"Hot Money" and Daring Consumption in a Northern Malagasy Sapphire-Mining Town

Author(s): Andrew Walsh

Source: American Ethnologist, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May, 2003), pp. 290-305
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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 ANDREWWALSH
MountAllison University

"Hot moneyt' and daring consumptionin a

norEern Malagasy town

sapphire-mining

he inspiration for this article came one afternoon in September

A B S T R A C T
a sapphire-mining town in
T1999 while I was visiting my fictive sister Soa in the northernMala-
In Ambondromifehy,
young menearnand spenda
gasy sapphire-miningtown of Ambondromifehy.Drinkingbeer in
northernMadagascar,
the tiny, ramshacklehut that she had newly come to share with her
greatdeal of whatsome call "hotmoney. Rather
"spouse"(vady)Jao and his newfound fictive brotherKoko,I asked
thaninvesttheireamingswithlong-termintentions
her and her housemates about the living that could be made from the local
consideredresponsibleand properby some around
by spendingmoney
sapphire trade. Jao, seated on the edge of a sagging bed, bottle hinged to
them, they consume"daringly"
knee, answeredfirst.His minimum daily take from the sale of the sapphires
to fulfillimmediatedesires.I arguethatsuchUdaring
he mined, he drunkenlyboasted, was 250,000fiancs malgaches (fmg),about
consumptionnmight be understoodas the active
responseof youngmenwho refusethe passiveroles
$40, or what a cane cutterearns for a month's work at a nearby sugarplanta-
tion. Soa confirmedthis. When pressed for more examples of fortunes made,
allottedthem by both the sapphiretradeandtradi-
Jao chinned toward Koko,hunched by the doorwayrolling a joint. Jao indi-
tional systemsof social organization.[Madagascar,
cated that Kokohad recently sold a day's take of stones for a staggering2.5
consumption,money,nsk, sapphiremining,mascu-
million fmg ($400) enough money to hire someone to build ten simple
linity]
thatchhuts of the sort that the four of us were crowdedinto. I could not resist
askingKokowhy he had not invested some of this windfall in a place of his
own. "Thisis hot money [vola mafana],"Jao answered for him, "you can't
hold on to it."Koko,yet to speak a word my way, was in no state to disagree.
In fact, in seeming support of Jao'spoint, he shortlypulled what many Mala-
gasy people consider a day's wage from his pocket (25,000fmg) and sent a
neighborhoodchild out for more cold beer.
Like30-year-oldJaoand 21-year-oldKoko,manyyoung men inArnbon-
dromifehyearn and spend a greatdeal of money, "livingthe life,"as Jaooften
assured me with great enthusiasm in barely discernibleEnglish.The setting
in which they do so, however, is anythingbut luxurious.Ambondromifehyis
a place plagued by crime, disease, frequent fires, and a high cost of living.
Minerslive in crampedand unhygienic conditions, their livelihoods precari-
ously attained through the procurement and sale of a commodity to which
they have only limited access. And yet, Ambondromifehyis a place in which
young men like Jao and Koko claim to thrive, some likening themselves to
outlaws, renegades, or frontiersmen and their town to locales in an imagi-
nary,anarchic,B-movie "America.""Welive in Los [Angeles],"Jao once told
me, invokingthe chaotic setting of innumerablepolice films that have shown
inAmbondromifehy'svideoparlors."Thisplaceis Texas,"noted anotheryoung
man on anotherday,callingto mindthe westernsof an earliergeneration.

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 "Hotmoney"
Unsurprisingly,perhaps, the conspicuous consump-
tion concomitant with Jao'sunderstandingof "hot money"
was seen by many, Jao included, as essential to the mainte-
nance of Ambondromifehy'sunique character.In this arti-
cle I discuss how this is, in fact, the case. Giventhat not all in
the town agreedwith Jao'stake on "hotmoney,"however,it
would be misleading for me to stop there. In recognition of
the coexisting understandingthat "hot money" is, in fact,
nothing more than the product of individualminers' imagi-
nations, I furthershow how the conspicuous consumption
justifiedby talkof "hotmoney"might also be understood as
centralto the maintenance of the unique characterswho in-
habit the place. It is only by consideringboth the functional
and the phenomenological significance of conspicuous
consumption inAmbondromifehythat one might come to a
reasonable understanding of its role in the lives of young
men like Jao.
It is well appreciatedin the social sciences that states
and markets are not alone in determining the value of
money. Money'svalue is also deterrninedby the situated in-
dividualsthroughwhose hands it passes (or does not pass)
on a daily basis. This in mind, it is not surprisingthat some
of the most illuminatingstudies of money to emerge in re-
cent years are those that have providedreaderswith the his-
toricaland ethnographicbackgroundnecessary to imagine
relevant subjectivities (Hutchinson 1996;Masquelier 1999;
Shipton 1989;Weiss 1996;Zelizer1994).The assumption be-
hind such studies, here generalized by Parryand Bloch, is
that "in order to understand the way in which money is
viewed [in any particularcontext] it is vitally important to
understand the cultural matrix into which it is incorpo-
rated"(1989:1).It is not the case that the use of money uni-
versally "[gives] rise to a particularworld view" but rather
that "existingworld view[s] [give]rise to particularways of
representingmoney"(Parryand Bloch 1989:19).
This articlebegins with the same assumption, illustrat-
ing as it proceeds that the "heat" of money in Ambon-
dromifehy can only be understood with reference to the
lives and "worldviews" of the town's young, male, migrant
miners. It is, therefore,less a study of "hot money" than a
study of the situated, subjective perspective from which
money might be perceived as ''hot.''l
For reasons that will become apparent as I proceed, I
have chosen to approach Jao and others among Ambon-
dromifehy'sconspicuous consumers as "peoplewho live for
the moment,"akinto the individualsand populations repre-
sentedin Dayet al.'seditedcollectionLiliesof theField(1999).
LikeLondon'sprostitutes (Day 1999),Greece's coffeehouse
gamblers (Papataxiarchis1999), and Japan's day laborers
(Gill 1999), among others, Ambondromifehy'sminers are
people whose apparent "freedom and autonomy stand in
oppositionto transcendentalvalues associatedwith a variety
of institutions that organize long-term social reproduction
and,simultaneously,producehierarchicalrelationships"(Day
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* American Ethnologist
anddaringconsumption
et al. 1999:2).They are people inclined to do without, albeit
sometimes only temporarily,whatever arrangements"en-
mesh [them] in a politicallycoercive world where they can
find a place only as dependents"(Dayet al. 1999:3).Theyre-
fuse the passiveroles allotted them by forces beyond their
control (i.e., markets,states, "transcendentalvalues," etc.),
choosing instead to "livein the present,"as activerespon-
dents "to conditions of marginalization"(Dayet al. 1999:7).
Employingthe terms that miners themselves use, I describe
how many of them "dare"(mahasaky)to act boldly and
without foresight in the context of an industry (and global
economy) in which, however prospective they might be,
they necessarily "risk"(mirisky) in the face of great uncer-
tainty. As what I term "daring consaemers," especially, they
indicate an orientation towardthe present that is strikingly
at odds with the concerns and strategies of many around
them.
In making this argument, I do not mean to suggest,
pace Aristotle,Simmel, or Marx(see Parryand Bloch 1989:
2-6), that the consumption patternsof these young men in-
dicate the insidious capacity of money and monetary ex-
change to disintegratetraditionalforms of social organiza-
tion. Money is, of course, nothing new to Madagascar,and
certainkinds of monetaryexchangeare among the most im-
portantmeans by which some Malagasypeople have propa-
gated traditionalsystems of social and politicalorgan;7.ation
through changing times (see, e.g, Lambek2001). Nor arn I
inclined to see acts of extravaganceas indicating "a failure
or an incapacity"on the part of certainminers "toaccultur-
ate to the capitalist ideology and practice of accumulation
and profit making"(De Boeck l999a:179). Instead, like De
Boeck, whose fascinating work among diamond miners in
AngolaI cite frequentlyhere, I approachthe consumption of
these young men as something"underpinnedand shaped by
local ruralmodes, conceptions and categoriesof wealth, ac-
cumulation, expenditure, physical and social reproduction
and well-being which originate in . . . (pre)colonialmoral
matrixes,attitudes, practices and beliefs"(1999a:179).Min-
ers, as Bauman (1988) might suggest, exhibit "freedom"in
their consumption (and other) choices in Ambon-
dromifehy.Ratherthan take responsibilityfor their choices
by considering them with foresight in light of the conse-
quences they might have, they live them out ("forthe mo-
ment")in the irresponsibleway that many Malagasypeople
expect of young men. One of the points I mean to stress in
this article is that however shocking the "daringconsump-
tion" of Ambondromifehy'sminers might appear, it is not
entirely unprecedented or unexpected to those who may
criticizethem for it.
