La place de l’économie de marché dans une société rurale malgache : l’actualité des travaux de Polanyi

Abstract

Nowadays, the concepts created by Karl Polanyi are still very helpful to understand the place of economy in society and especially in the “developing” countries. In analyzing a rural society of Madagascar, this paper argues that it is difficult, even impossible, to analyze the forms of exchange without their cultural substance. Even tough the capitalist economy is present; it does not constitute a separate sphere. On the contrary, the economic behaviors are buried, sometimes dissimulated, but always embedded in the social. The study of a post-mortem ceremony- famadihana- will illustrate the interdependence among the cultural, symbolic, social and economic logics in a merina rural society. This example will show that if the market is indispensable to the Malagasy rural society to avoid poverty, others regulations than the unique market regulation are present, possible, desirable and necessary.

Keywords

• market economy
• inequality
• famadihana
• poverty
• Madagascar