Riziculture and the Founding of Monarchy in Imerina

Author(s): Gerald M. Berg

Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 22, No. 3 (1981), pp. 289-308
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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3rournal of African History, 22 (I98I), pp. 289-308 289
Printed in Great Britain

RIZICULTURE AND THE FOUNDING OF MONARCHY

IN IMERINA*

GERALD M. BERG

SI N CE the mid-seventeenth century, Imerina's agriculture, particularly rice,

has attracted the attention of students of Malagasy history who tended to see
in the vast and complicated system of irrigation works for paddy rice the
origin and principal support of the Merina monarchy. Though most qualify
Wittfogel's theory that irrigated riziculture produces 'oriental despotism',
most agree that, directly or indirectly, the organization of labour required for
large-scale irrigation and the consequent increase in agricultural surplus
concentrated power in the hands of kings and laid the foundations for a
bureaucracy and army which by the nineteenth century ruled all of
Madagascar.' Nevertheless, despite carefully reasoned and useful theories
about the connexion between the evolution of agrarian technique and political
organization, relatively little rests on firm historical evidence.
There are good reasons for this. The first two concern sources. Though
the Merina kingdom was firmly established by the mid-eighteenth century,
it was sufficiently isolated in the centre of the island to escape the observation
of explorers and traders until the end of the century, and substantial written
accounts appear only from the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the
nineteenth centuries. Thus the events under consideration for the most part
pre-date written sources. Second, archaeological evidence is notably sparse

* Research for this essay was funded by the Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund,
the Regents of the University of California, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
and Sweet Briar College. I wish to thank Maurice Bloch, Raymond Kent, J.-P. Raison,
Martin Klein, Henry Wright, Joseph C. Miller, Elizabeth Colson, Margaret Mooney, and
Catherine Payne for suggestions on earlier drafts, though I alone am responsible for what
appears here. I am indebted to Pierre Verin and Jean-Aime Rakotoarisoa of the Mus6e
d'Art et d'Archeologie and Simon Ayache of the Department of History of the
University of Madagascar for their assistance during my stay in Antananarivo.
1 For recent statements and variations on this theme, see R. Linton, 'The Tanala of
Madagascar', in A. Kardiner, The Individual and his Society (New York, 1939), 282-6;
H. Isnard, 'Les bases geographiques de la monarchie hova', in Eventail de l'histoire
vivante: Hommage a Lucien Febvre (Paris, 1953), 195-206; E. Cabanes, 'Evolution des
formes sociales de la production agricole dans la plaine de Tananarive', Cahiers du Centre
d'Etudes des Coutumes [Tananarive], x (1974), 47-60; E. Fauroux, 'Dynamisme pre-
coloniaux et transformations actuelles d'une communaute villageoise du Vakinankaratra',
Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes des Coutumes [Tananarive], x (I974), 6I-9I; G. M. Berg,
'Historical Traditions and the Foundation of Monarchy in Imerina' (Ph.D. University
of California, Berkeley, 1975, University Microfilms International, no. 76-15, 11I),
92-134; Shula Marks and Richard Gray, 'Southern Africa and Madagascar', in R. Gray
(ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4 (1975), C. i6oo to c. I790, 468; M. Bloch,
'Property and the end of affinity', in Bloch, ed., Marxist Analysis and Social Anthropology
(London, 1975), 206-12, and 'The Disconnection between Power and Rank as a Process:
an outline of the development of kingdoms in Central Madagascar', Archives Europeennes
de Sociologie, XVIII, i (1977), Io9-I8.

I I AFH 22

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 290 GERALD M. BERG

for the region and the epoch.2 There remain therefore only conjectures
about the meaning of oral tradition3 and a few bits of information by early
explorers. Finally, few have studied those areas closely associated with
agrarian production such as the organization of labour and the trade in slaves
and arms,4 and therefore the links between such phenomena have received
useful but largely theoretical treatment.5 Thus, just as most matters concern-
ing the nascent Merina polity are veiled in obscurity, so it seems that for
the moment the historical relation between agrarian production and political
organization culminating in the formation of a powerful state is bound to be
treated somewhat speculatively.
Nevertheless there is a unique advantage in focusing on agriculture. Many
events in the history of agriculture leave material traces which may, as
archaeological research progresses, be used to test conclusions drawn largely
from oral traditions and from historical models of other regions. Since very
little is known, even this project must begin very modestly.6 I therefore intend
to confine most of this study to a history of agrarian techniques, particularly
those used for Imerina's principal crop, rice; and only then to suggest an
approach to the broader question concerning the relation of agriculture to
monarchy.7
Though Europeans did not reach Imerina until the late eighteenth century,
mid-seventeenth century reports from the coasts spoke of a prosperous
hinterland and people cultivating a wide variety of crops including rice,
banana, onion and garlic. Cattle was mentioned as an important source of
wealth and rice as the major agrarian product, but as yet these items served
only local needs. Merina merchants on the coast traded silk, iron and slaves.8

2 Berg, 'Historical Traditions...', 222-51. For a fresh approach to archaeological

evidence, see the various works of Henry T. Wright and S. Kus to appear in Taloha and
in R. Kent, ed. Madagascar in History (Albany, Calif., 1979), 1-31.
3 The most valuable approach to the analysis of oral traditions in Imerina is A. Delivre,
L'histoire des rois d'Imerina. Interpretation d'une tradition orale (Paris, I974). See also
G. Berg, 'The Myth of Racial Strife and Merina Kinglists: The Transformation of
Texts', History in Africa, IV (I977), 1-30, and 'Some Words about Merina Historical
Literature', in Joseph C. Miller, ed., The African Past Speaks (Folkestone, Kent, I980),
221-39.

4 On the coastal trade, see J.-M. Filliot, La traite des esclaves vers les Mascareignes au
XVIIIe siecle (Paris, I974). See also A. Thompson, 'The Role of Firearms and the
Development of Military Techniques in Merina Warfare, c. 1785-I 828', Rev. franf d'hist.
d'Outre-Mer, LXI (I974), 417-35, who argues against the idea that the introduction of
firearms into Imerina was central to state formation (419-21).
5 Bloch, 'Property...', 203-28, and 'The disconnection', 107-48; and C. Kottak,
'The Process of State formation in Madagascar', American Ethnologist (Feb. I977), I36-55,
which concentrates on the Betsileo kingdoms to the south of Imerina.
6 The two pioneering efforts in this field are J.-P. Raison, 'Utilisation du sol et
organisation de l'espace en Imerina ancienne', Tany Malagasy, XIII (1972), 97-12I; and
J. Dez, 'Elements pour une etude de l'economie agro-sylvo-pastoral de l'Imerina
ancienne', Tany Malagasy, VII (1970), i I-6o.
7 Similarly, a recent number of African Economic History (no. 7, 1979), devoted entir
to the history of agriculture and fishing in Central Africa, emphasizes developments in
technique rather than the relation of those developments to changes in social organization
because the history of agrarian techniques has been largely neglected.
8 E. de Flacourt, Histoire de la Grande Ile Madagascar, 2nd ed. (Paris, i66i ), reprinted
in A. and G. Grandidier, eds., Collection des ouvrages anciens concernant Madagascar
[COACMJ, viii (Paris, 1913), 22-3, 36-7. He speaks of 'Vohits anghombes' (vohitsomby,
cattle mountains) which refers to the highland area just south of Imerina in the Isandra