Obviously,the plight and strategies of the people I de-
scribehere are not unique to this setting.As the diversecase
studies collected in Lilies of the Field indicate, the uncer-
tainties and tensions that characterizethe lives of Ambon-
dromifehy'sminers are common to many marginalpeople
291
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
in the world today. Although many of us have been living
through the development of what Beck (1992) refers to as
the "risksociety"(cf. Rustin 1994) that is, the currentpost-
industrialera in whlch modernizationhas become reflexive,
turn.ingits tools on itselfin the face of the socialand ecological
risks engendered by its purportedprogress Arnbondrom-
ifehy's miners and others on this imagined realm's periph-
eries have been living despite it. The risksthat characterize
their societies are imposed, originating with forces that
most (in Arnbondromifehy,at least) recognize as well be-
yond their control. Understandinghow they view and deal
with these risks in practicaland imaginativeways is key to
understandingtheirpredicaments.Byfocusing as much as I
do on the uncertaintiesthatAmbondromifehy'sminersface
on a daily basis, I mean to point out not only the difElculties
in their lives but also the powerful imaginations of those
among them who appear to overcome these difficulties,al-
beit momentarily,throughthe pursuitof what is commonly
termed la vie.
Some might view the approach taken in this article as
contradicting the perspectives of the very people whose
lives it intends to explore that is, as suggesting that no
matter how they might view themselves, the lives of young
men like Jao and Koko are in fact, determined entirely by
forces beyond their control. In one sense, their consump-
tion patternsindicate how they are the passive purveyorsof
well-established cultural stereotypes, mirroring one an-
other in replicatingMalagasyimages of youthful masculin-
ity. Alternatively,any emphasis on the effects of marginality
on their consumption patterns might lead to a portrayalof
miners as the common, unwitting,and passivevictims of an
overbearingglobal economy. Aliough there are certainly
arguments that can be made on both fronts, to stress only
the passivityof miners is to deny them the individualityand
agency that they so evidently prize. To overcome this di-
lemma I approachtheir consumption as an active response
to the circumstances of their lives. In line with Gell (1986:
110), I consider consumption both a "formof symbolic ac-
tion"and a "creativeprocess,"a means by which miners ex-
ert individuality and control, establishing for themselves
and, in some cases, for others aroundthem, theirmasteryof
those things that might master them. Ultimately,I illustrate
how daringconsumption, likewitchcraftin "modern"Africa
(Comaroff and Comaroff 1993; Englund 1996; Geschiere
1997;Sanders1999)and "occulteconomies" (Comaroffand
Comaroff1999:279;Scheper-Hughes 1996) throughout the
world, might be interpreted as indicating the active and
powerfillimaginationsof people at risk.
Ambondromifehytssapphire trade
In the two years following the discovery of sapphires in its
environsin 1996,Ambondromifehygrewfroma villageof 400
into a town of approximatelyfourteen thousand. Although
282
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this number has subsequently fallen somewhat because of
the departure of many miners for more recent sapphire,
ruby, and emerald finds in Madagascar'ssoutheast, when I
conducted research in the place in 1999 and 2000, signifi-
cant numbers of newcomers continued to arriveon a daily
basis. For many of the young men and women who have
come to dominate the place, involvement in the sapphire
trade and its attendant pursuits is only the latest in a series
of short-term migratory labor experiences that have led
them throughsettings as diverseas gold-mining towns, fish-
ing villages, plantations, and urban centers throughout
Madagascar.2The sapphire trade has offered many the
promise, and some the means, of earning previously unat-
tainablesums of money.3
For reasons to be clarifiedshortly,Ambondromifehyis
unlike many mining towns described in social scientific lit-
erature (for example, Moodie 1994; Nash 1979), in that its
inhabitants tend to work for themselves rather than for
companies or claim-holders.This place does, however, bear
a remarkableresemblance to the chaotic diamond-mining
communities of the Zaire-Angolaborder region described
recently by De Boeck (1999a, l999b). In De Boeck's words,
Ambondromifehymight be well described as a "frontier"
town where the "frontier"in question is a "socio-cultural
and economical" one characterizedby a mixing of "'rural'
and 'urban',local and global [and] 'traditional'and 'mod-
ern' categories,practices,mentalities, relationshipsand be-
lief systems"(1999a:201). It is not, however, a "frontier"that
migrants plan on settling permanently, a fact that has pro-
found implications for migrant-host relations in the place.
Althoughsome of the four hundred or so longtime residents
of the place continued to espouse what they felt were par-
ticularlyMalagasy(Ga) ideals of hospitalityas late as 2000,
their enthusiasm for assisting incoming "visitors"(vahiny)
to achieve their goals had diminished considerably from
what it reportedlyhad been. Referringto the willingness of
prospectorsto transgresslocal land taboos (fadyny tany)in
the pursuit of sapphires,longtime residents tended to por-
tray these newcomers as short-sighted interlopers.4Com-
menting on how the disrespectfulacts of these visitors had
incurred the "land'sanger"(helontany),they blamed them
for the droughts,fires, and disease that had purportedlyaf-
fected the region at an unprecedented rate since 1996.
The arrivalof so many miners in Ambondromifehyhas
also been of great concern to national and international
conservation organizationschargedwith overseeing the re-
gion's environmentally sensitive "protected areas." The
AnkaranaSpecial Reserve,an area centered on an immense
limestone massif (calledAnkarana)located several kilome-
ters to the west of Ambondromifehy,is deemed to be par-
ticularlythreatened.Diggingin the forestsflankingthe massif
or scouring the caves that underlie it, miners are seen to be
causing irreparabledamage to the reserve'sunique ecosys-
tems and endangeringthe region's burgeoning ecotourism
 "Hotmoney"
trade. Following the failure of education programsto con-
vince miners to stop their activities, the government de-
cided in 1998 to turn responsibility for guarding the re-
serve's boundaries over to the Malagasynational policc a
change that has, as shall soon be apparent,only added new
playersto an alreadycomplex competition of interests.
As noted above,Ambondromifehyis not and was never
a company town and, as such, has developed without the di-
rectingvision of an overarchingorganizationset on the effi-
cient exploitation of paid labor.5Miners in Ambondrom-
ifehy, about three-quarters of the population, work for
themselves or as members of small groups, using simple
technology (shovels,mining bars,and flashlights)to dig pits
and scour cave walls in search of sapphireveins. Because of
a lackof waterin many of the areasin which they work,most
miners returnto water sources in or near Ambondromifehy
with sacks of dirt to be sieved. When they find stones, they
generallysell them locally to Malagasytraderswho, in turn,
sell to West Africanand Thai buyers based in the provincial
capital of Antsiranana.What happens to sapphires after
they leave Madagascar(firstfor Bangkokand other centers
of the internationalgem trade, most Malagasytraders be-
lieved) is largely unknown to miners. The notion that the
small, darkstones (in their uncut and unpolished state) are
used in jewelryprovedlaughableto many. Sapphires"have
no meaning"(tsisydikany)to Malagasypeople, one inform-
ant pointed out, backingup his contention with referenceto
the frequently reported fact that prior to 1996 sapphires
were used only bylocal childrenin slingshots.
Althoughmany miners stress theirindividualityin ways
that I explore shortly, they tend also to depend heavily on
one another in their pursuit of fortune. Newcomers like
Koko (who had arrived in Ambondromifehy only a few
weeks before I met him) relyon others to teach them the ba-
sics of the industry how and where to dig, what features
distinguishvaluable sapphires from duds, how to avoid the
police, how to go about negotiating sale prices, and so on.
Newcomers are able to find mentors with remarkableease.
Moreexperiencedminers,likeJao,often takenewcomers in,
addingthem to the networkson which they, too, relyheavily
for the supply of everythingfrom digging partnersto infor-
mation on new finds and police movements in the region.
There are several points worth noting about the social
networks entered into and propagated by young miners in
Ambondromifehy.They are extremely porous and tend to
overlap,meaning that individual miners move into, out of,
and among them with little difflculty.Another important
point, and one that distinguishesthese networksfrom those
that tie many miners to the "ancestral places" (tanin-
drazana)from which they originally came and to which
many intend eventually to return, is that miners' relation-
ships with one anotherare not primarilymanifested in ways
that tie them to the places in which they live and work to-
gether.Althoughthey might employ kin terms in referringto
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anddaring * American Ethnologist
consumption
one another, as Jao and Koko did by calling one another
"youngersibling"Czandry) and "eldersibling"(zokzy), respec-
tively,they do not do so as people comrnittedto the preser-
vation of the enduring sites at which their relatedness is
manifested.6More appropriate,perhaps, given the transi-
tory nature of their relationships with one another, they
tend to establish and propagate relatedness through more
ephemeral means, for example, drinking,smoking pot, eat-
ing, and gamblingtogether acts of common consumption
ratherthan common investment, often requiringgreat out-
lays of money.
