ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with social essentialism and the essentialisation of slave descendants by free descendants. This issue of pollution becomes even more sensitive if the mixed couple produces children. In that case, the couple’s children are also considered to be unclean by the olompotsy side, but, unlike their olompotsy parent, the children cannot be cleansed through a ritual because their olompotsy relatives view them as irredeemably unclean – recall the distinction between superficial and deep uncleanliness. Social scientists having ‘essentialist positions’, for example on race or gender, are those who consider some traits to be fixed and invariable, as opposed to being culturally, socially or historically constructed. Adoption and fosterage are very frequent practices in Madagascar, reflecting the ‘fluidity’ and ‘optativity’ often attributed to Malagasy kinship in general. A person’s affiliation with a particular kin group and social identity is not fixed at birth but changes throughout life.