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 29I

As explorers gained first-hand knowledge of the highlands in the two decades

around the turn of the century, the variety of Merina agricultural products
became more apparent and sweet potatoes, manioc, cambarres, beans, peas,
pistachio and sugar cane were added to the growing list of Merina food crops.
In addition, many local industries producing for export were founded on
agriculture. Cotton, cultivated with difficulty in compost-filled ditches, and
banana tree fibre imported from the West, were woven into cloth for export
eastwards. Silkworms raised in plots of 'ambrevade' (Cajanus indicus)
provided raw fibre for locally dyed blue and white cloth which, after slaves,
was Imerina's principal export. But, as Mayeur noted, rice was the mainstay
of the Merina diet, though tubers were grown to assure a stable supply in
case of the destruction of rice by hail or locusts.9
Both Mayeur and Dumaine, in the closing decades of the eighteenth
century, emphasized that it was intensive labour which overcame the
hardships imposed by poor soil, and the most spectacular manifestation of
intensive labour was the vast irrigation works which stored water in reservoirs,
or diverted large rivers through canals to low-lying rice fields in the
Betsimitatra basin surrounding Antananarivo. The system was extraordinarily
efficient.10 Whereas the East coast's abundant rice harvests were often
disrupted by periods of famine," Merina rice production provided a steady
surplus sufficient not only to support a dense population but also to stock local
markets with rice which, in small amounts, was exchanged with neighbouring
interior groups. Thus shortages within Imerina could be circumvented by
the movements of rice within its various regions.'2

and Illangina provinces of the Betsileo at 220 i6' S. and 440 42' E. See A. Grandidier,
Giographie de Madagascar (Paris, I 892), I 83 n. I, I 88 n. I. The earliest written reference
to contact between Imerina and the coasts is L. Mariano, 'Relation... i6I3-i6I4', in
COACM, II (Paris, I 904), I 4, 40, which reports that Merina merchants sold slaves at Boina
and other West Coast ports. For Merina silk and iron sold on the southwest coast, see
R. Drury, Madagascar or Robert Drury's journal during Fifteen Years Captivity on that
Island (1792), ed. Capt. Pasfield Oliver (London, i897), 277. The first definitive report
of rice and cattle in Imerina proper is Parat, Memoire a Ponchartrain (I9 Sept. I714),
B.N., Nouv. acq. 9344, fol. 26bis.
9 N. Mayeur, 'Voyage au pays d'Ancove, autrement dit des Hovas ou Amboilambes,
dans l'interieur des terres [ I 977]', ed. Froberville (i 809), British Museum Add. MS. I 8 I 28,
published in Bulletin de l'Academie malgache [BAMl, xii, i (93), I58-6o; Mayeur,
'Voyage au pays d'Ancove par le pays des Baizangouzangous [I785]', ed. Dumaine and
Froberville (I809), B.M. Add. MS. I8I28, published in BAMxii,ii (I9I3), 32-6; LaSalle,
'Notes sur Madagascar [I787-8], prises sous la dictee de M. LaSalle' (ed. i8i6), B.M.
Add. MS I8I35, fols. I27-8; Bmy Hugon, 'Appercu de mon dernier voyage a Anc6va de
l'an i808', B.M. Add. MS i8I37, fols. i4-i8; Dumaine, 'Voyage ay pays d'Ancaye
autrement dit de Bezounzouns, I790', in Annales des Voyqges, xi (i8Io), I79-80 and B.M.
Add. Ms i8I28, fol. I35; L.A. Chapelier, 'Lettres a Leger', B.M. Add. MS i8I33, no.
IO (I5 Messidor I804), fol. 29, no. I2 (7 Messidor, I804), fols. 34-8, no. I3 (22 Prairial
I804), fols. 39-49; LaSalle, 'M6moire sur Madagascar en 1787' (ed. I797), Notes,
Reconnaissances et Explorations, iii (i898), I75.
10 Mayeur, 'Voyage.. .1777', BAM, I58-60, and 'Voyage...' 785', BAM, 36; and
Dumaine, 'Voyage.. 1 . 790', I 79; LaSalle, 'Note ... I787', fol. I27.
1 M. de Faye, 'M6moire sur l'etat pr6sent de l'Ile Dauphine (io fevr. i668)', Archives
nationales de France [AN], Fonds des Colonies, C5A, I, no. I9, fols. 3-6. De Faye was
the director of the East India Company at Fort Dauphin.
12 Lack of knowledge about the relationships between local markets specializing in
agrarian products and the export trade to the coasts remains the most important gap in
eighteenth-century Merina historiography. Mayeur noted the pervasiveness of local
I 1-2

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 292 GERALD M. BERG

The picture of Merina agriculture thus far presented derives from sources
dated to the end of the eighteenth century. In order to inquire about the
changes which gave rise to this system, however, one must reach back in time
with the aid of oral traditions. They suggest that, in contrast with modern
Imerina, endowed with paddy rice, ancient Imerina was covered with forests
and depended on them for food. In the time of Andriamanelo, one of the
legendary founding kings, banana (Musa sapientium: malag. akondro), taro
(Colocasia esculenta, malag. saonjo), and voavahy (Dolichos axilaris) were
cultivated, and a generation later forests still covered the hills around
Antananarivo.13 Moreover, lowland areas such as the Betsimitatra basin, later
to be covered by rice paddies, were in ancient times marshes of reed and grass
(malag. zozoro, herana, harefa), thickets (kirihitrala) and lily (tatamo).14
Oral traditions, then, recall a time when gardens and forests, not rice
paddies, provided food. As one nineteenth-century source would have it, 'a
dark forest completely covered the world'."5 Even today stories abound about
tree trunks dredged up from the bottom of rice paddies.16
This image contrasts markedly with Mayeur's observation in I777 that the
mountains around Antananarivo 'sont entierement nues et degarnes. On n'y
voit d'arbres que ceux qui sont plantes dans les fosses des villages, et le
nombre n'est pas grand. 'Wood for houses was gathered from the less densely
populated areas to the south and as far as 20 leagues to the north.17 Wood
was so scarce at the beginning of the nineteenth century that Fressange
reported that fires were fuelled by agricultural waste and dry cattle dung.18

markets and claimed that slaves were the major export ('Voyage ... I777', B.M. Add. MS
i8I28, fol. 89), and Dumaine reported that the Bezanozano and Betanimena acted as
middlemen in the slave trade between Imerina and the coasts (Voyage ... I790, B.M. Add.
MS i8I28, fol I35v) and bought all their iron implements from the Merina (op. cit. fol.
I36r). By i8oo, it seems that rice as well was exported. See Lebel, 'Expose sur quelques
parties de l'Isle de Madagascar (?i8i6)', B.M. Add. MS i8I35, fols. 204v-205r.
13 Tantara ny Andriana eto Madagascar [TA], ed. Callet (Tananarive, I873-I902),
reprinted and edited by the Academie malagache in 2 vols. (Tananarive, 1908), i, I2, I4-I5,
72, I47, 237. For a summary of ancient agrarian production see Raison, 'Utilisation... '
Dez, 'Elements...', R. Kent, Early Kingdoms in Madagascar, I500-I700 (N.Y. I970),
2I3-Ig, and C. Herbert, 'Rice and Rice Culture in Madagascar', Antananarivo Annual
[AA], iii (i888), 479-81 . The history of manioc in Imerina remains a mystery, but it seems
that manioc was not among the earliest food crops, and was introduced some time in the
eighteenth century. Mayeur does not mention it in his I777 list of Merina produce, but
does in I785 ('Voyage... I785', 35). By i8o8, Hugon reported that manioc cultivation
was widespread ('Appercu ... i 8o8', fol. I 4). For two conflicting views see R. Kent, 'Note
sur l'introduction et la propagation du manioc a Madagascar', Tany malagasy [TM] v
(I969), I77-83; and J.-P. Raison, 'L'Introduction du manioc a Madagascar', TM, XIII
(1972), 223-8.
14 TA, 243, 580; Dez. 'Elements... ', 21-2.
15 TA, i2: ... ala maizina avokoa izao tontolo izao', and TA, 147: 'Ala daholo ny iva,
ny avo koa misy ala koa. . . ' (Forest covered the heights as well as the lowlands). For the
possible symbolic significance of such statements about ancient forests, see Berg, 'Some
Words...', 7-8.
16 M. Bloch, personal communication, reports that these stories are prevalent in
northern Imerina, though no tree trunks have actually been found.
17 Mayeur, 'Voyage ... 1777', i6o and 'Voyage. .. 1785', 34; LaSalle,
'Notes... .1787', fol. 127.
18 J. B. Fressange, 'Voyage a Madagascar en I802-I803', Ann. des Voyages, ii (i8o8),
22-3.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 293