"InAmbondromifehy,"Jao once told me, "people ask
for 5,000 Malagasyfrancs the way that people ask for 500
anywhereelse."Gifts,or cadeauJc(not loans, or trosa)of this
amount about $1, or the price of a pack of cigarettes are
frequentlygiven with little thought. The obligationto share
is deeply felt by many, some speaking of feeling awkward
(megnamegnatra)or downrightashamed (megnatra)if they
do not providewhat anotherhas askedof them. This means,
of course, that earninga greatdeal of money on a particular
day can lead to problems for miners. If they are to sustain
the social relationships that have served them in the past
and arenecessaryfor futuresuccess, they may be compelled
to spend a good portion of their money on others. Those
who tryto save money or invest locallyin a shop, bar,or res-
taurant often only delay the inevitable dispersal of their
earnings. In the few cases I followed, such people were
shortly overwhelmed with friendlybut imposing demands
for loans or credit.And there is, of course, no sense in trying
to avoid obligations by downplaying successes. Little goes
unreported or unexamined in the informal interactions
throughwhich these social networksaremaintained.
Although I focus considerable attention on conspicu-
ous consumption in this article,it should be noted that not
allyoung male miners partakein la vie to the extent thatJao,
Koko,and others I met did. Indeed, in 1999, severalyoung
men in Jao'snetworkof connections disengaged from their
local obligations by simply leaving Arnbondromifehywhen
they came upon windfalls,one justifyinghis departurewith
the sympatheticallyreceived claim that he was returningto
his home region to fulElllan oath he had made to elders and
ancestors there. Miners need not always leave, however, to
invest in enduring kin and locality-based social networks.
Through their interaction and combined efforts, kin who
share connections to particularancestralplaces often coop-
erate in Arnbondromifehy,fostering networks that provide
much of what non-kin-based networksdo for other miners,
but that are modeled on and contributeto the reproduction
of more enduring ones based in distant locales. It is impor-
tant to note, however,that such strategiesseem only to work
for and are pursued by miners with strong connections to
home regions, and that by no means do all miners fall into
this category. Although Jao and Koko talked about the
places they came from, neither planned on returning to
293
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
these places in the futurefor anythingmore than visits. The
same was true of Soa.
Much as the town has attractedmanyyoung men, it has
attractedyoung women like Soa as well, some with the in-
tention of tryingtheir own hands at mining or trading,oth-
ers planning to benefit secondarilyfrom the trade, offering
miners their services as prostitutes,cooks, laundresses,and
so forth. As one might expect, given all that I have noted
above regarding the relationships that male miners have
with one another,marriagesin Ambondromifehyare mark-
edly ephemeral and are the focus of littleprospectiveinvest-
ment.7 Not that long-term unions are what men or women
who come to Ambondromifehyare seeking. In interviewsI
conducted in 1999 and 2000, many of the town's women in-
dicated a desire for self-sufficiency. Commenting on why
she thought women were better traders than men, Roby,
one 28-year-oldtrader,repeated a common refrain,noting
that "womencalculate/reflect [calcule]more lthan men do]
. . . because men have made them suffer."Women, she sug-
gested, are more motivated than men to be prospective in
the sapphire trade and see that saving and investing their
earnings carefullymight eventuallyfree them of the neces-
sity of relyingon others for their livelihoods.The futurethat
Roby imagined for herself-in a "European-stylehouse"
(tranovazaha)complete with a pool, in the nearbytown of
Ambilobe did not include a husband.8
Female informants in Ambondromifehy commonly
stressed that the only path to success in the sapphire trade
was to "put money to work" (mampiasavola)as a trader.
They were certainly not alone in suggesting this. Many
men miners and especially traders argued the same
point. Whenever I brought up the notion of "hot money"
with these people, they suggested a very differentview to
that of Jao. Later in the interview cited above, Roby re-
marked that "it depends on the calculations/reflections
[calcule]of people . . . if you love la vie, you will be quickto
eat [mEhinana] your money.... Money is not hot but people
[who say it is] just don't know how to put it to work."Miners
like Jaowho spend theirwindfallsextravagantlyare deemed
foolish by "calculating"people like Roby and the men and
women alongside whom she trades, not just because they
"eatmoney" (mEhinana vola)in pursuitof lavie but because
they "kiSlmoney" (nzamonovoZa),destroyingits potential.
Significantly,Jaoand otherswho reveledin the "hotmoney"
lifestyle did not dispute the terms used to phrase such cri-
tiques of theirbehavior.They,too, spoke of theirpropensity
for "eating"and "killing"money. To better understandhow
and why they embraced such understandings, one must
delve deeper into the sapphire trade and consider the vari-
ous positions that they take as participantsin it.
2s4
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Risking and daring in the sapphire trade
When asked why they had come to Ambondromifehy or
why they were leaving for sapphire finds elsewhere in
Madagascar,miners commonly relied on a single word to
describe their intentions: mirisky(to risk).As they used the
term, "risking"is a matterof investing effortin a projectwith
hopes for, but no assuranceof, a favorablereturn.This defi-
nition in mind, miriskyis a term that nicely encapsulates
nearly everythingthat miners do in Ambondromifehy.For
many, riskingbegins when, lackingany technology or train-
ing that might assist them in determiningwhere to dig, they
"droppits" (mandatsakafatagna)with no certaintyof what
they will Emdin them. Those who mine in caves confront
similar uncertainty, never entirely sure of what the path
they have chosen or the particularcavern they find them-
selves in will yield. As some miners see it, still more uncer-
tainty comes from the fact that sapphires themselves are
understood to have hiagna a quality that might be trans-
lated as "will"or "agency"and that makes them attractedto
some things and people and not others.9As might be ex-
pected, divinersin Ambondromifehyare an extremelybusy
lot, advisingclients where, when, and how deep they should
be looking for sapphires or providing them with prescrip-
tions for formulae (genericallyreferredto as "haody')that,
when embodied through ingestion or bathing, will make
them attractiveto willil sapphires.Minersfrequentlyassert
the need to avoid any "strongmedicines" (haody mahery)
that might cause them to repel sapphires. Indeed, these lat-
ter formulae,one sort of which young men sometimes self-
administerbefore traditionalfighting matches (morengy)to
repel the blows of their opponents, are the chosen means by
which jealous malefactorssabotage others' efforts at earn-
ing their fortunes.l°
It is not only traditionalmedicines that some feel make
miners attractiveor repellentto sapphires,however. Certain
types of behavior may be significant as well. Whether ac-
counting for their own generosity or warning others of the
potential repercussions of stinginess, miners frequentlyre-
markedthat those who distributetheirwealth among others
are sure to continue flnding sapphires, whereas those who
do not are liable to encounter misfortune.Such contentions
might be linked to the common Malagasy understanding
that generosityand hospitalityare fundamentalelements of
"Malagasycustom" Uomba Ga), essential to the promo-
tion of sociality and relatedness among people as well as to
the continuing prosperityof individuals.ll
Another way in which some miners attempt to ensure
success in the sapphire trade is through respectful dealings
with their forebears (elders and ancestors) and the various
land spirits they believe to inhabit the areas in which they
mine. As many see it, respecting elder kin and ancestors
through remittances or acts of remembrance ensures the
 "Hotmoney"anddaringconsumption* American Ethnologist
flow of blessing from these powerfulfigures,increasinga re-
spectfuldescendant's attractivenessto sapphires.
Diviners frequently diagnose unsuccessful miners as
having ancestorswho are angryat having been forgotten.In
such cases, they prescribetrips to "ancestralplaces" (tanin-
drazana)and assure unfortunateclients that by atoning for
their neglectful behavior and thereby returningthe flow of
ancestralblessing to the support of their efforts,they will be
able to thrive.Minerssometimes also make small sacrifices
at the mouths of caves or before starting to dig pits in the
hope of appeasing local land spirits (hiagnantany), who
may appearto them in drearnsor visions and directthem to
valuablefinds. When disrespect is shown the land, as when
miners knowinglytransgresstaboos associated with it, the
opposite can happen. Thus, as longtime residents of Am-
bondrornifehycommonly explain it, the fact that sapphires
are so much harderto come by today than they were in 1996
is not a function of overexploitationbut, rather,a reflection
of how miners have been victimized by a spiteful environ-
ment.l2
Miners encounter furtheruncertaintieswhen it comes
time to sell sapphires,despite the fact that there are nurner-
ous Malagasytraderswith whom they can choose to deal.
Demand for particularsorts of stones can increase or de-
crease rapidlydepending on the needs of the West African
and Thai exportersbased inAntsirananaand, beyond them,
the turbulentglobal gem marketthey supply. These facts in
mind, miners commonly describe themselves as being at
the mercy of buyers and markets,perpetuallytaken advan-
tage of by forces beyond theirreach.The fact that sapphires,
unlike other locally procured or produced commodities
such as rice or shrimp,have no use value to them only rein-
forces this sense of marginality.Thatsapphireswere used as
slingshot pellets until 1996 was evidently tragicomic to
many I spoke with, indicating to them just how marginal
both they and Madagascarare in the global economy. And
with this sense of marginalityseems to come the fear of be-
ing victimized. Cautionarytales of how the trade's earliest
buyershad cheated miners by insisting on buying sapphires
in bulk, using the standard rice measure of a condensed
milk can (kapohaka), circulated as late as 2000, warning of
the ever-present possibility of exploitation. Some miners
have, as mentioned previously,sought a modicum of relief
from the uncertaintyof the marketby learningits intricacies
and "puttingmoney to work,"aiming for the modest but
steady profits promised by successful trading rather than
the windfalls of mining. But this transitionis not for every-
one. It requires a willingness to forfeit control of money by
investing it in stones that may or may not be sold for a
higher price, a willingness to watch money that one might
have "killed"(mamono)oneself made "dead" (vola mat
"deadmoney," the standardway that tradersdescribe their
losses) throughdealingswith others.
