Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar by Nourse, Erin K.
Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar by Nourse, Erin K.

Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar

Water into Bones explores the spiritual importance of water in Madagascar. Families in northern Madagascar conceptualize water...
$181.20 AUD
$181.20 AUD
SKU: 9780253072405
Product Type: Books
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Author: Erin K. Nourse
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Subtotal: $181.20
Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar by Nourse, Erin K.

Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar

$181.20
Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar by Nourse, Erin K.

Water Into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar

$181.20
Author: Erin K. Nourse
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Description

Water into Bones explores the spiritual importance of water in Madagascar. Families in northern Madagascar conceptualize water as a spiritual realm where magical creatures and some ancestors live, and believe that infants are born with a special connection to the spirit world that makes them "still full of water" (mbola rano) and lacking bones. Over the course of their lives, the water is transformed into bone, and lives end as entombed bones, which symbolize their legacy as ancestors and become objects of their descendants' care and remembrance.

Author Erin Nourse examines the ways that Malagasy women in the northern port city of Di?go Suarez actively enable their infants to acquire "bones" and establish belonging within their communities. Navigating diverse social environments that enable them to draw from various religious, ethnic, and familial traditions to welcome babies into their families, Malagasy mothers secure their children's status as distinctive individuals who are also firmly grounded in their ancestral legacies.

Water into Bones reveals the vast possibilities for creating community, identity, and sacred power through the personal experiences of northern Malagasy women during pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood.



Author: Erin K. Nourse
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 03/04/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780253072405

About the Author

Erin Nourse is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Regis University. She has published an article in the Journal of Religion in Africa and contributed chapters to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History and to Africa Every Day: Fun, Leisure, and Expressive Culture on the Continent


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