By the early to mid-nineteenth century substantial parts of central Imerina

displayed the topography it does today. In areas of dense population around
Antananarivo, then a city of about 25,000 (I8o8), and around Ambohimanga
just to the north, rice paddies in the valley and in terraces on the lower slopes
surrounded hamlets set on the low-lying summits of deforested hills.
Occasional clumps of trees on slopes were enclosed against animals and
planted with beans, manioc, maize, cucumber, and melon; and in some cases
small orchards attached to individual dwellings served as gardens. Forested
hills existed only in sparsely populated outlying areas and even there, by the
twentieth century, grass replaced forests.'9
The contrasting descriptions of Merina forests given on the one hand by
late-eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century accounts and on the other
hand by oral traditions concerning the ancient period yield a very rough
chronology of two major changes in Merina topography. First, denuded,
leached, hills replaced forests; and second, marshes became rice paddies. Is
there a causal connexion between these two events?
It has often been suggested that slash-and-burn techniques used in forests
to raise tubers or vegetables may destroy forests if cultivators attempt to
increase production rapidly. In Imerina, trees and shrubs once cut from a
forest to clear small plots were burned on the spot and crops were then
planted in mounds of ash. Fires started to create fertile ash beds, however,
destroyed the humus and its seeds so that forests needed some time to regain
the land. Therefore, the following year's crop would be planted on a different
plot, allowing the older plot to regain lost soil nutrients. If, however, plots
were re-cultivated too soon, soil would not have sufficient time to regenerate
itself and forest cover would not easily grow back. The absence of plant cover
would lay open the land to rain which would further leach the soil and hasten
the day when nothing but hardy grasses would grow there. In this way,
Merina forests became savannah and reduced the amount of land available
for cultivation. Slash-and-burn production depended on forests but event-
ually destroyed them by over-exploitation.20
On the basis of oral traditions one could fruitfully speculate that as Imerina

19 Hugon, 'ApperSu...', fol. 17; David Jones, Journal (Sept.-Oct. i820), London
Missionary Society-Journals [LMS-J], I/ia and (I823), LMS-J. 1/7, 33; J. Jeffreys,
Journal (May-June i822), LMS-J, 1/5; W. Ellis, Three Visits to Madagascar (London,
I859), 306-7; S. P. Oliver, Madagascar (London, i862), 39-43; 'Manuscrits des
Ombiasy', ed. Wrin, TM, v (I969), 98. For highland deforestation outside Imerina, see
H. Perrier de la Bathie, 'Le Tsaratanana, I'Ankaratra, et l'Andringitra', Memoires de
l'Academie malgache [MAMI, III (1927), 7-8, i6, 21, 26-7; and J.-Y. Marchal, La
colonisation agricole au Moyen-Ouest malgache. La petite region d'Ambohimanambola
(Sousprifecture de Betafo), (Paris, 974), I 6-I7.
20 L. Galtie, 'La culture du riz a Madagascar', Bull. con. Madagascar, xii (I9I2), 28-9;
H. Humbert, 'La destruction d'une flore insulaire par le feu', MAM, v (I927), 9-I};
Raison, 'Utilisation...', 105-6; Dez, 'Elements...', 22-4. On the other hand, Gautier
claims that Imerina has always been bare of forests, though his only historical source is
Mayeur's account of 1777. See E. Gautier, Madagascar, essai deg&ographie physique (Paris,
1902), 26I. A recent discussion of the problem has concluded that deforestation was well
under way before the 'historical period', though it may nevertheless have been caused
by human action rather than geologic processes. See R. Battistini and R. Wrin, 'Man
and the Environment in Madagascar', in R. Battistini and G. Richard-Vindard, eds.,
Biogeography and Ecology in Madagascar (The Hague, 1972), 232-5.

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 294 GERALD M. BERG

lost its forest, and thus a major source of food, irrigated riziculture grew to
fill the demand for food,21 transforming the topography into that observed
during the nineteenth century: small gardens, vast rice paddies and bare hills.
A similar transition from slash-and-burn techniques to irrigated riziculture
has been examined by Geertz in his study of Java22 and provides a model
which might apply to Imerina. According to Geertz, swidden agriculture turns
a natural forest into a harvestable one while maintaining the very delicate
balance of the original ecosystem. Since a forest may produce a wide diversitv
of crops, man's task is to direct cultivation rather than to introduce new
techniques. The result is a tropical forest with a dense ceiling which protects
the earth against sun and rain. In addition a natural forest may compensate
for poor soil because organic material is recycled by natural decay, and
slash-and-burn techniques do not replace this process but merely accelerate
it. The result is that poor soils support a rich and diverse agriculture while
maintaining the original ecological balance.23 Such a system would have been
ideal for Imerina. Indeed, early explorers noted that only careful husbandry
and crop diversity allowed the Merina to overcome the very poor quality of
their soil. Unlike Java, however, the ecological balance of a Merina forest is
readily susceptible to destruction since Imerina has a definite dry season
which inhibited quick reconstitution of forests after cultivation. As a result
of the dry season the risk of fire is high. In the twentieth century, observers
often noted that debris from swidden mounds would ignite and destroy vast
areas of forest. Fires used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to create
charcoal for smelting iron, one of Imerina's chief exports, only increased the
possibilities of the forests' destruction.24
The precariousness of forest production in a non-tropical environment
contrasts markedly with the system of flooded rice paddies. The latter is very
durable and able to withstand a substantial increase in use without diminishing
its natural fertility. Soil leaching, an ever-present danger in swidden
agriculture when ground cover is too rapidly destroyed, does not affect rice
paddies. Instead, the repeated flooding of paddies replaces soil nutrients,
fixes nitrogen in blue-green algae which grow in warm standing water,
hastens the decay of harvest waste, and gently aerates the soil. By virtue of
the paddy's capability to renew itself efficiently, irrigated riziculture can more
easily sustain increased use to meet the demands of population growth. In
addition, yields may be dramatically increased by close planting, re-planting
and fertilizing.
Though there appears to be good reason to shift from swidden cultivation
to irrigated riziculture, the discussion so far has described a model derived
from Javanese experience. To what extent, then, does this model apply to
Imerina? First, lack of forest cover in the nineteenth century and reports of

21 Oral tradition, exemplified by TA, p. 276, says as much and specifically mentions
population growth as a spur to the development of irrigated riziculture: 'Raha tsy misy
hanina, dia tsy ho velona ny tany aloha, ka nisy hanina, k'izany no nahavelona azy, ary
ny tanimbary sy ny asa no nahavelona azy. .. niaraka tamy ny olona ela ny nisehoany ny
tanimbary sy ny asa-tanimbary.' (Initially, when there was no need to eat, the land lay
fallow, but when there was a need to eat, rice paddies and rice growing techniques arose ...
long ago rice paddies and rice growing techniques accompanied the people.')
22 C. Geertz, Agricultural Involution (Berkeley, I963), I5-37.
23 Ibid. 25-8.
24 Dez, 'Elements...', 22.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 295

oral traditions of abundant forests in ancient Imerina indicate that defores-

tation, the prime motive for shifting to irrigated riziculture, was more than
a myth invented by colonial administrators intent on agrarian reform and was
well under way by the mid-eighteenth century. Second, the pervasiveness and
intricacy of late-eighteenth-century irrigation systems finds no parallel in
ancient Imerina described in oral traditions. The paddy system introduced a
new source of food in an area where swidden production had once dominated
the scene. It should be borne in mind that the distinction between these two
regimes is less rigid than often supposed, so that the transition from one
regime to another was facilitated. Imerina's forests continued to provide a
valuable auxiliary to riziculture,25 and in the ancient period rice was known
and cultivated in forests or marshes.26 Thus although Raison cautions
historians against finding a natural progression from swidden agriculture to
irrigated riziculture,27 we have no reason to believe that it did not occur, and
available evidence shows it.28 What has yet to be decided is when and how
the transition occurred and what effects it had. We will now consider the first
two questions.
Though no evidence independent of oral traditions exists to confirm any
thesis about the spread of irrigated riziculture through the central highlands,
conclusions derived from oral traditions may be strengthened by comparing
sets of traditions whose purposes differ. In Imerina there are two sets of
traditions relating to the history of riziculture. Though the sets have different
aims, the historical content of each corroborates the other. The first set
concerns the origin of rice and the second the value of co-operation associated
with riziculture. For the first set concerning the origin of rice as a food crop,
I have used six versions from the Tantara ny Andriana from which most other
nineteenth-century versions derive, and two additional versions which
contain elements not found in the Tantara.29