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Along with traders, foreign buyers, and the interna-
tional gem market, the Malagasy state is another uncon-
trollablevariablethat contributesto the uncertaintyof min-
ers' lives. Illegal mining parties are regularlyraided by the
national police, always when the miners are at their most
vulnerable, exhausted from their work and weighed down
by sacks of dirt on their way out of the Ankaranareserve.
When caught, miners are commonly arrested, have their
equipment and sapphires confiscated, and are required to
pay fines. Often, the last of these burdens leads many to re-
turn to their illegal activitieswith even greatervigor almost
as soon as they are releasedfrompolice custody.Manymin-
ers I spoke with saw themselves as the least powerful par-
ticipants in a cycle that benefits their state-sanctioned ad-
versaries more than it does them. Some took a similarly
cynical view of the conservationorganizationsendeavoring
to keep them out of the Ankaranareserve, arguing that
groupssuch as the WorldwideFundfor Nature(formerlythe
WorldWildlifeFund) and its Malagasyequivalentswere no
more than fronts for foreign concerns seeking exclusive ac-
cess to the resources (includingsapphires)of the areas they
claimed to protect. The few foreign companies that at-
tempted to undertakelarge-scalemining in the region were
describedwith sirnilardisdain.Employinggeologists,armed
personnel, and advanced technology and claiming govern-
ment-sanctioned rights over local land (outside of the
Ankaranareserve), these companies were seen as having
risk-reducing advantages completely out of the reach of
miners.
Some miners in Ambondromifehy have risen to the
challenges presented by the state, conservation organiza-
tions, and companies by organizinga worker'sassociation
to assert their own local claims.Afteryears of protesting ef-
forts to clear them out of the region, by 1999 members of
this Association of Simple Miners (FikambagnanaMpiton-
drakaTsotra)had assuredthemselves a tenuous place in the
local sapphiretrade.By 2000, however, followingthe depar-
ture of many to mining centers elsewhere in Madagascar,
attempts at furthersecuring the rights of independent min-
ers in the region had stalled.The state's continuing support
of the interests of conservation organizations and compa-
nies operatingaroundAmbondromifehywere met with dis-
may by those who had organized the earliest protests.
Drawing inspiration from nationalist rhetoric learned
throughyears of public education, one of these young men
asked rhetoricallyhow it has come to be that Malagasypeo-
ple are denied access to their own tanindrazana the "land
of [their Malagasy] ancestors" when it is precisely such
land that stands to offer them the means of achieving the
prosperityso often promised by politicians.
Readersmay well remarka significantgap between the
cynical perspectives of miners confrontingforces perceived
to be beyond their control and the rather more assured,
boastfulones attributedto Jaoand others introducedin this
2s5
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
article's opening paragraphs.How is it that some miners
can be so taken with la vie in a context of such oppressive,
prevailing uncertainty?To answer this question one must
first acknowledge that although miners certainly "risk"in
the pursuit of uncertain prosperity in Ambondromifehy,
this is not all that they do. As indicated by the acts of trans-
gression, propitiation,and protest listed above, miners take
active roles in the sapphiretradeas well. Formany, the need
to riskin the pursuit of sapphiresis offset by the inclination
to"dare"(mahasaky).
Miners are commonly said to "dareto do things"(ma-
hasakryraha), such as dig in unstable pits, jump chasms in
caves, defy police, and transgresslocal or inherited taboos.
In combat, they "dare"one another, making or accepting
challenges in traditional fighting matches (morengy) in
town or, more often, perpetratingor resistingrobberiesand
intimidation at mining pits or in caves. As consumers they
"dare prices" (mahasakuy prix), indicating a willingness to
pay "nomatterhow much" (na hoatrino)forwhat theywant
when negotiatingpurchases or payments for the services of
prostitutes, bartenders, and taxi drivers. In all contexts,
"daring"is a matterof actingboldly andwith little regardfor
potential consequences. Butit is not just this factthat distin-
guishes daringfromrisking.Acts of "daring"also commonly
suggest the willingness of those who undertakethem to defy
various authorities. Thus, transgressinga known taboo is
"daring"in being an act of defiance, indicatingone's lack of
concern for the traditional authorities that institute and
regulatestandardsof moralpractice.Enteringthe Ankarana
reserve under the nose of the national police force is simi-
larlyboth daringand defiant.
In contrasting"daring"and "risking,"I do not mean to
imply that these terms are antonyms or that miners are con-
sistently faced with situations in which they must choose to
either "risk"or "dare."These are, rather, alternateways of
renderingminer positionalityvis-a-vis the conditions under
which they live "risking"suggesting how they are passive
and prospective, "daring"how they are active and inclined
to live "forthe moment."To better understandthe distinc-
tion, consider the descriptionJao gave me of a trip that he
and Kokohad made into the depths of the Anlcaranamassif:
We were supposed to leave in the night, but we left early
in the morning.We had heard that the gendarmes [na-
tional police] were arresting people ... but we went
anyway. . . when we got inside the entranceto the cave,
there was lots of talking.We "dosed up" Imidozy]. . .
those who smoke pot, smoked. Those who drink,drank
. . . then we said let's go . . . we crawled for 300 or 400
meters . . . that'swhere I got all of these cuts on my arms
and knees . . . and kept going and came to a chasm called
plonge de la mort [fallto the death] . . . this is what we
Malagasycall "goodbyefather"[veloma baba] because
there is only a small rope to help you acrossit and if you
don't know how to do it you'll fall and be killed directly
2,l
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. . . there have alreadybeen three who have fallen in the
chasm and been killed here . . . then we descended 30
meters and arrivedat the entranceto the cave twherewe
were intending to dig]. We called in to the person we
knew there, and he let us in . . . they don't want many
people in there because it gets very hot. You can't
breathe in there. We worked . .. from 9laem] until 3
[p.m.]and decided to keep workinguntil 9 at night. We
crawled out through shit and piss . . . the people who
didn't get into the cave [andupset that they didn't] shit
and pissed in the passage we returnedthrough.
Obviously,Jao and Kokoundertookthis trip in the con-
text of "risking" when leaving on such expeditions, they
often described themselves as going off "to risk"(mirisky)
ratherthan "towork"(miasa).In the process of risking,how-
ever, they dared as well. They dared to enter the reserve, to
crawl through cramped passages, to squeeze out rivals on
their way to desired destinations, and to work long hours
under dangerous conditions. And their rivals dared, too,
showing their displeasure at being excluded in what most
Malagasywould consider an entirelyinappropriateway, de-
Ellingotherswith their own shit and piss.
It is a striking and important point that miners often
"dare"to behave in ways that many Malagasypeople think
will make them repellent to the wealth they seek that is, in
ways contraryto the Malagasy customs (omba Gasy)that
many Malagasypeople see as essential to the preservation
of sociality and prosperity.In his descriptions of workin the
caves, Jaonever failedto mention how badlypeople, himself
included, behaved there. Food, water, alcohol, and pot go
unshared. Violence is commonplace. As one miner put it,
the "lifestyle"flenana) in the caves is that of barbares;those
who are "big" (mavinty) are "rulers"(ampanjaka). The
counterproductive potential of this sort of behavior was
most apparent to longtime residents of Ambondromifehy,
who frequently remarked on how miners brought uncer-
tainty on themselves through their lack of respect for local
customs Uomba)and land taboos Madyny tany).This is not
to suggest, however, that these longtime residents were
completely unfarniliarwith the concept of daringand its sig-
nificance in the lives of youngmen.
The "daring"behavior of miners is exemplaryof a way
of being commonly attributed to young men throughout
Madagascar.One might remark similarities, for example,
between miners like Jao and the young Malagasy (Zafi-
maniry) men discussed by Bloch who, like the boar they
hunt on foraysinto the bush, are consideredand encouraged
to be "wild,dangerous and strong" (1999:183)individuals.
