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bleeding/weight merina coil - Naturopathic Medicine Network pandamedicine.com |
Not to be confused with the Mirena intrauterine system.
The Merina is an ethnic group from Madagascar. They speak a Malayo-Polynesian language and are concentrated in the central highlands. Their ancestors, the Austronesians, migrated from Borneo in the Malay archipelago around the beginning of the common era. Today, the Austronesian features of the Merina are still quite visible. In the late 18th century rulers from the Merina aristocracy began to assert political domination over much of the island. In 1895-96 the French abolished the Merina monarchy by force.
[edit] The Merina KingdomMain article: Merina Kingdom The Merina Kingdom in the central highlands of Madagascar, a state of rice farmers, had lived in relative isolation from the rest of Madagascar for several centuries, but by 1824 the Merina had conquered nearly all of Madagascar — thanks to the leadership of two shrewd kings, Andrianampoinimerina (circa 1785–1810) and his son Radama I (1792–1828). The kingdom's contact with French and later British powers helped modernize the state allowing its very capable leaders to build schools and an impressive modern army. But the peace and stability of the Merina kingdom would come to an end with the first Franco-Hova War. At the war’s end, Madagascar ceded Antsiranana (Diégo Suarez) on the northern coast to France and paid 560,000 gold francs to the heirs of Joseph-François Lambert. In Europe, meanwhile, diplomats partitioning the African continent worked out an agreement whereby Britain, in order to obtain the Sultanate of Zanzibar, ceded its rights over Heligoland to Germany and renounced all claims to Madagascar in favor of France. The agreement spelled doom for the independence of Madagascar. In 1895, a French flying-column landed in Mahajanga (Majunga) and marched by way of the Betsiboka River to the capital, Antananarivo, taking the city’s defenders by surprise. They had expected an attack from the much closer east coast. Twenty French soldiers died fighting and 6,000 died of malaria and other diseases before the second Franco-Hova War ended. In 1896 the French Parliament voted to annex Madagascar. The 103-year-old Merina monarchy ended with the royal family sent to exile in Algeria. [edit] Caste systemAmong all the Malagasy ethnicities, the Merina historically have one of the most stratified caste systems. In general they are divided into three classes: the Andriana (nobles), the Hova (masses), and the Andevo (slaves). Each class is then hierarchically divided into subclasses. The Andriana are divided into seven subclasses, from the highest ranking to the lowest as follows:
[edit] Culture[edit] CuisineThe cuisine of the Merina is so heavily dominated by rice that the term for eating a meal is simply "to eat rice". This staple of the diet is so central to the Merina that it is considered to be masina, or holy, and a common Merina belief holds that the eating of rice is the key to moral behaviour, and the French who occupied Merina lands were often looked down upon for eating bread over rice.[1] Beef also plays a large part in the Merina diet, and one of the better known Merina myths tells of how a servant of King Ralambo's discovered that cows were edible, before sharing this knowledge with the king, who in turn informed the rest of his kingdom.[2] [edit] ReligionMerini religion involves the veneration of water spirits known as the Vazimba who inhabited the land before the arrival of humans. They are believed to have a supernatural power associated with water known as mahery which is also supposedly found in animals and wild plants.[3] The Merina believe their land to be tanin' drazana, or the 'land of the ancestors'.[4] The Merinan dead are buried in tombs, although the French missionary L. Molet (1956) believed, based upon a mythological story, that in previous centuries, the dead had been consumed at the funeral, a claim dismissed by other anthropologists, such as Maurice Bloch (1985).[5] Boys are circumcised in a ritual that involves them being blessed by the ancestors, and prior to this they are believed to be zazarano, or "children of water".[6] [edit] See also[edit] References
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