N.Y. Museum Show Focuses on Madagascar

Museum-goers will get an introduction to one of the world’s least-known cultures through an exhibition devoted to Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island and its chief source of vanilla, at the American Museum of Natural History.

The show, which originated at the British Museum, opened March 25 and continues through Aug. 27. It is an eye-opener in that Madagascar’s arts and crafts are rarely exported and the last exhibit focusing on the island’s culture was mounted by the Field Museum in Chicago in the 1920s.

Of particular fascination is the belief of the Malagasy people that their ancestors are a part of the community of the living, a philosophical premise that generates a great deal of cultural activity, including elaborate funeral and reburial rites and burial villages.

“It’s probably the only country where the biggest investment in contemporary architecture is in building tombs and mausoleums,” said Dr. John Mack of the British Museum, curator of the show, who collected many of the artifacts in the exhibition in Madagascar in the past 5 years.

Madagascar, about 250 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, has been the socialist Democratic Republic of Madagascar, also known as Malagasy, since 1960. It is only slightly smaller than the state of Texas and has a truly cosmopolitan culture. As yet, it is virtually undiscovered by tourists.

Four out of five of the half-Christian, half-animist population are rural, and it is rural burial grounds that the 10 million Malagasy--wherever they may live--aspire to return in death, joining their ancestors in a clan unity that is more pervasive than any other aspect of life.