goods for themselves, such as clothing, which necessitates greater engagement with the external economy through trade and wage labor to earn local currency. Lack of access to social services such as education and health clinics are also taking their toll: with only one health clinic in the Mikea Forest area and low access to water for bathing, rates of diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy and skin disease are disproportionately prevalent.
Family affiliation
Mikea tend to trace their lineage back to specific villages within one or more of three main lineages, associated respectively with the northern, southern and central parts of the Mikea Forest. Most also have relatives living in Vezo and/or Masikoro villages in the region. Many Mikea families have established ziva (a "joking relationship", commonly found in southern and eastern Africa) with the Vohitse Vanovato clan of the Masikoro, which indicates a degree of familial closeness with this subclan. [11]
Mikea encampments are typically family groups. These consist of an elder couple, their married sons and daughters-in-law, the grandchildren of these marriages, and the elder couple's own unmarried children of any age. Adult daughters typically move to join their husband's family encampment upon marriage, but married couples often share their time between the husband's or wife's parents' encampments. Family unions are formed through a fandeo ceremony in which the man is presented to his intended bride's family, and the acceptance of her parents legitimizes the union. Children of the marriage are legitimized by the husband's bestowal of presents to his wife's parents. The relationship between the wife's brother (renilahy, "male mother") and her children can be very strong in Mikea marriages, and the renilahy will commonly adopt children that his sister's husband does not legitimize. Both the husband and the wife have the right to divorce at any time and remarry. Polygamy is also practiced.
Religious affiliation
Like other Malagasy, the Mikea spiritual belief system revolves around respect for ancestors. They also share the common Malagasy belief in a creator god, termed Andrianajanahary. Many Mikea believe in various types of forest spirits (koko), which are associated with certain natural spots in the forest deemed sacred; these sites serve as the focus of various ceremonies, in which rum has spiritual and symbolic significance. The greatest of the nature spirits is Ndrianazo, the lord of the forest. The extended family group, which spreads through multiple encampments, is united around a central priest figure, the mpitoka hazomanga, who officiates over major family ceremonies dedicated to the ancestors. In addition, within each encampment is at least one ombiasy (wiseman) who interprets the will of the ancestors and spirits, and plays important roles in such ceremonies as marriage, circumcision, blessings, ancestral rituals, funerals, and tromba and bilo spirit possession ceremonies. Some also practice sikidy and other forms of divination, and provide spiritual advice on the best days or places to hunt, plant, shift camp, and other such events of daily life.
Economy
The arid conditions of the spiny forest, which receives less than 600 millimeters of rainfall each year, largely shape Mikea economic activities. Nearly everything they consume is scavenged from the forest, and the average Mikea needs two hours or less to collect adequate food for the day. [8] Their main source of food is tubers, particularly during the dry season when few other foods may be reliably available. Adults and children of both genders work to dig up using a metal-tipped digging stick (antsoro) and a digging bowl (kipao). The starchy ovy tuber is roasted or boiled before eating, while the Mikea eat the watery babo (or baboho) raw for hydration or use its water for boiling other foods; the tavolo tuber is dried and ground to make a flour that is sold at village markets. They also gather forest fruits, melons and honey, with the latter a particularly important source of income for the Mikea during the rainy season. [8] To obtain water during the rainy season the Mikea capture rain run-off from the rooftops of their houses using hollowed-out logs or transport water on foot or zebu-drawn wagon from the villages, while during the cool dry season the Mikea consume their store of water-engorged babo tubers and drink water from natural or man-made wells when possible.
Key protein sources include birds and tenrecs. Mikea adults and children of both sexes use clubs [8] to kill the small tenrec (tambotrika, 0.4 kilograms), which is widespread year round, and the larger one (tandraka, 2-3 kilograms), which is mainly caught during the rainy season. To a lesser extent they also hunt or trap two to three species of lemur, feral cats, occasional wild boars, turtles and rodents using blowguns, spears and dogs, [8] and use a hook and line to catch fish in saline inland lakes. Some Mikea raise animals such as goats, chickens and guineafowls for food or sale at market; tree nuts also provide additional protein.
The principal crop of the Mikea is corn, which was introduced to Madagascar in the 1890s. They also occasionally grow manioc. The dry season is used to cut new corn fields, which are burned in October (swidden agriculture, locally termed hatsaky [14] ) and planted in November and December as the rains begin to fall. This corn is harvested three months later and consumed during the wet season; surplus is dried and sold, with some saved for the following year's planting and consumption. The traders who gather the maize from the Mikea process it for international export at a significant profit.