25 Dez, ibid. 23-5; Raison, 'Utilisation...', io6-8.

26 TA recalls the building of dikes for rice paddies during the most ancient epoch
(vazimba) preceding the foundation of monarchy. See TA, I5, 28, 275-6, 443-4. Since
dike building represents a rather late stage in the development of riziculture technique,
rice must have been known even earlier. Traditions about Andrianakotrina (see below)
suggest that rice was initially broadcast into marshes, and Linton reports that marsh rice
is known as vazimba-rice, that is, rice of the most ancient epoch. See R. Linton, 'Rice,
a Malagasy Tradition', American Anthropologist, XXIX (I927), 654. Moreover, marsh and
forest rice are well known in other areas of Madagascar and were grown in some parts
of Imerina in the late nineteenth century. See H. Galtie, 'La culture... ', I3-I5, 27-9;
C. Herbert, 'Rice... ', 482-4; 'Rapport du Chef de la station Nanisana', Bull. icon. Mada.
( I909), i 9 I; and R. Dufournet, 'Observations', TM, vi (i 969), I 04, who notes that forest,
marsh, and paddy rice are often not distinguishable biologically; only the technique of
planting differs.
27 Raison, 'Utilisation...', I02.
28 Nevertheless, three reservations to this conclusion should be noted. First, the
archaeological record on this matter is ambiguous (see Berg, 'Historical Traditions',
222-5 I). Second, the forest symbolism in oral literature may be ahistoric (ibid. IOO, I04-5);
and finally deforestation in many areas of the highlands may well be the work of nature
rather than man. (R. Battistini and R. Wrin, 'Man... ', 323-35.)
29 Each version is followed by its probable provenance. Provenance has been determined
by a method using locative prepositions first developed by A. Delivre, Histoire. . ., 47-8,
and I have noted elsewhere (Berg, 'Historical Traditions', 296-7) the difficulties of
applying this method to Merina historical literature.
0. I, TA, I4-I5. Prov.: (?) 'aty Ankaratra', 'aty ambony' [-plateau]. (contd. p. 297).

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 296 GERALD M. BERG

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 297

Versions 0. I to 0. IV place the origins of rice to the south of Imerina on

the fertile plains lying on the eastern side of the Ankaratra mountains.
According to these versions, voavahy (Dolichos axilaris) was the only source
of food east of the Ankaratra until a child of God descended from the heavens
and left a chicken on Ambohitrakoholahy, a high peak in the Ankaratra range.
When inhabitants killed the chicken, rice from its gizzard fell to earth and
grew. Then Andrianakotrina or Andrianakotry ('Master of unhusked rice')
stole a few grains and started his own plantation further north (O. III, 0. IV).
Thus, says 0. III, Andrianakotrina/kotry brought rice from the south into
central Imerina.
Interestingly, these versions and 0. V speak of rice which grew when
simply scattered on the ground, and only with a move to the north,
represented by the journey of Andrianakotrina/kotry, do traditions mention
the use of irrigation. In 0. IV, after Andrianakotrina/kotry stole the rice
seeds, he 'made a small pond '30 to provide water for them. It would appear,
therefore, that though the south cultivated dry rice, rice introduced
northwards was cultivated with the use of irrigation.3' Moreover, only
southern stories about rice see its origin as divine or place the site of origin
on mountain peaks, symbols of antiquity,32 and so it seems that although
the north developed sophisticated techniques more rapidly than the south,
the cultivation of rice in the south antedates its cultivation in the north.
It is worth emphasizing that unlike traditions about the origins of
riziculture in the Vakinankaratra (a savannah region east of the Ankaratra
mountains) those about central Imerina repeatedly mention the importance
of water management. One version from Ambohinanjakana, east of Ambo-
himanga, claims that rice was discovered there by Ralambo, one of the
legendary founder-kings. But whereas Ankaratra traditions usually attribute
rice to divine intervention, often on a mountain-top, here it is a human who
discovers rice, around a water source.33 The story continues shortly after

0. II, TA, 15: 'aty Alasora'.

0. III, TA, I5, n. i: 'Tatsy Ambariarivo'.
0. IV, TA, 632: (?) 'Tatsy Ambariarivo'.
0. V, R. Linton, 'Rice ...', 654: 'Hova'.
0. VI, TA, n. I, 20-21: 'filaza ny Tatsimo' [story of Southerners].
0. VII. TA, 40I: Ambohinanjakana, East of Ambohimanga.
0. VIII, Lars Dahle, ed., Specimens of Malagasy Folk-lore (Tananarive, 1877), 302:
A variant of 0. I and 0. II is found in G. Razafimino, La Signification Religieuse du
Fandroana (Tananarive, 1924), 50.
30 TA, 63 2: ' . . . nanaovana farihy kely. . .
31 However, one version (0. VI) mentions the importance of well-watered soil for rice
cultivation but indicates neither a northern nor southern origin for wet rice cultivation.
32 That a symbolic element is present in these stories should not invalidate them as
historical sources. Though peaks are often said to be the point of origin of major
innovations, it is historically significant that the mountains of these stories are in the south,
though peaks abound in northern and western Imerina, and this can be taken as evidence
of southern origin. To be sure, rice cannot be grown on the cold southern mountain peaks
of the Ankaratra so I assume that traditions referring to these peaks reflect historical events
which took place on the very fertile plains of the Vakinankaratra which border the
Ankaratra mountains just to the east. In fact, Ambohitrakoholahy, one peak mentioned
often as the origin of rice, is also the name of several villages in the Vakinankaratra plain.
33 Version 0. VII: 'Ary teo ambany avaratr 'Ambohinanjakana amy ny loharano eo ny
nisehoany ny vary voalohany'.

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 298 GERALD M. BERG

Ralambo discovers rice there. The heights of Ambohinanjakaina, where the

populace lived, were infested with rats and lacked water. A woman left her
child at home and went to fetch water from the lowlands, but when she
returned she found that the child had been bitten by rats. People complained
bitterly to the local ruler who advised them to leave the heights and live near
the valley fields where they would be close to water. Now the allusion to water
may call to mind the symbolic association in which the Merina use the image
of running water to connote sacredness flowing from dead ancestors.34 The
story may have no historical content at all. On the other hand, in view of some
of the long-term topographical changes discussed earlier, the story may
describe a likely historical process. One need not force the story to suggest
that it emphasizes the value of water in an economic sense and relates the
shift in population settlement to the increased importance of a kind of rice
growing which required the manipulation of lowland water sources.
The nature of the new agrarian system can be seen in sharper focus as we
turn from the set of traditions about the origin of rice as a food crop to the
set of traditions about the values underlying irrigated riziculture. Since
irrigation and the intricate organization of labour it entails are distinctive
characteristics of paddy cultivation, it is not surprising that the virtue most
highly extolled in the second set of traditions is co-operation.
Rice paddies require considerable work before sowing.35 While the ground
is dry, the surface must be broken and turned to promote aeration, and this
operation is accomplished entirely by hand with a small spade (angady) used
especially for this purpose. The soil is then left to dry. Since chaff of the
preceding harvest is fed to cattle and not left to rot in the field, the paddy
may be fertilized, and on the central plateau the most common fertilizer is
manure or compost from domestic or field waste. Ash may be used as fertilizer
in forested areas to the east and it is possible that such a practice was
popular in Imerina when forests were more prevalent. The final step in soil
preparation, levelling, may involve an entire village. The paddy is flooded
with water, and the clumps of soil are pounded and mixed until the soil turns
to mud. Often teams of zebu are used to trample the soil. Rice sprouts may
now be planted.
Transplanting rice sprouts from nurseries to paddies is the most costly of
all phases of rice growing and requires considerable co-operation. Teams of
men carry the sprouts from nurseries often at quite a distance from paddies
and then groups of women plant the sprouts one by one into the prepared
soil. The extraordinary costs in labour, however, are offset in large measure
by a substantial increase in yield over rice sown directly in paddies by
broadcasting.
Yield may also be increased by innovative techniques such as pre-germi-