In the settings in which I have worked previously as well,
young men who "dareto do things"are conferredconsider-
able status by both peers and elders. During traditional
fightingmatches (morengy)especially,boys andyoung men
(rangingin age fromten to 25 years)participatingas members
of villageteams takeone anotheron in contests that establish
 "Hotmoney"and danng consumption *
hierarchiesof daring.Although much that goes on in such
matches is no more than posturing as in the behavior of
youngZafimanirymen, "anemphatictheatricalelementis . . .
always highly evident" (Bloch 1999:183)in the swaggering
and taunting of morengy fighters daring is essential to
their performances.Young men who decline challenges to
fight are said to "notdare"(tsymahasaky) their challengers,
whereas a fightingchampion (fanorolahy, a "livingmale")is
someone who "nobody dares to take on" (tsisymahasaky
izy). Significantly, however, the daring evident in these
matches is restrictedbeyond the ring;young men, champi-
ons or not, are not meant to "dare"their elders by confront-
ing or contradictingthem outside of the morengy environ-
ment. In reality,of course, young men dare to defy existing
ordersby transgressingtaboos, behavingviolentlyor antiso-
cially, and so on, but when they do so, they are likely to be
called to answer for their disrespect and, to the degree that
they acknowledgethe authorityof elders, must atone for it
through various sorts of sacrifice.As Bloch suggests is the
case among Zafimaniryas well, the careful deliberation of
elders in cases of inappropriateyouthful daring provides
young men with an example of what they are meant to be-
come as they mature.The conclusion of such deliberations
and the sacrificesthatfollowmarkthe channelingof this po-
tentiallydisruptiveyouthfulvitalityinto the communities it
threatens,transformingthe antisocialforce characteristicof
young men into its opposite.
Althoughthere are certainlyparallelsbetween the anti-
social behavior attributedto young men in other Malagasy
contexts and the "daring"of miners in Arnbondrornifehy,
there are significant differences as well. To get a sense of
these differences,one might look no furtherthan to the par-
ticularnature of the morengy matches that occur regularly
in the mining town. Attended by thousands on a weekly
basis, Ambondromifehy's morengy matches pit miners
against one another not as representativesof particularvil-
lages but as individuals.Manyminers fightwith the hope of
establishing reputations they can carrywith them on their
mining expeditions. In the past, fighting champions led the
gangs that once plagued miners in the bush and controlled
much of the sapphire trade. More recently, since a police
crackdown on organized crime, successful fighters have
come to act as highly paid guards for the town's wealthiest
traders. In sum, morengy matches in Ambondromifehy
have been transformedfrom relatively bounded and con-
trolled contexts in which young men establish a socially
sanctioned willingness to dare to contexts in which daring
in the ring is the means to ensure the effectiveness of daring
outsideof it. The social regulation evident in how village-
based fighters (or any young men, for that matter) are kept
in check outside of the morengy environment is not appar-
ent in Ambondromifehy.Indeed, there are times when liv-
ing in the town feels like attending an extended morengy
match. It is a place where elaboratedforms of the "artistic
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American Ethnologist
excesses" (Bloch 1999)that make up the morengy aesthetic
and suggest the essence of youthful masculinity are con-
stantlycenter stage.
Considered alongside one another, miners' responses
to the uncertainties of the sapphire trade and the "daring"
acts they undertake on a daily basis may appear inconsis-
tent to some. Whereas the former, like "risking"itself, are
motivated by concerns for future prosperity,the latter are
carried out daringly, without concern for their potential
consequences. In fact, the juxtaposition of mirisky, "risk-
ing,"and mahasaky,"daring,"suggests a paradoxthat is es-
sential to the lives of miners in Ambondromifehy.Intent on
remaining attractiveto sapphires and retainingpositive re-
lations with fellow miners, many stress the need to behave
in accordance with "customs" Momba) that serve to rein-
force social relations with others. Intent on profiting from
ancestralblessing and on local land, they may carryout acts
of respectful propitiation to traditional authorities. Intent
on their rights,they join with others to protest the imposed
uncertainties of the state, conservation organizations,and
companies. Yet, as Jao'scomments about workin the caves
indicate, the socialityand solidarityimplied by some of their
pursuitsareinvertedin others.Anotherrecipe for success in
the sapphire trade suggests that miners must at times be-
have antisocially, as "daring"individualsin pursuit of per-
sonal gain.l3They should trustno one, least of all the people
workingalongside them. They should be preparedto mine
always and everywhere, even if this means defying tradi-
tional or state-sanctioned authorities.Some might even be
inclined to employ strong, repellent medicine, either on
themselves (as protection from police or fellow miners) or
on others (to make them repellent to sapphires). Put an-
otherway, the sapphiretradeseems to encouragethe simul-
taneous realization of two stereotypes that of the antiso-
cial, individualistic, daring, and irresponsible young man
and that of ie social, deliberative,collective-oriented,and
responsible elder. It is not only in the pursuit and procure-
ment of sapphires that these stereotypes are realized.They
are realized throughthe variousways in which miners han-
dle the money that they earn from sapphiresas well.
"Daring" consumption
Conspicuous consumption, Veblen has famously argued,
might be understood as a "meansto reputability"(1993:43).
Incorporating"friendsand competitors"into personal proj-
ects, individuals may spend lavishly on "valuablepresents
and expensive feasts and entertainments"(Veblen1993:43)
as a way of establishing and increasing their reputations in
the eyes of others. Although reputations are important
among Ambondromifehy'sminers, and "friendsand com-
petitors"arecertainlydrawninto individualeffortsto establish
them,Veblen'sclassicperspectivecan onlytakeus so far.Ifone
focuses entirelyon what consumptionentails for consumers
297
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
(i.e., the reputabilityit leads to, the networksit fosters, the
hierarchiesit supports, etc.), one may well lose sight of the
significance of all that is not consumed in this context. In
Ambondromifehy, investing in personal reputability re-
quires that alternativesbe ignored, and it is as much how
people do not spend money as how they do that is most con-
spicuous to some observers.
As in all sorts of "daring,""daringa price" (mahasaky
prix) paying any amount for what one desires is a matter
of acting boldly,without thought to the consequences of ac-
tions or to the directions of the authoritieswho might have
you refrain.l4It is consuming, in other words, without the
foresightor deliberationcharacteristicof responsibleelders.
The question I asked Kokoabout the house he had not built
was inspiredby discussions with otheryoung Malagasymen
for whom house-building was a matter of utmost impor-
tance. Elsewherein northernMadagascar,as in other parts
of the island (Bloch 1995;Thomas 1998),houses are signifi-
cant sites both for the production of individualadultidenti-
ties and the establishment of relatedness to others in com-
munities. Building a house is one of the most important
investments one can make, an investment not just or always
of money (forsome invest no more than theirown labor)but
of one's intentions for a future in a particularplace and
among a particular group of people. Ideally, along with
clearing fields, buying cattle and marriage goods, getting
married,supporting children, making sacrificeswhen nec-
essary, and so on, house building is a way for young men to
invest in the reproductionof the enduringsocial and moral
orders under which they might prosper. Investing in this
way roots them in particularplaces and among particular
people, leading them to become tompontanana and
reyamandreny("fathersand mothers^'of their communi-
ties) in the process.
Obviously,Ambondromifehyis not a place conducive
to this sort of investment. None of the miners I spoke with
had any intention of staying over the long term. Some
planned to returnto home regions if the sapphiretradeever
died. Most were open to the possibility of moving on to
other boomtowns as opportunities presented themselves.
Veryfew saw the point of buildingsubstantialhouses inAm-
bondromifehy or requesting land in the region on which
they might grow rice. When they did invest in property,it
was in easily transportable things mattresses, bicycles,
gold jewelry, clothes, radio-cassette players, and so on;
things that they could take with them when (not ii) they de-
cided to leave. Even these investments were uncertain, li-
able to be lost to robberyor a town fire. Some did, as men-
tioned earlier, channel money to home regions through
remittancesdestined for the purchase of land or cattle or for
the building of houses. But for those without access to trust-
worthypaths of remittance many offeredaccounts of how
remittances had been "eaten"on the road by their carri-
ers such a strategywasuntenable.Accumulatingor saving
298
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money apparentlywas also not an option for many. Unwill-
ing to take cash with them on mining foraysfor fear of hav-
ing it stolen by other miners or confiscated by the police, the
miners' only choice was to leave the cash behind inAmbon-
dromifehy or to travel 50 kilometers to the nearest bank or
post office to put it into an account. Neither of the options
was attractive to the miners I spoke with, the forrnerbe-
cause of concerns over the trustworthinessof housemates
or spouses and the ever-present possibilit,vof a town fire
and the latter because of the inconvenience of giving up a
day's work to put away money that might well be needed
over the short term.l5
These points noted, it is, of course, far too simplistic to
argue that Ambondromifehy's conspicuous consumers
spend money in the way that they do only because of a lack
of other options. To deepen understanding of their con-
sumption habits, one might usefully return to the distinc-
tion between daringand riskingintroducedpreviously.
