Fady

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fady ( Malagasy fady or paly ) are prohibitions ( taboos ) in Madagascar that regulate the daily life of the Malagasy people. They are there for all areas of life. The fady arise in the family area of ​​a village community and have the status of a religious commandment.

etymology

The word fady is related to the Indonesian word pali or padi and corresponds to the word tabu known from the Polynesian language .

meaning

There are fady that every member of a village must observe, and those that apply only to women or only to men. Others are limited to a family or just a single person.

The fady lay down life at all levels: parental authority, questions of fate, prohibitions concerning the consumption of animals and plants, establishing a house, a burial and turning over the dead. Only the oldest member of a social group has the right and the duty to pronounce new fady and pick up old ones if this is necessary for the preservation of life. For the Sakalava , the large tumbler drum, bekiviro, used in the ritual worship of the royal ancestors is covered with numerous fady .

Often the violation of a taboo for a Malagasy is worse than death, which is evidenced by a Malagasy proverb:

"I'd rather die than eat something that is fady"

It is important for visitors to the country to know and respect that there are many prohibitions, for example concerning the numerous graves of the island, but also some natural sanctuaries (trees, ponds) that are not immediately recognizable as such and are still venerated today.

literature

  • Dieter Rohrbach, Sabine Geiger (illustrations), Dagmar Nafzger: Wildes Madagascar: Eighteen articles that allow us to better understand a large country , Mafy Bé, Alfdorf 2013, pp. 62–65, ISBN 978-3-9815772-1-1 .

Web links