34 See Berg, 'Some words...', pp. 224-5.

35 C. Herbert, 'Rice... ', 479-86; 'Ms. Ombiasy', [c. I853], in TM, vi (I969), 95-103;
R. Baron, 'Notes on the Economic Plants of Madagascar', AA (I898), 2I8-23; Galtie,
'La culture du riz', I6-26; A. Fauchere, 'La culture du riz a Madagascar', Riz et
Riziculture [Paris], I, i (I925), 22-32; M. Razahamihanta, 'Le riz a Madagascar', Revue
de Madagascar, nos. 39-40 (I967), 87-98. For general problems of rice growing see
D. H. Grist, Rice (London, 1959), 28-49; T. Matsuo, Rice Culture in Japan (Tokyo, 1955),
109-I2; K. J. Pelzer, Pioneer Settlement in the Asiatic Tropics (New York, 1945), 47-51;
B. Schrieke, Indonesian Sociological Studies (The Hague, I957), II, 102-4, 288-301.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 299

nation which reduce seed loss. Seeds are soaked in water for about three
days until they begin to sprout, and only then are they sown in nurseries. Pre-
germination was popular as early as the mid-nineteenth century.
Water management, however, is the most critical aspect of paddy rice
growing, and irrigation techniques become even more important as the season
of cultivation extends beyond the periods of rains, as is the case in a
double-harvest system. First-season rice (vary aloha) must be planted in
nurseries from April to May and then transplanted into paddies at the end
of August. Only nearly perfect water control will ensure an adequate supply
of water in September, two months before the height of the rainy season.
Second-season rice (vary vakiambiaty or vary sia), however, is planted in
December amidst plentiful rains.
A double rice harvest requires special attention to irrigation. Generally,
there are two irrigation systems in Imerina. The first derives its water from
mountain run-off which is distributed to numerous terraces running from the
valley head down the mountain slopes. Opening and closing small holes in
the paddies' dikes controls the amount of water let into each terrace and
paddy. This is an extremely complex system and precarious, since much
remains at the mercy of the rains. If rain does not arrive at the proper time,
the planting of first-season rice will be delayed, and consequently the length
of the second season of rice cultivation will be shortened. On the other hand,
an overabundance of rain when second-season rice is transplanted in
December will destroy its sprouts. Thus, an irrigation system which depend
on mountain run-off must hold enough water for first-season rice cultivatio
which begins in the dry season, and yet provide sufficient drainage to pre
submersion of second-season rice at the peak of the wet season.
The second irrigation system prevalent in Imerina depends on dammed
lowland rivers and is both simpler and more stable than the mountain run-off
system. Large rivers in flat terrain are dammed to collect water in reservoirs
and to divert it to surrounding fields. Though the dikes, canals, dams, and
reservoirs require great labour and cost to build and maintain, the lowland
system is preferable to one based on mountain run-off because it easily adapts
to seasonal fluctuations in water supply. For this reason most double
harvesting is done in lowland areas while mountain systems are used for
second-season rice.36
Despite the technical difficulties of a double-harvest irrigation system,
lengthening the period of cultivation has distinct benefits for an increasing
population. First, of course, it increases yield by using more land. Areas which
are difficult to irrigate without mountain run-off are augmented by cultivating
lowland areas during the dry season. Moreover, dependence on different
terrains with varied irrigation systems provides security against fluctuations
in weather. Finally, first-season rice, transplanted just before the rainy season,
is usually assured of sufficient water at that critical stage, and so its yield is
about 40 per cent higher than second-season rice, which depends on the
vagaries of mountain run-off.37

36 Galtie, 'La culture du riz...', I6-I7, 19-2I and 24, and Raison, 'Utilisation...'
(1972), I Io-i i. For a general discussion of the labour involved in paddy rice cultivation
see Geertz, 'Agricultural...', 28-32.
37 Galtie, 'La culture du riz... ', 25-6. Second-season rice produces I ,000-2,500
kilos/hectare while first-season rice produces 2,500-3,000 kilos/hectare.

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 300 GERALD M. BERG

Differences in the labour cost of the two systems must be emphasized.

Though the mountain run-off technique is far less efficient than lowland
damming and could not respond as easily to increased population as could
the valley system, it nevertheless requires far less co-operative labour than
the valley system. A mountain run-off system may include only one valley
and one water source which could be easily controlled by one group.
Co-operation in building and maintaining terraces as well as co-ordinating
the rate of drip need concern only local inhabitants. Lowland irrigation, on
the other hand, requires the control of major rivers, such as the Mamba and
Sisaony, which run for miles and cross the territory of many groups. The
co-operation needed to build and maintain large dams and miles of dikes
would necessitate transcending the local loyalties of a single group.
It is precisely this virtue, co-operation, that the second set of traditions
intend to exalt, and in this sense they differ from the first set. Whereas the
first set purports to describe the origins of rice and to place the event in moral
relation to the formation of social groups, the second set displays a paradigm
of the virtue required for successful paddy cultivation. As we look closely at
the second set, then, we chart not the spread of a crop but the history of values
necessary for its cultivation. We find moreover that though this set differs
in purpose from the first, the information culled from the two sets of
traditions is complementary and thus strengthens the validity of the overall
thesis.
All versions of the second set speak of Rasoalao and Rapeto,38 the two
mythical beings who allow a disagreement between them to destroy agricul-
tural production. In version RR II, all the rice fields around Lake Itasy
(8o km northwest of Antananarivo) belonged to Rasoalao, who also raised
cattle. Rapeto asked Rasoalao for some oxen to trample his rice fields in
preparation for sowing but Rasoalao refused. Rapeto, seeking revenge upon
his unco-operative neighbour, dammed the water sources leading to Rasoa-
lao's rice fields. Disaster followed. The entire area turned into a lake and rice
growing died out, leaving only tubers and fish to support the population. In
each of the versions a dispute leads to destruction caused by uncontrolled water
and thus conveys the importance of subordinating local interests to regional
co-operation.
Although the Rasoalao and Rapeto traditions are primarily didactic
parables, they nevertheless provide some mundane historical information
about the movement of such values as co-operation through Imerina, and it
is instructive to compare this information with the geographical movements

