Whenever I sit down to write something about where I live, or talk to someone on the phone, I feel like I need to add in this disclaimer:
I only live in one village, in one commune, in one region of Madagascar.
This means that what I see and learn is specific to this area. But I don’t like to preface every statement with “in my tiny village of 30 people this is what most people do but it is not necessarily representative of all of Madagascar.” It’s much easier to just say: “people do x, y or z.” So let this be a reminder that I don’t know much about most of the country, just my tiny area.
This is particularly important in this country I think. It is definitely one united country, and people that I talk to identify as being Malagasy, but there are 18 official ethnic groups, and the corresponding sub-groups, each with their own dialect, customs, and so forth. While in the US there are not necessarily such easily labeled groups, there is also a huge diversity of cultures in the US. And just as it’s impossible to say that all Americans do/say/eat this or that, it’s the same here.
For example, no one where I live grows or eats wheat. But in a village a few hours walk away (same climate/environment/ethnic group), I’ve heard that sorghum wheat is a staple crop. When food production is such a part of life, changing a staple food also changes a lot of other aspects of life that go into producing and preparing that food.
When telling friends in Andasibe that I have rat problems at my house, I learned that none of them knew the word that my village uses for mouse (I now know 3 ways to say mouse, and quite a few more for rat), even though we are only 2hrs apart and my people go to Andasibe with some regularity.
Another example: in my area, the previous president of the fokontany made it mandatory for every household to have an outhouse. Quite progressive. And entirely forbidden by taboos in many parts of the country (it’s absolutely not ok to poop in the same ground that you have buried your ancestors in). I haven’t seen or heard of that many stomach ailments (aside from my own), and I think this could be the reason why. Yet in other areas, this presents a huge health risk, has serious consequences, and is therefore the focus of a lot of NGOs (including many PCVs).
Coming into this country and knowing nothing about it previously, it is easy for me to think that what I see is Malagasy, when in fact what I see is often unique to a specific sub-group. So I apologize if I am misrepresenting Madagascar to you, but I will do my best to accurately portray what I see.
Awesome! Unfortunately, we (humans) assume that any stereotype is a fact. For instance, the Greek workers are labeled "lazy" compared to their German counterpart due to Greece's economic crisis. I always rebuke some of my friends who told me that Americans are fat, eat junk food and live a lifestyle portrayed by Hollywood movies.
ReplyDelete