Jao, Koko, and others in Arnbondromifehymight be
termed "daring"ratherthan "conspicuous"consumers. By
spending money on the immediate fulfillment of personal
desires and, as Veblen might have it, investing in their own
personal reputability,they suggest indifference toward the
deliberative,collectivist strategies and long-term concerns
of those who would have them do differently.Simply put,
spending money on la vie means not investing it in ways
that might marktheir passage to a responsible status. "Dar-
ing prices"and other sorts of extravagantspending are the
investment strategies of those intent on denying the power
of figures who might have them do differently.Ratherthan
channel the value of theireffortsinto the support and repro-
duction of enduringkin- and place-based social networks-
networksin which young men, it should be noted, are likely
to occupy subordinate positions Ambondromifehy'scon-
spicuous consumers spend on themselves, "for the mo-
ment."Put anotherway, "daringconsumption"suggests the
active (perhapsdefiant)force of young men unwilling to be
rooted in place and made pivotal in time, people inclined to
confront the need "torisk"(a need suggestive of subordina-
tion, passivity, and dependence) with the willingness "to
dare"(indicatingcontrol, agency, and independence).l6
Givenhow closely what I have described here parallels
many of the cases discussed in Lilies of the Field, it is tempt-
ing to suggest that daringconsumption is a corollaryof any
riskybusiness.l7 It is a means by which people allotted the
essentially passive role of living with uncertaintyexert con-
trol and demonstrate agency, albeit only "forthe moment."
Thus, although statements fromArnbondromifehy'sminers
regardingthe heat of money might seem to suggest the view
that money is somehow more powerfulthan the people who
deal with it-that is, that it is too "hot"to handle the lives
of these same people indicate the possibility that the oppo-
site is true. It is they who momentarily master it through
daring consumption. Here it is worth recalling that miners
 "Hotmoney"anddaringconsumption* American Ethnologist
do not only consume the various goods and services for
which they exchange money. In spending money the way
that they do, they consume money itselr They "eat"(mihi-
nana) it ratherthan see it eaten by someone else; they "kill"
(mamono) it themselves rather than see it "dead" (maty)
throughdealingsthat send it out of their control.
Writingon "the consumption of an Africanmodernity"
in Carneroon,Rowlandshas suggested that "consumptionis
. . . akinto fantasy;ameans of resolvinga sense of lackorab-
sence, of convincing all concerned, in particularoneself, . . .
Ofone's special form of achievement"(1996:203).Especially
among men "wholive for the moment,"it seems that certain
types of consumption take on particularimportance in self-
construction. "Insinging, drinking,and gambling,"Sophie
Day, EvthymiosPapataxiarchis,and Michael Stewartwrite,
"men 'become' themselves" (1999:13).And so it is, I would
argue, for many young miners in Ambondromifehy.They
consume daringlyin the process of being and becoming ac-
tive, powerful, attractive, and even "charismatic"(Weber
1968)men. This in mind, their consumption is not so much
"akin"to fantasy as it is the means to the momentary reali-
zation of fantasy.Hereit is worth remarkingthatJaoand Soa
and others in their networkused the term mirevy,from the
French rever (to dream), to refer to the hours they spent
drinking,smoking pot, and discussing matterswith friends.
Whether in bars, discos, or houses, the "dream"of a life
where money is no object was more than just imagined; it
was actually lived out, albeit only momentarily.The prob-
lem was, of course, that in the context of Ambondrornifehy's
turbulentsapphire trade,the selves that miners momentar-
ily realized through such consumption habits were unsus-
tainable over time. Obviously,"livingfor the moment" was
and is essentially ephemeral. And the miners I met dealt
with this fact in varyingways. To illustratesome possibili-
ties, let me returnto Jao,the man whose words inspired me
to write this article.
Jao's story
Jao first came to Ambondromifehyin December 1998, only
eight months before I first met him. Stocky and muscular,
always dressed in a leatherjacket,jeans, and expensive im-
ported running shoes when he wasn't mining, he looked
everyinch the ex-morengychampion that he claimed to be.
It was as a master of the morengy ring that had he earned
the nickname by which most people knew him:Ampanjaka,
or "ruler."
In describing his consistent success in the sapphire
trade the fact that whenever he went out to look for sap-
phires, he was sure to return with something Jao often
made reference to his ancestry, implying that there was
something special about himself that others did not share.It
was well known in his networkthat Jaowas descended from
a line of ritual specialists renowned for performingincred-
ible feats in Bobaomby,Madagascar'snorthernmostregion.
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It was one of Jao'sancestors, Soa informedme, who was re-
sponsible for introducing cattle to Madagascarby calling
them out of the ocean and onto dry land centuries ago. In
private, Jao confirmed these details and went further, de-
scribing himself as maheryvintagna,that is, as having a
"strong"or "hard destiny"-an expression that people in
northern Madagascarsometimes use to describe unique,
charismatic, seemingly invulnerable figures. More signifi-
cantly, perhaps, Jao saw himself as an inherentlyattractive
man. In various conversationsover our time together,he in-
formedme that his pet lemur, Soa, Koko,and I were allled to
him by God (Zagnahary);we were all, like sapphires, at-
tractedto him for reasons beyond our control.
Jao imagined himself just the sort of innately powerful
figure that Weber (1968) had in mind when discussing the
natureof"charismaticauthority."Possessing"exceptional. . .
qualities"(Weber1968:48),he saw himself as an individual
who drawspeople to him byvirtue of who he is, not bywhat
he does for them. This in mind, understandingof his situ-
ation is limited by viewing his spending and generosity as
nothing more than strategies for achieving reputability(as
Veblen might suggest). From a Weberianperspective, Jao's
consumption habits might be seen as indicating his rejec-
tion of the "rational every-day economizing" (Weber
1968:53)that charismaticheroes are meant to avoid.Writing
of the prototype that seems to share most in common with
men like Jao in Ambondromifehy,Weber describes how
charismatic "warriorheroes . . . seek booty and, above all,
gold.... But charisma,"Weber continues, "rejects all ra-
tional economic conduct"(Weber1968:21).To "prove"(We-
ber 1968:22)their exceptional nature continually, warrior
heroes cannot invest the booty they discover according to
any "rational"strategy.It must, rather,be spent or distrib-
uted to reveal just how insignificant existing economic or-
ders are. ForWeber'swarriorheroes, booty is not so much
the end as the "materialmeans of the mission" (Weber
1968:21);the goal is not to accumulate booty but to retain
charisma.The same might be said of Jaoand others like him
in Ambondromifehy.Consuming as they do, they reject ex-
isting norms of "rational"economic behaviorin support of a
self-image that must be proven again and again if it is to re-
main intact.
Jao both introduced me to the notion of "hot money"
and gave me plenty of food for thought on the topic. On that
firstnight we spent together and in the weeks that followed,
he describedhow hot money might as well be spent on la vie
because nothing good can come of it. If you buy a car with
such money, it is likely that the car will crash. If you try to
"putmoney to work,"it is likelyto end up "dead"(maty),lost
through dealings with unscrupulous traders. "Why not
spend it quicklyand in fulfillmentof short-termdesires?"he
often asked me. Forsomeone as attractiveas he, he implied,
good fortuneis assured.
2,,
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
Once again, Jao's view parallels that of many others
who "live for the moment" while asserting that what is
needed to do so indefinitely will be provided by an abun-
dant environment (Day et al. 1999:12).As indicated above,
however, Jao's particularperspective was uniquely shaped
by his personal history. It was also, I think, significantlyin-
formedby certainculturalideals that likelyinformthe imag-
inings of many Malagasypeople. As he presented himself to
me and otherswho gatheredin his household to sharein the
celebration of his earnings, Jao did not see himself as a
predator,an expert at capturingwealth in the mode of re-
cently described equatorialAfricans establishing personal
value (De Boeck l999a; Guyer 1993), but as an inherently
powerful being to whom wealth was drawn (along with le-
murs, women, and anthropologists).As he describedthem,
his successes in the sapphire trade came not because of the
things he did, but because of what he was (cf.Graeber1996).
In this, he might be seen as akin to the traditionalMalagasy
rulers from whom he gets his nickname the Ampanjaka
who have enjoyed varying degrees of influence in many
Malagasy regions through history whose power is indi-
cated in their abilityto draw people, service, and tribute to
themselves and the centers, they constitute (Bare 1980;
Feeley-Harnik1991;Lambekand Walsh 1997).Althoughthe
power of these rulers,forwhom charismahas become routi-
nized (Weber1968), is manifested in the respectful acts of
people willingly drawn to royal centers, for Jao, an analo-
gous power could only be displayed through his own ac-
tions. It was he alone, and not constituents of a polity ar-
rayedaroundhim, who authoredthe displaysindicatingthe
status he claimed. It was he alone who, throughdaringcon-
sumption, established for himself and others just who he
was. 18
As daring as it might have been in the moment, how-
ever, it is important to note that Jao's conspicuous con-
sumption inevitably precipitated the sobering need to go
out and "risk"again. And despite his skill at wresting sap-
phires from the land and, reportedly,his fellow miners,such
risking, however much daring it required,was not appar-
ently something that brought him the pleasure that con-
sumption did. Indeed, Jao's attitude toward his life and
prospects was markedlydifferentfrom one day to the next,
from occasions when money was plentiful to those when it
was needed. On morningsafternights of extravagantspend-
ing Jao bemoaned his situation, sometimes accusing Soa
and Koko of stealing from him. Showing me the scars that
crawlingthroughpits and passages had left on his back and
belly, he once told me that he "killshimself' (mamontegna)
in the process of mining. Yet he continued with his risking,
daring,and daringconsumption. When I ran into him on a
returnvisit to Ambondrornifehya year after our Elrstmeet-
ing, he assured me that all was as I had rememberedit. A1-
though he no longer shared a house with Kokoor a bed with
Soa, he continued to "livethe life."
