The Mahafaly in the south-western region of Madagascar honor the dead by placing aloalo on their graves.[1] These funeral totems are made of the sacred wood hazomanga and are either painted or carved to represent the life of the deceased, with a wealthy individual’s aloalo often depicting their worldly possessions and the aloalo of a person with many children sometimes being explicitly erotic to represent their virility.[2] Others possess images of men hunting zebu and become a means for the Mahafaly to pay homage to the deceased and their ancestors, representing how the living and the dead are closely linked.[3] Traditionally, aloalo were reserved only for Mahafaly chiefs and people with royal lineages, with their tombs located outside villages in the forests believed to be the domain of ancestral spirits.[4]
Works Referenced
Magnin, Andre, and Jacques Soulillou. Contemporary Art of Africa. New York: Abrams Books, 1996.
McElroy, Colleen. Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1999.
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[1] Magnin and Soulillou, 24.
[2] McElroy, 29-30.
[3] McElroy, 30.
[4] Magnin and Soulillou, 24.
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