The Mikea live in a symbiotic relationship with the neighboring Masikoro farmers and herders, and the Vezo fishing clan. The Mikea live primarily on food scavenged from the forest but also grow seasonal crops. Their mobility and reliance on scavenging as opposed to crop growing shifts in response to changes in environmental and economic pressures on availability of resources within the Mikea community as well as those of their Vezo and Masikoro neighbors. The Mikea sell their forest products, as well as woven mats and food animals they raise, at weekly Vezo and Masikoro markets in nearby villages to obtain the necessities they cannot scavenge, such as clothing and medicine. Some Mikea migrate for periods of time to work in local villages or the town of Morombe. They are also hired to work for Vezo and Masikoro villagers, such as by cutting forest for villagers or other Mikeas' corn fields, or guarding villagers' zebu herds. They occasionally acquire one or more zebu in addition to or in lieu of payment, as these are seen as a form of wealth and are mainly sacrificed in ancestral ceremonies rather than eaten as food. The rainy season is the time when Mikea are most likely to leave their scavenging encampments for wage labor opportunities in villages or for the corn harvest. This is also the time when Masikoro and Vezo villagers are most likely to move into the forest to grow corn.
The history of Madagascar is distinguished clearly by the early isolation of the landmass from the ancient supercontinent containing Africa and India, and by the island's late colonization by human settlers from the Sunda islands and from East Africa. These two factors facilitated the evolution and survival of thousands of endemic plant and animal species, some of which have gone extinct or are currently threatened with extinction. Trade in the Indian Ocean at the time of first colonization of Madagascar was dominated by Indonesian ships, probably of Borobudur ship and K'un-lun po types.
A tenrec is any species of mammal within the afrotherian family Tenrecidae endemic to Madagascar. Tenrecs are wildly diverse; as a result of convergent evolution some resemble hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, rats, and mice. They occupy aquatic, arboreal, terrestrial and fossorial environments. Some of these species, including the greater hedgehog tenrec, can be found in the Madagascar dry deciduous forests. However, the speciation rate in this group has been higher in humid forests.
The Malagasy are an Austronesian-speaking African ethnic group indigenous to the island country of Madagascar. Traditionally, the population have been divided by subgroups. Examples include "Highlander" groups such as the Merina and Betsileo of the central highlands around Antananarivo, Alaotra (Ambatondrazaka) and Fianarantsoa, and the "coastal dwellers" with tribes like the Sakalava, Bara, Vezo, Betsimisaraka, Mahafaly, etc. The Merina are also further divided into two subgroups. The “Merina A” are the Hova and Andriana, and have an average of 30–40% Bantu ancestry. The second subgroup is the “Merina B”, the Andevo, who have an average of 40–50% Bantu ancestry. They make up less than 1/3 of Merina society. The Malagasy population was 2,242,000 in the first census in 1900. Their population experienced a massive growth in the next hundred years, especially under French Madagascar.
The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, in a band along the coast. The Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total population, that is over 1,210,000 in 2014. Their name means "people of the long valleys." They occupy the western edge of the island from Toliara in the south to the Sambirano River in the north.
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Malagasy cuisine encompasses the many diverse culinary traditions of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. Foods eaten in Madagascar reflect the influence of Southeast Asian, African, Oceanian, Indian, Chinese and European migrants that have settled on the island since it was first populated by seafarers from Borneo between 100 CE and 500 CE. Rice, the cornerstone of the Malagasy diet, was cultivated alongside tubers and other Southeast Asian and Oceanian staples by these earliest settlers. Their diet was supplemented by foraging and hunting wild game, which contributed to the extinction of the island's bird and mammal megafauna. These food sources were later complemented by beef in the form of zebu introduced into Madagascar by East African migrants arriving around 1,000 CE.
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The Merina Kingdom, or Kingdom of Madagascar, officially the Kingdom of Imerina, was a pre-colonial state off the coast of Southeast Africa that, by the 19th century, dominated most of what is now Madagascar. It spread outward from Imerina, the Central Highlands region primarily inhabited by the Merina ethnic group with a spiritual capital at Ambohimanga and a political capital 24 km (15 mi) west at Antananarivo, currently the seat of government for the modern state of Madagascar. The Merina kings and queens who ruled over greater Madagascar in the 19th century were the descendants of a long line of hereditary Merina royalty originating with Andriamanelo, who is traditionally credited with founding Imerina in 1540.