38 Versions of Rasoalao and Rapeto followed by provenance determined by locative

prepositions:
RR. I. TA, I5-I7: near Ampanibe and Lohalambo, south of Ambohijanaka.
RR. II. TA, i6, n. i: Vakinombifotsy deme on the river which bears its name
between Tananarive and Lake Itasy during the reign of Ranavelona I.
RR. III. TA, n. 2, I6-I7: Ambohimiangara, northeast of Lake Itasy.
RR. IV. TA, 239: Imerina.
RR. V. TA, 632: Ankaratra (?)
RR. VI. TA, 698-9: Imerina.
RR. VII. TA, 699, n. I: at the tomb of Rasoalao. RR. I claims that the location of
Rasoalao's tomb is unknown.
RR. VIII. L. Dahle, Specimens of Malagasy Folk-lore (I877), p. 302: ?
RR. IX. C. Renel, 'Anciennes religions de Madagascar. Ancetres et Dieu X', BAM
(1920-I), 49; Renel claims that this version is independent of TA.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 30I

described in the first set of traditions. Information about movements obtained

from the two sets of traditions has been displayed diagrammatically (see map).
An arrow represents each version. It points in the direction of the spread of
rice as indicated by the tradition, and its tail contains the alleged origin of
rice. Where origin of movement is not mentioned a question mark appears,
and when traditions explicitly state that the origin of rice is foreign, 'foreign'
appears at the arrow's tail. The version number is placed on the arrow's shaft
after letters which indicate its set: 'O' for the rice origins set and 'RR' for
the Rasoalao and Rapeto set. This notation corresponds to that used in
previous discussions, and details of each variant may be found by referring
to the appropriate list of versions in note 29 (rice origins) and note 38
(Rasoalao and Rapeto). The provenance of each variant is contained in
parentheses.
The combined effect of all variants is remarkably clear. Southern traditions
most often attribute divine origins to rice growing, and this indicates that rice
growing flourished there in the fertile plains to the east of the Ankaratra
mountains before appearing in the north, where traditions indicate a specific
or human origin. Moreover, the move towards the north into Imerina is
coupled with a westward move towards Lake Itasy. No variant in either of
the two sets of traditions indicates a contrary movement such as west to east
or north to south.
It may be argued, however, that the absence of north-to-south movement
merely reflects the southern provenance of most of the available traditions.
Callet's collection lacks traditions from Vonizongo in the northwest or from
northern Avaradrano in the northeast. The lacuna is particularly trouble-
some since geographical considerations would suggest that the fertile
rice-growing region around Lake Alaotra directly to the northeast of Imerina
might well have been an intermediary between the northeast coast, for
centuries a producer of rice, and Imerina.39 If indeed rice and rice-growing
techniques arrived in Imerina via the northeast then evidence from traditions
must be incorrect owing to their 'southern bias'. Two points drawn from
traditions, however, suggest that the 'southern bias' should not be overstated.
First, though Callet's collection does depend on the south for most of its
traditions, two variants in the sets used do come from decidedly outlying and
northern areas: RRI from the northwest and 0. VII from the northeast.
Information from both variants does not contradict the overall trend. In fact
RRI from Ampanibe (045:8 I 8.8/474.4), in the heart of Marovatana far from
the capital and the south, coincides exactly with the general pattern, explicitly
giving Ankaratra as the origin of rice, and subsequent northwestern movement
to Ambohimiangara just northeast of Lake Itasy. Second, another major
non-southern variant from central Imerina, 0. II from Alasora, also states
that rice came from the Ankaratra region. The complementary character thus
evident in variants of differing provenance and in the two sets of traditions
with differing purposes strengthens the case for a southern origin of rice.
Finally it should be noted that all versions of the rice origins set of
traditions (0), with the exception of 0. VIIIj0 posit a south-to-north

39 J.-P. Raison, personal communication.

40 Q. VIII is an unusual variant because it alone mentions specifically both rice origin
and Rapeto. Therefore, it belongs to both sets and is labelled 0. VIII/RR. VIII. It should
not receive much weight as it is extremely brief and of unknown provenance though
Imamo, in the west, seems likely.

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 302 GERALD M. BERG

movement of rice, and only the versions showing an east-to-west movement

belong to the Rasoalao and Rapeto set (RRI, II, IV, VIII).41 Each set then
refers to a distinct movement - the rice origins set (0) from south to north,
and the Rasoalao and Rapeto set (RR) from east to west - and the variance
may be understood in terms of the differing purposes of each set.42
The Rasoalao and Rapeto traditions speak always of the value of co-
operation, and apply to an era where rice growing depended on a technology
of intricate irrigation systems which required the co-ordinated labour of many
groups. Rice origin traditions, on the other hand, refer to an earlier period
of swidden or marsh production when small plots were cultivated by
relatively isolated groups. They speak therefore of rice's relation to an
eponymous ancestor of the group and, unlike Rasoalao and Rapeto traditions,
they attribute much to divine intervention and are studded with symbols of
creation.43 Each set of traditions therefore recalls only those movements
belonging to their respective eras. Rice origins traditions describe the remote
past, emphasize the antiquity of rice in the Vakinankaratra plateau and reveal
its gradual ascent northwards into central Imerina. Rasoalao and Rapeto
traditions pick up the story from there. Speaking of an age of more
sophisticated riziculture long extant in central Imerina, they do not rely on
divine action associated with group origins, nor do they recall the details of
rice origins to the south. Instead they reflect a subsequent movement of
irrigated riziculture from central Imerina westward towards Vonizongo and
Imamo.44
A history of agrarian technology emerges from the preceding discussion.
Rice growing in Central Madagascar began in the Vakinankaratra basin,
spread north to central Imerina and then west towards Vonizongo and
Imamo. Techniques of rice growing changed as it spread. Rice was first
cultivated on mountain slopes in swidden plots and in swamps in valley
basins. As forests disappeared swamp production increased and provoked
innovations in irrigation which allowed for more intensive cultivation of
lowlands as well as expanded cultivation on terraced bare hills. The population
thus came to depend on the co-ordination of complex irrigation works which
linked hitherto isolated groups in common production.
Though Merina traditions recall that rice cultivation originated to the
south, written documentation seems to support the suggestion45 that irrigation

41 RR. III is the only exception; it notes only that Rasoalao and Rapeto were of foreign
origin.
42 Only one variant, RR. I from Ampanibe, unites northward with westward movement.
43 So it is that traditions name Fenitra as the town where rice first flourished, and
Andriampenitra (Andriana + fenitra) the town's ruler. Fenitra means figuratively 'first
beginnings', 'original', 'foundation', and refers to the four strips of reed used to start
to weaving of baskets. See 'fenitra' in Richardson, New Malagasy English Dictionary
(Antananarivo, I885).
44 For the movement west in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries see
TA, 238-239 (Vonizongo) and 571 (Imamo) and Dez's summary, 'Elements...', 12-14.
RR. I is an exception since it covers not only Ankaratra origins but also the movement
west. This combination may indicate that the tradition, from northwest Marovatana,
originates from a group of recent immigrants from the south having knowledge of both
southern and central Merina traditions. RR. V is the only RR. variant that connects
Rasoalao with the descendants of Andriampenitra.
45 J.-P. Raison, personal communication.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 303

techniques were borrowed from the Lake Alaotra area to the northeast of
Imerina. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European
observers on the east coast reported that rice was grown in hovaka, that is,
flooded paddies, and in I667 Martin remarked that the inhabitants of Lake
Alaotra used canal irrigation for rice. Writing about the same time, Flacourt
noted, however, that the Betsileo, just south of Imerina, planted rice in fields
not unlike the way wheat was cultivated in France.46 Thus, it seems that wet
rice techniques could not pass from the east coast through Betsileoland to the
Vakinankaratra in southern Imerina, but rather would seem to pass from the
east coast through the Lake Alaotra region to northern Imerina. This apparent
contradiction between written reports and Merina traditions can be reconciled
by recalling that the Merina remember the south as the origin of rice and not
as the origin of irrigation techniques. If Merina technological innovation must
be attributed to borrowing (a tenuous assumption), it may be inferred that
irrigation techniques were borrowed from the northeast over a sufficiently
long period of time that individual Merina did not notice a change abrupt
enough to be reported centuries later in oral traditions. A far better
reconciliation of apparently contradictory evidence, however, can be made
by disposing of the notion, for ever popular among literate historians who
use oral traditions, that movement implied by images in oral tradition such
as Rasoalao and Rapeto or Andriampenitra refer to the movement of people
or of techniques.47 In the case of Merina traditions discussed it is far more
likely that they reflect a pattern of change in land use in which various regions
exhausted forests and turned to irrigated riziculture as local conditions
favoured it. It is this pattern of changes which is referred to throughout this
essay by words such as 'introduce', 'spread', 'direction', 'northwards',
'southwards', etc. Such changes can be assumed to have been fairly abrupt
and pervasive, so that memories of it in Merina tradition so neatly dovetail
that there are virtually no exceptions in the oral corpus to the pattern
described above. Thus, though rice might well have been grown in Betsileo
and the Vakinankaratra before it was grown in Imerina, it is highly likely that
forest exhaustion and irrigated riziculture overtook parts of Imerina (and
the Lake Alaotra region in the northeast) before such events claimed the
Betsileo countryside. The virtue of this interpretation is that independent
sources of evidence, including Merina oral traditions, western models of
land use, and European observation of Imerina as well as of other areas
of Madagascar, accord with each other.
In constructing a relative chronology of irrigated riziculture in Central
Madagascar, the oral traditions provide some useful, if not entirely unam-

