| This dissertation traces the development of royal Merina architecture, from 1820–1870, in the capital city of Antananarivo, a site in the central highlands of Madagascar. This 50-year period was characterized by extraordinary transformations in Merina architecture and planning. These included the creation of an impressive palace site, known as the Rova, and the construction of new palaces and tombs at the Rova and near the capital. As the Merina kingdom was expanding from a small principality to one encompassing nearly two-thirds of Madagascar, there was a dramatic growth in the capital's population and corresponding number of houses. Beginning in the 1820's, there was a growing European presence of missionary-artisans from the London Missionary Society (LMS) and French traders and carpenters who introduced Western architectural forms, techniques and ideas into royal Merina culture. In comparison to many other Europeans working abroad at the time, these individuals demonstrated an unusual commitment to Madagascar by remaining on the island for a large part of their lives.; This study is thematically organized with a structure that is more or less chronological. Each chapter stands on it own as it explores principal themes in the history of royal Merina architecture. Chapter 1 examines how wooden architecture came to embody a range of social values that was at the very center of the creation of the Merina state. Even though the scale of this architecture was transformed as social and political circumstances changed, it remained the backbone for most royal Merina architecture until the late 1860's. Chapter 2 examines the relationship between landscape and architecture in the environs of Antananarivo. Focusing on the meanings of the landscape for example, water, stone and wood, that were used to build royal enclosures (rova) and played important roles in the daily lives of the Merina, will help us see how royal architecture is situated in its larger environmental and social contexts. Chapter 3 analyzes the incorporation of European architecture into the Rova and other royally sponsored architecture during this 40-year transition period in Malagasy history. Transformations in Merina architecture generally have been attributed to a unilateral process of European introductions with little reference to questions centering on the dynamics of cultural exchange and what architecture can reveal about the nature of such exchanges. In the Conclusion, I discuss the brief period between the death of Queen Ranavalona I (1861) and the conversion of Queen Ranavalona II to Christianity (1869). During this period, LMS missionaries returned to the island to build churches and reestablished the schools they had organized 40 years before. |