3ll
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It would be misleading to suggest that Jao's attitudes
and experiencesrepresentthose of all of Ambondromifehy's
young male miners. Considerthe contrastingcase of Abdou,
a 21-year-old man I interviewed immediately after he had
sold a single sapphire for 800,000 fmg (about $120). "What
am I going to do with this money?"he asked, repeating my
question,
I'm going to buy sapphiresand turn them around. . . I'll
sell them, put my money to work, and make even more
than I have now. ["Whatabout la vie?"I asked] . . . I arn
notgoingto dolavie, Iwon'tdrinkalcohol, I'mnotgoing
to sleep with anywomen.... If I spend all my money on
women, when it's done, theywon't concern themselves
with me! . . . In the past I didn't know. I didn't think
much. I bought clothes and shoes . . . and the women!
Allof the women, all of the prostitutesdid well from me.
Now I think. I remember. I am no longer a child but an
adult.I'vegot abeard . . . I'vegotchildren. I'vegotawife
here. I'm going to buy and sell.
Accordingto Abdou, the move from daring consump-
tion to deliberativeinvestment is evidently linked to matu-
ration. He is certainlynot alone among Malagasypeople in
expressing the notion that as a man ages he should give up
the daring practices and strategies of youth in favor of the
deliberativeones expected of menwith "beard[s]"and "chil-
dren."What of "hot money?"Repeatinga common refrain,
Abdou assured me that there is nothing inherently "hot"
about the money one earns from sapphires.It is, rather,"the
minds of people that make money hot." "Hot money," as
Abdou and other deliberative investors understood it, is
nothing more or less than the productof the imaginationsof
people like Jao. Provided that one ignores the sometimes
disparagingnature of such characterizationsand acknow-
ledges, in contrast, how imaginations are in fact powerful
resources for people facing risk and uncertainty, there is
perhaps no better way of understanding "hot money" in
Ambondromifehythan this.
Conclusion
By way of closing this article on Ambondromifehy'syoung,
male conspicuous consumers I turn to a very differentseg-
ment of the town's population:the tompontanana or "peo-
ple responsible to/for the comrnunity"who inhabited the
place priorto the 1996sapphirerush.
Accordingto AntilahyLehibe,the eldest living male de-
scendent of a set of five brothers credited with having
founded Ambondromifehyin the 1920s, the first prospec-
torswho came to his (then)villagein 1996did preciselywhat
newcomers should do. They introduced themselves to him
and to other longtime residents, informed these tompon-
tanana of the reason for theirvisit, askedwhat local customs
and taboos they should be awareof, and promised that they
 "Hotmoney"anddaringconsumption* American Ethnologist
would behave respectfully while in the region. As days
turned to weeks and more and more prospectors arrived,
some of these "visitors"(vahiny)even requested small plots
of land on which to construct simple shelters or huts. Anti-
lahy Lehibe and other "fathers and mothers" (reyaman-
dreny)of the community reportedlyreciprocatedappropri-
ately. They received visits, answered questions, and
accepted prospecting migrants into their community with
the expectation that these newcomers would uphold the lo-
cal moral orderby behavingresponsiblywhile in the region.
AntilahyLehibe argued that it was (or would have been) in
the best interest of visitorsto respect local taboos, customs,
and, above all, the directionsof tompontanana,in that such
respect stood to guarantee them the prosperity that they
were seeking in the region. If they had become responsible
members of the community, Antilahy Lehibe insinuated,
and were able to channel local sources of blessing into their
efforts,they might have done much better.
Thatthe initialexpectationsof tompontananawould go
unmet was reportedlyobvious within a few months afterthe
firstarrivals.As rumorsof the sapphirerush spread and tens
of incoming prospectorsturnedto hundreds and then thou-
sands, tompontanana authorityover the community dwin-
dled. Indeed, most miners I met in 1999,includingJao,Soa,
and Koko,had minimal relationswith the tompontananain
theirmidst. They could identifythem by theirwell-built,ce-
ment-floored,tin-roofedhouses but saw little importancein
visiting them or informingthem of their arrivalsand depar-
tures, as would be expected under normal circumstances.
When tompontananacommented criticallyon the lives
of the miners who vastly outnumbered them in Ambon-
dromifehy, they tended not to single out the miners' ex-
travagant consumption habits the way that traders often
did. In fact, tompontanana interpretationsof the behavior
of young men like Jaoand of the tradersor miners who "put
money to work"emergedwith particularlylocal concerns in
mind. Whatwas most signiElcantto tompontanana was not
the fact that miners wasted money, but that they, like many
traders,transgressedlocal taboos, disregardedthe well be-
ing of their neighbors, and, perhaps most significantly,re-
fused to invest in the community in which they were seeking
their living. Particularlygallingwas the fact that many visi-
tors disregardedtompontanana warnings against building
houses, doing laundry, bathing, washing pots, or sieving
sapphires near certain sites locally considered sacred
(Walsh 2002a). They further ignored tompontanana re-
quests that they atone for their defiling acts by ritually
"washing"(manasa) these sites with costly cattle sacrifices.
Most revealing of all, however, were tompontanana com-
plaints about and reactionsto visitors'thoughtlessness with
regardto their houses. Not only were newcomers criticized
for buildinghouses without tompontananablessing (some-
times in the environs of aforementioned sacred sites), but
those many miners who abandoned their houses when they
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left Ambondromifehywere also castigated in absentia for
putting the entire town at risk.In a setting in which fire and
robberywere two of the greatestthreatsto public safety and
privateproperty,abandonedhouses were seen as little more
than potential fuel or hiding places. More disturbingthan
that, though, was the fact that houses were of so little signifi-
cance to the minerswho built them that they could be aban-
doned with seeminglylittle concern.Followinga particularly
destructivetown firein September1999,manytompontanana
remarkedthat their visitorneighborsseemed far more con-
cernedwith protectingthe portablecontents of their houses
than they were with preservingthe actual houses and those
of theirneighbors.
In the face of newcomers' irresponsible attitudes and
behaviors,and despite their own inclinationstowardhospi-
tality,by 1999tompontananahad taken drasticsteps to pre-
serve what they could of the community that had once ex-
isted in this place. They had placed lids and locks on wells
and fenced in what sacred sites they could, restrictingthe
access of visitors to powerfulsources of blessing that might,
under normal circumstances, have assisted them in their
pursuit of sapphires.Afterthe fire, tompontanana decided,
after considerable deliberation, that abandoned houses
could be torn down, even without the permission of those
who had built them.
It is strikinghow tompontanana responses to the irre-
sponsibility of miners in Ambondromifehycontradict cer-
tain fundamental ideals that many hold essential to the de-
velopment of moral communities in the region. Before the
sapphire rush inhabitants of the community likely would
not have been refused access to water or sacred sites, and
they would not have expected that their neighbors rnight
ever tear down their houses. Indeed, in other northern
Malagasysettings in which I have worked,newcomers may
striveto establishthemselves as responsible members of ex-
isting communities by contibuting funds to the digging or
keepingup of wells, carryingout costlyinvocations at sacred
sites under the guidance of community elders, and building
houses. That such expensive undertakingsare possible and
effective indicates quite clearlythat, in tompontanana eyes,
Fere is nothing inherentlydisruptiveabout money. It is the
way in which people invest or consume that determines the
moral implications of money. When invested in wells, in
cattle for sacrifice, or in houses, money can certainly be a
means by which enduring, locality-based moral orders of
the sort that tompontanana argue once existed at Arnbon-
dromifehyare reproduced.When "eaten"or "killed"outright,
or "putto work"and sent to distant locales as remittances,
however,money's potential capacityfor the reproductionof
a local moral orderis comprornised.
Ironically,perhaps, it is the fact that the consurnption
of newcomers is relativelyinconspicuous that is, it leaves
no enduring traces locally-that is most problematic to
381
American Ethnologist * Volume30 Number2 May2003
those intending to live in Ambondromifehyfor more than
just the moment.
Tompontanana perspectives on consumption and in-
vestment patternsin Ambondromifehysuggest the possibil-
ity that "hotmoney" must have an antithesis.If, as Jao con-
tended, hot money is money that leaves no enduringtraces,
then "cool"or "coldmoney"might be that with lasting con-
sequences money invested in wells, cattle, or houses, for
example.Wherehot money is essential to the reproduction
of the ephemeral social networkson which so many of Arn-
bondromifehy's transitoryminers rely, cold money might
be thought of as that invested in the reproductionof endur-
ing social networksbased in particularlocales. Coldmoney,
like ancestors, reproductiverituals, or other things consid-
ered "cold"(manintsy) in Madagascar,might be associated
with continuityin the way that hot money, likeyouth, death
rites, and other "hot"(mafana) things are with disruption.