46 Mayeur, 'Voyage. .. 777', B.M. Add. MS 18128, fol. 89r; Flacourt, 'Histoire... ',
COACM vIII, 36-7, 151, 153, 159-60; F. Martin, 'M6moire concernant l'ile de
Madagascar, i665-i668', in COACM, Ix, 549 for canal irrigation in the Lake Alaotra area.
For horaka and paddy cultivation on the east coast see Chapelier, Lettre No. 40 (4 nivose
I804), B.M. Add. MS I8133, fols. 179-87; Fragments of a book of travels in Africa
treating of the manners and habits of nations in the island of Madagascar (early eighteenth
century?), B.M. Sloane MS 3392, fol. 886; 'Mrmoire sur l'etat present de l'Ile Dauphine
(io f6vrier i668)', AN, C5A/I, no. I9, p. 4; Letellier, 'Memoire (5 juillet I777)', AN,
C5A/8 no. 52, fol. iv; Le Chevalier de la Serre, 'Journal du Voyage fait a Madagascar
(1777)', Service historique de l'Armee, MR. I676, 29, 76-7.
4 For a corrective see Jan Vansina, Children of Woot (Madison, 1978), 34-40.

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 304 GERALD M. BERG

biguous clues. The rice origin traditions set in the Vakinankaratra allude
often to divine intervention, high mountain peaks, and the formation of social
groups which suggest that introduction of rice growing took place in a period
beyond memory.48 On the other hand, in Merina rice traditions such as the
Rasoalao and Rapeto series, characters are remarkably human, events
mundane, and cliches typically indicating sacred antiquity are noticeably
absent. It is probable therefore that dependence on rice occurred first in the
Vakinankaratra and then in Imerina. This simple seriation, however, is open
to question since the corpus of Merina traditions Rasoalao and Rapeto are
universally placed in the vazimba epoch, that is the 'genesis' period of Merina
history before the rise of social groups or monarchy,49 and therefore the
development of Merina and Vakinankaratra riziculture might be contem-
porary events. This view, however, overlooks the fact that the placement of
Rasoalao and Rapeto in the vazimba epoch is an 'ascending anachronism'50
in which a relatively recent event is placed in an early epoch in order to
emphasize its sacred character. In Merina historiography, ideals which
support recent patterns of social relations are often made to stem from the
vasimba epoch. The Rasoalao and Rapeto traditions are particularly
susceptible to this historiographic convention since they intend to extol the
virtue of co-operation in land management which was essential to the effective
operation of irrigation systems in the nineteenth century when most of these
traditions were collected. Moreover, less didactic references within Merina
oral tradition clearly place the development of irrigation systems in later
periods associated with the formation of monarchy. Thus Andriankotrina, the
conveyor of rice, is said to have entered Imerina during the reign of Ralambo,
the king-figure who inaugurates the historical era following the vazimba
period. Second, the building of dikes associated with the virtue of co-operation
expressed in Rasoalao and Rapeto stories, while begun in the vazimba
epoch,5' is reported by traditions to have taken on significant proportions well
after the close of the vazimba epoch under Andriatsitakatrandriana, Imerina's
fourth king.52 While it is likely that rice was cultivated in forests or swamps
in the earliest period of habitation analogous to the vazimba epoch, the
complex irrigation system at the heart of Rasoalao and Rapeto stories
appeared only in a relatively recent period, and its notational placement in
the vazimba period arises from non-chronological considerations in keeping

48 Rice origin traditions in the Vakinankaratra area prominently feature the founders
of social groups: Andrianadranoala, Andrianjokotanora, and Faralahintaontany (0. I,
0. II), and it was during the reign of Faralahintaontany that God's child is said to have
descended from heaven with rice. However, the tradition relating Andrianakotrina's move
to the north and his introduction of irrigation techniques places these events later in time
than the founding of social groups in Vakinankaratra, namely during the reign of the
Ralambo-figure, the second kind of Imerina (0. III).
49 Berg, 'Historical Traditions ... ', 117-I8.
50 For a discussion on ascending and descending anachronism in Merina traditions, see
Delivre, L'histoire..., I85-214.
5 TA, 238, 276. It is interesting to note that dike-building moves from Alasora in
central Imerina to the west and corroborates the direction of movement culled from the
stories of Rasoalao and Rapeto.
52 TA, 275-6. He not only built dikes (fefiloha) but also was the first to dredge rivers
and reconstruct their banks to form shallow inlets (sakeli-drano) for use as rice paddies.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 305

with widely observed conventions of oral epics.53 It is therefore possible to

return to a sequence in which rice growing began in the Vakinankaratra and
then appeared in Imerina, where land exhaustion culminated in the creation
of intricate irrigation techniques.
Though the sequence of events emerges from the welter of data and
speculation, absolute dating is virtually impossible since many of the early
'kings' named in Merina king-lists appear to be symbols of group origin.
Dates based on average reign-length or generation-length proposed by
Malzac at the end of the nineteenth century, and widely accepted in
subsequent historical work, have little validity.54 Dating in the archaeological
record is also suspect, since most dates have been derived from Malzac's
and Abinal's chronology55 in lieu of radiocarbon dating. Moreover, with the
exception of Mille's work,56 archaeological analysis has neglected food
sources and agrarian techniques. Finally, deforestation, perhaps the most
important indication of the changing agricultural environment, has been
dated by fairly speculative means to a prehistoric epoch by some, and to the
eighteenth or nineteenth century by others.57 The data presented earlier,
however, suggest that deforestation as well under way by the late eighteenth
century and coincided with Andrianampoinimerina's extensive increase of
labour obligations due to the monarch, which reflect nearly complete control
of the irrigation system upon which Imerina depended. The shift to irrigated
riziculture might have occurred, then, before the late eighteenth century -
during the mid-seventeenth century when European observers resident on
the coast began to report the existence of rice-growing kingdoms in the
interior.
The chronological problem makes it difficult to determine the relation
between growing dependence on irrigated riziculture and centralizing ten-
dencies of Merina political institutions. The structure of oral tradition,
however, offers some clues about relative dates. Merina traditions divide into
two major periods, the era of genesis and the historical era of monarchy.
Between the two lies a short transitional section which recounts the founding
of monarchy.58 Merina often project fundamental beliefs into the genesis era
in order to clothe them with a sacred aura accorded by the most ancient
ancestors. As explained above, Rasoalao and Rapeto stories appear in the
genesis era because they extol values which gird agricultural production.
Their placement within the structure of Merina oral tradition derives from
moral rather than historical considerations and cannot be taken as an
indication that irrigated riziculture and the organized labour upon which it

53 See Joseph C. Miller, 'Introduction', in The African Past. .., passim.

54 Berg, 'Historical Traditions...', 222-5I. See also H. T. Wright and S. Kus, 'An
Archaeological Reconnaissance of Ancient Imerina', in Kent, ed., Madagascar....
5 Malzac, Histoire du Royaume Hova (Tananarive, 1912), 31; and Abinal, Vingt ans
a Madagascar (Paris, i885), 54-5 from which Delivre, L'histoire..., 233-4 derives his
chronology. For a comparison of various chronologies see Kent, Early Kingdoms..., 220,
n. 115.