The Antesaka, also known as Tesaka, or Tesaki, are an ethnic group of Madagascar traditionally concentrated south of Farafangana along the south-eastern coast. They have since spread more widely throughout the island. The Antesaka form about 5% of the population of Madagascar. They have mixed African, Arab and Malayo-Indonesian ancestry, like the western coastal Sakalava people of Madagascar from whom the clan derives. They traditionally have strong marriage taboos and complex funeral rites. The Antesaka typically cultivate coffee, bananas and rice, and those along the coast engage in fishing. A large portion of the population has emigrated to other parts of the island for work, with an estimated 40% of emigrants between 1948 and 1958 permanently settling outside the Antesaka homeland.
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Andriamanelo was king of Alasora in the central highlands region of Madagascar. He is generally considered by historians to be the founder of the Kingdom of Imerina and originator of the Merina royal line that, by the 19th century, had extended its rule over virtually all of Madagascar. The son of a Vazimba mother and a man of the newly arrived Hova people originating in southeast Madagascar, Andriamanelo ultimately led a series of military campaigns against the Vazimba, beginning a several-decade process to drive them from the Highlands. The conflict that defined his reign also produced many lasting innovations, including the development of fortified villages in the highlands and the use of iron weapons. Oral tradition furthermore credits Andriamanelo with establishing a ruling class of nobles (andriana) and defining the rules of succession. Numerous cultural traditions, including the ritual of circumcision, the wedding custom of vodiondry and the art of Malagasy astrology (sikidy) are likewise associated with this king.
Ralambo was the ruler of the Kingdom of Imerina in the central Highlands region of Madagascar from 1575 to 1612. Ruling from Ambohidrabiby, Ralambo expanded the realm of his father, Andriamanelo, and was the first to assign the name of Imerina to the region. Oral history has preserved numerous legends about this king, including several dramatic military victories, contributing to his heroic and near-mythical status among the kings of ancient Imerina. The circumstances surrounding his birth, which occurred on the highly auspicious date of the first of the year, are said to be supernatural in nature and further add to the mystique of this sovereign.
The Bara people are a Malagasy ethnic group living in the southern part of the central plateaus of Madagascar, in the Toliara Province, concentrated around their historic capital at Ihosy. The Bara are the largest of the island's zebu-herding peoples and have historically lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, although an increasing proportion are practicing agriculture. Bara society is highly patriarchal and endogamy and polygamy are practiced among some Bara tribes. Young men practice cattle rustling to prove their manhood before marriage, and the kilalaky musical and dance tradition associated with cattle rustlers has gained popularity across the island.
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The Tanala are a Malagasy ethnic group that inhabit a forested inland region of south-east Madagascar near Manakara. Their name means "people of the forest." Tanala people identify with one of two sub-groups: the southern Ikongo group, who managed to remain independent in the face of the expanding Kingdom of Imerina in the 19th century, or the northern Menabe group, who submitted to Merina rule. Both groups trace their origin back to a noble ancestor named Ralambo, who is believed to be of Arab descent. They were historically known to be great warriors, having led a successful conquest of the neighboring Antemoro people in the 18th century. They are also reputed to have particular talent in divination through reading seeds or through astrology, which was brought to Madagascar with the Arabs.
Petter's big-footed mouse, is a Madagascan rodent in the genus Macrotarsomys. With a head and body length of 150 mm (5.9 in) and body mass of 105 g (3.7 oz), it is the largest species of its genus. Its upper body is brown, darkest in the middle of the back, and the lower body is white to yellowish. The animal has long whiskers, short forelimbs, and long hindfeet. The tail ends in a prominent tuft of long, light hairs. The skull is robust and the molars are low-crowned and cuspidate.
The Masikoro are a group of farmers and herders who inhabit areas surrounding the Mikea Forest, a patch of mixed spiny forest and dry deciduous forest along the coast of southwestern Madagascar in Toliara Province. Along with Vezo and Mikea, the Masikoro are Sakalava people, the difference being that Masikoro are of the land, Vezo are of the sea, and Mikea are of the forest.
