In the entire world, the livestock pets take part in life of human's being. There exist many different types of pets such as cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs ... and many others but in this blog I am just going to talk about dog in Madagascar especially. Why dog's breeding is a problem in some regions of Madagascar? Before discussing this subject, I am going to explain in this first blog entry the existence of taboo in Madagascar. What does mean taboo exactly, what are the different type and variation of taboo in Madagascar. Also, I will give some kind of animal including in Malagasy's taboo. Then, I will give more explanations about dogs in my second blog entry.
What is taboo or "Fady" in Madagascar? In any human society, taboo is a question of what is allowed and what are not in a specific location. The taboo has great importance in the eyes of the Malagasy people, it relates to law, morals, customs and the field of social moral. The taboo is exercised only in sphere that allows us to see the stress in society to bear on the members of particular group. There exist many taboo in Madagascar and all of them have their own causes but these are some example of taboo existing in Madagascar : There are forbidden to kill or eat dolphin, to raise sheep and to eat their meet, to point the finger whales, to sell turtle meat, to speak Merina dialect in specific location of the sea, to dispose of crab shells after nightfall, to laugh while eating honey, to have intimate relation with brothers and sisters of the opposite sex, to tame lemurs, to wash a corpse after sunset, to cut live animals,to not rise pigs and not eat their meals.
There exist also many category of taboo in Madagascar. Firstly, there is the positive taboo such as the taboo of recognizing. It is always applied on animal because of a service made by an animal to an ancestor. In some region of Madagascar, it is forbidden to eat some animals because of the existence of relation between the ancestor and the animal in Malagasy's history such as the history of a "Tanala" woman. She was chased by bad guys so she hid in the forest but at this time a bird called "Railovy" or peacock flew so the bad guys thought that the bird thrilled the foliage and they went back. The bird saved a person so this taboo is positive. The woman was saved so starting at this time she told to her offspring to never eat this bird. This bird is sacred in some region in Madagascar and people continue to follow the taboo until now. In the other hand, there is also the negative taboo. It is also applied on animal because of something bad that caused the animal to the ancestor. For example: it makes disease or death directly so the ancestor forbidden the offspring to eat it. Many animals are included in the negative taboo such as the turtle, the whale, the pig, the hedgehog and many others. The dog is among these animal and in South of Madagascar especially, people tend to treat dogs as a bad creature, an insult and a curse.
What is taboo or "Fady" in Madagascar? In any human society, taboo is a question of what is allowed and what are not in a specific location. The taboo has great importance in the eyes of the Malagasy people, it relates to law, morals, customs and the field of social moral. The taboo is exercised only in sphere that allows us to see the stress in society to bear on the members of particular group. There exist many taboo in Madagascar and all of them have their own causes but these are some example of taboo existing in Madagascar : There are forbidden to kill or eat dolphin, to raise sheep and to eat their meet, to point the finger whales, to sell turtle meat, to speak Merina dialect in specific location of the sea, to dispose of crab shells after nightfall, to laugh while eating honey, to have intimate relation with brothers and sisters of the opposite sex, to tame lemurs, to wash a corpse after sunset, to cut live animals,to not rise pigs and not eat their meals.There exist also many category of taboo in Madagascar. Firstly, there is the positive taboo such as the taboo of recognizing. It is always applied on animal because of a service made by an animal to an ancestor. In some region of Madagascar, it is forbidden to eat some animals because of the existence of relation between the ancestor and the animal in Malagasy's history such as the history of a "Tanala" woman. She was chased by bad guys so she hid in the forest but at this time a bird called "Railovy" or peacock flew so the bad guys thought that the bird thrilled the foliage and they went back. The bird saved a person so this taboo is positive. The woman was saved so starting at this time she told to her offspring to never eat this bird. This bird is sacred in some region in Madagascar and people continue to follow the taboo until now. In the other hand, there is also the negative taboo. It is also applied on animal because of something bad that caused the animal to the ancestor. For example: it makes disease or death directly so the ancestor forbidden the offspring to eat it. Many animals are included in the negative taboo such as the turtle, the whale, the pig, the hedgehog and many others. The dog is among these animal and in South of Madagascar especially, people tend to treat dogs as a bad creature, an insult and a curse.