56 A. Mille, 'Anciens horizons d'Ankatso', Taloha, IV (1971), 120.

57 Battistini and Vrin, 'Man...', 3II-76; Raison, 'Utilisation...', I05-8; Dez,
'Elements. . . ', 21-4.
58 Berg, 'Some words...', passim.

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 306 GERALD M. BERG

rested antedated the founding of monarchy. In other traditions concerned

more with techniques of riziculture than with its moral prerequisites, events
in the long development of irrigation systems stretch chronologically
throughout Merina history, starting before the founding of monarchy and
continuing through the historical period. Though the population during the
genesis era was sparse and settlements relatively isolated, traditions do recall
that small groups built dikes and canals, and subsequent dike-building under
the early monarchy proceeded with minimal royal participation.59 Only later,
under Imerina's fourth king, did royalty actively supervise dike and canal
construction.60 Not until the late eighteenth century, when Andrianapoini-
merina codified the laws regarding maintenance of and access to irrigation
systems, did irrigation become a principal responsibility of rulers.6" Thus
Merina traditions do not connect the founding of monarchy to the need for
dike construction and maintenance but state explicitly, in agreement with
Geertz's hypothesis, that population increases entailed agrarian innovation in
the form of paddy techniques of rice growing.62 The connexion therefore
between irrigated riziculture and the rise of centralized government is
indirect.
The monarchy's gradual assumption of political control is best seen
through the changes in property rights entailed by the increasing availability
of newly irrigated land.
In the genesis period land belonged to those who settled it (fipetrahana),
but as paddy cultivation increased land value, the principle of ownership by
settlement was replaced by fambolena according to which land belonged to
those who cultivated it.f63 As small groups assumed responsibility in building
dikes and canals, the newly arable and highly productive land came under
their control by the traditional fambolena principle.64 The most successful of
these groups increased their prestige through wealth and dependants and can
be seen as the nascent royalty of Imerina. Nevertheless, though irrigated
riziculture provided the economic basis of ruling groups, the sacred power
later attributed to royalty was widely diffused among local demes.65 Even at
the end of the eighteenth century, when the monarch struggled successfully
for control of guns and sacred power, the monarchy could hardly be seen as
'oriental despotism' arising from hydraulic technology.66
Despite the legendary power of the late eighteenth-century king, Andri-
anampoinimerina, the realm was held together by relatively voluntary ties
between autonomous demes over which a loose confederation had evolved
and covered a very small area. Yet only forty years later Radama I was well

59 TA, i6, 28, 238, 276, 443-4.

60 TA, 275-6.

61 Dez. 'Elements...', 37-41.

62 TA, 276: '... niaraka tamy ny olona ela ny nisehoany ny tanimbary sy ny asa-
tanlimbary... see note 21.
'3 Dez, 'Elements... ', 28-30.
64 TA, 276: ' . . . ary dia no zarai'ny any ny vahoaka hatao vary raha vita [ny fefiloha]:
Fa amv ny andriana ny tany hatr'amy n'izay nisehoany ny andriana.'
Berg, 'Royal Authority and the Protector System in Nineteenth-century Imerina',
in Kent, ed., M1Iadagascar..., 102-22.
66 See Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism (New Haven, 1957), 101-7, 140-54, for the
characteristics he assigns to 'despotic power.

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 RIZICULTURE AND MONARCHY IN IMERINA 307

on his way to ruling the entire island. If irrigated riziculture were the key
to a coherent structure of authority one might well expect the Sihanaka to
the northeast of Imerina or the Betsileo to the south to have emerged as the
island's rulers, since not only did they practise irrigated riziculture but they
were also closer to the sources of trade which provided arms.67 Though the
Merina monarchy might well have increased formal rights in land as a result
of its participation in dike building, hydraulic technology cannot be seen as
the principal cause or direct cause of the tightly organized state which so
impressed European observers of nineteenth-century Imerina.
The sale of war captives for firearms, the gradual reduction of a portion
of the local populace to slavery in order to man the army and provide
agricultural labour, and the nationalization of local rituals to bolster the
monarch's authority have been cited as the key events which propelled the
small, loosely knit confederacy based on irrigated riziculture into a dominant
position by the early nineteenth century. Maurice Bloch convincingly ties a
number of these events to the evolution of land use. Land, having been made
valuable by intensive slave labour, became the basis of kinship groups which
sought to hide the contribution of slaves to production by attributing
increased land fertility to the sacred power of land itself. Thus the control
of land, slaves, and arms was clothed in the rhetoric of rituals which extolled
land and ancestors as the real origins of wealth.68 I have shown elsewhere69
that the monarchy, beginning in the late eighteenth century, gradually
created from these local rituals a national system of 'palladia' rituals through
which previously autonomous kinship groups were reduced in status at the
same time that the monarchy was elevated as the sacred source of prosperity.
It is precisely this reduction in the status of kinship groups and their 'palladia
idols' which was hidden by the Rasoalao and Rapeto stories. Cooperation
and equality between groups extolled in the tales of Rasoalao and Rapeto
were indeed the popular virtues arising from early irrigated agriculture. By
the nineteenth century, however, the tales provided a diversion from
the monarch's assumption of power through slavery, force of arms, and
elaborate public rituals.
Though it is clear that irrigated riziculture requires more labour than
swidden production, a direct connexion cannot be made between the
introduction of rice growing and the tightly organized Merina monarchy
which ruled most of Madagascar by the nineteenth century. Our study has
shown that riziculture has a lengthy heritage in the central highlands, which
included at its outset neither trade in firearms and slaves, nor rigid political
hierarchies. These later phenomena certainly characterize Merina society by
the late eighteenth century but do not arise directly from riziculture's need
for intensive labour.70
67 On a theory of state formation among the Betsileo, see Kottak, 'The Process...',
146-7. It is often assumed that trade was the main source of arms for Imerina, though
there is ample evidence to show that even as early as the late eighteenth century Imerina
was almost militarily self-sufficient since it manufactured its own guns and gunpowder
of a very high quality. See B. Hugon, 'Lois', i8i8, AN-SOM, Mad. 7/15, pp. 30-I.
68 M. Bloch, 'Property...', 206-12. A recent Wenner-Gren symposium at Burg
Wartenstein, 'Human Adjustment in Time and Space in Madagascar' (I8-27 August
1979) emphasized the sacred character of land as one of the aspects of Merina society which
distinguished it from most other regions in Madagascar.
69 Berg, 'Royal Authority. . . ', passim.

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 308 GERALD M. BERG

SUMMARY

Many observers of Merina history have suggested that the organization of labour
required to build and maintain irrigation works for paddy rice growing formed the
basis of Merina monarchy. Though little direct evidence is available, inferences
from land-use models and consideration of oral traditions and written accounts help
to explain why irrigated riziculture became popular and how it spread through the
central highlands to Imerina.
Rice had been cultivated on the east coast of Madagascar for centuries and
reached Imerina through the southern plateau but the hydraulic technology of
Merina paddy rice growing arose from local needs from the late seventeenth to
mid-eighteenth centuries. As swidden farmers exhausted the forests, paddy rice
cultivation and water management systems attending it became increasingly
important. Though irrigated riziculture enhanced the value of co-operative labour
among hitherto isolated groups within Imerina, it cannot be seen as the direct cause
of the monarchy's authority. It is suggested instead that the sacredness of land and
the accumulation of rights in newly irrigated land by those who controlled water
hastened the evolution of a rigid social hierarchy which exalted a few and
subjugated the rest.

70 Recent research undertaken by the author as part of a forthcoming history of Imerin

raises an interesting paradox: the growth of labour-intensive riziculture at the end of the
eighteenth century corresponds with the peak of slave exports from Imerina.

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