What will remain uncertain in Ambondromifehy,however,
is whether, over the long term, responsible and enduringin-
vestment necessarily follows conspicuous consumption in
the way that ancestors do youth and communal reproduc-
tion does the death of individuals.Althoughindividualslike
Abdou may see and describe their own transformations
from daringconsumers to deliberativeinvestors, so long as
they do so as inhabitantsof a place in which they have no in-
tention of rooting themselves, such shifts in status will re-
main invisiblelocally.
Notes
Acknowledgments. Researchfor this articlewas generouslysup-
ported by a postdoctoralfellowship and standardresearch grant
from ffie Social Sciences and HumanitiesResearchCouncilof Can-
ada. Thanksare due to the people of Ambondromifehywho hosted
me during my stays there in 1999 and 2000. Paul Antze, Sandra
Bamford,Janice Boddy, JenniferCole, BerkeleyFleming, Michael
Lambek,Anne Meneley, and KarinSchwerdtnerall read or offered
valuablecomments on an earlierdraftof this article.The comments
and suggestionsof CarolGreenhouseandreadersenlistedbyAmeri-
can Ethnologistwereessentialto the productionof a final draft.
1. AlthoughI Elrstheard it in Ambondromifehy,the expression
"hotmonqy"is not restrictedto this place or to an associationwith
the sapphiretrade.In othercontexts,it is used to referto money that
has been stolen, attainedthroughdeception, or, under certaincon-
ditions, found. It is an expression that some informantsused, for
example,to denote the profitsof unscrupulousvanillabuyers,who
cheat innumerate rural growers by misreading the weight of the
produce they buy or miscalculatingthe total amounts they pay out.
Others attributed"heat"to money that has been stolen or earned
throughthe sale of stolen goods. One informantI met in Ambon-
dromifehyeven suggestedthat if a person sees anotherdropmoney
on the streetand then picksit up with no intention of returningit to
its owner, then this money is "hot."As this last example illustrates,
there is nothing intrinsicto money itself that makes it "hot" it is,
rather,the immoralactions and intentions of the people who steal,
find, earn, and spend it that give it its heat.
2. Althoughperhapspartiallyindicativeof the well-documented
Malagasy "penchant for perambulation"(Wilson 1971:194;for a
sampling of perspectives on migration in Madagascar,see Bloch
312
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1971;Deschamps 1959;Sharp1993),it is importantnot to downplay
the direeconomic circumstancesthatmotivateand confrontminers
who move to Ambondromifehy.Most inhabitants of the town are
well described,to borrowMartinez's(1995)phrase, as "peripheral
migrants"who, likethe Haitianplantationworkersin the Dominican
RepublicthatMartinezdescribes,areforcedfromone "ruralperiph-
ery"of the global economy to another (and another)in the pursuit
of insecure livings.
3. Single stones can and do sell for what these migrants might
earnfrom a month's laborelsewhere.This is not to imply, of course,
that all who have come to this place have made their fortunes.
Indeed, many seem worse off when they leave. Still, stories of the
fortunesto be made in the sapphiretradehave remainedcompelling
enough to drawa steadystreamof newcomers,even as theirdejected
predecessors make room for them. Likemany of those who arrive,
many of those who leave do not so much leave as move along a
circuitof chronicmigration,motivatedby the possibilityof fortunes
that are,in reality,rarelyrealized.
4. Tompontanana("peopleresponsiblefor [their]communities")
do not only have bad things to say about the sapphiretrade. Most
have benefitedfroman expandedlocal marketforthe rice and other
staple cropsthey produce,and some have parlayedtheirknowledge
of the regionand traditionalmedicines into lucrativeconsultancies.
A few have even set out in search of sapphires themselves, doing
preciselythose thingsthattheywould have prospectorsrefrainfrom
doing. Whenaskedhowhe could dig in whatwas well recognizedas
a taboo area, one longtime resident tellingly replied that "nobody
has a taboo againstmoney" (tsisyolofady vola).
5. Althoughseveralcompanieshave attemptedto establishlarge-
scale industrialmining operations in the region, lack of water (a
necessary resourcefor industrialmining) and access to the areasin
which the best sapphires are to be had has prevented any lasting
projectsfrom takingroot. Obviously,companies have been denied
access to the Ankaranareserve.
6. The multiple ways in which Malagasypeople simultaneously
establishtheir relatednessto one anotherand to the land on which
they live is a topic that cannot be fully explored here. Interested
readersshould considerAstuti1995;Bloch 1971;Dina 2001;Feeley-
Harnik 1991; Middleton 1999; and Walsh 2001 for a sampling of
perspectiveson this topic.
7. Although households are shared by couples, houses them-
selves are not built as markersof unions, as they often are in other
communities in the region, nor do husbands regularlysupply their
wives with the furnishingsto outfitthem. Women aremore likelyto
receive easily transportablegoods from their spouses, gold jewelry,
for example, or imported clothing. It is also significantthat, as mi-
grants,husbands and wives arealso denied the possibilityof invest-
ing in affinalrelationshipsby workingin the fields or households of
one another'sfamilies.
8. I will further explore the diverse roles that women play in
Ambondromifehyin a futurearticle.Sufficeit to note here that, like
many of their male counterparts, many of Ambondromifehy's
women seem habituallyto choose active over passive roles, often
opting for relationships(withAfricanand Thaibuyers,for example)
that will assist them in moving towardindependence. In diamond-
tradecommunitiesin Angola,De Boeckcomments that "minemar-
riages"tend to "[servel an economic, purely utilitarianpurpose in
the shortterm,with forthe woman involvedan oftentimes advanta-
geous Elnancialoutcome" (1999b:109).Again, the similarityto the
situationin Ambondromifehyis striking.
9. De Boeckwritesthaton the Zaire-Angolaborder,diamondsare
seen to be "likewild animals and indeed behave in unpredictable
and irrationalways" (1999a:186).They are understood, in other
words, to have a class of agencywith which bana Lundaminers are
quitefamiliar,one thattheycounterwitha complementary,predatory
 "Hotmoney"and
agency of their own. Althoughminers in Ambondromifehydo not
liken sapphiresto wild animals, I have heard many drawcompari-
sons between their mining and the work of shrimp fishers on the
nearbycoast. Sapphiresand shrimpboth remain invisibleto those
searchingthem out until they arein the searchers'possession; both
arecommonlyunderstoodto be givenorwithheld,attainableornot,
by virtueof a varietyof invisibleforces.
10. Often,it is said,minerscovertlyadministersuch medicines to
those with whom they are closest; for example, those with whom
they share a pit but not an agreementfor sharingwhat they find in
it. Bydoing so, a certainlogic suggeststhatthey seek to improvetheir
own chances by making their digging partners repellent to sap-
phires.
11. Nowhereis the linkbetween presentconsumptionand future
prosperitybetterindicatedthan at events markinglife cycle rites or
the fulfillment of promises made to ancestors at which sponsors
sacrificewealth (oftencattle)forthe sakeof the guests they invite.As
I have witnessed them in northern Madagascar,such occasions
clearlyindicate the perceived link between present, socially sanc-
tioned consumptionand futureprosperity."Deadtoday,succeeded
tomorrow"(ma t n iany, so lony amaray), the ffnalexclamation made
over cattle about to be sacrif ced, capturesthe essence of this view.
Elderswho thanktheirdescendentsforgiftsof moneywith a blessing
meant to assist them in earning even more indicate the same dy-
namic. The logic suggestedin such practicesis that wealth must be
consumed or expended if it to be assuredin the future;generosity
and hospitalityprecipitatefurtherprosperity.Forfurtherdiscussion
of the role of sacrificein traditionalsystems of social relations in
Madagascar,see Cole2001 and Walsh2002b.
12. Asindicatedinthevariousexamplesgivenabove,thepredica-
ment of Ambondromifehy'sminers, "risking"in their pursuit of
sapphires, is not so differentfrom that of many Malagasypeople
outside of the trade.Nonminersmight be seen as "risking"as well,
pursuing their essentially uncertain livelihoods under the eye of
various forces elders, ancestors, rulers,possessing spirits,and so
on-that have the power to help or hinder them. Although they
certainlyact prospectivelywith regardto these forces, sponsoring
acts of propitiationor accommodatingtheir needs, they are never
guaranteedthe ends they seek.
13. Even miners who dig in teams and agree to split their com-
bined earningsare awareof andjoke aboutthis paradox.Whenthey
gather to drink, the one among them who has hidden the most
sapphiresfrom the othersin theirpartiesmust confess and buy the
Elrstround.
14. Koko,one of the young men with whom I began this article,
went throughthe 2.5 millionfmgwindfallhe earnedjustbeforeI met
him within a matter of days, daringprices in the process. In docu-
menting his spending to me, he listed the few durablecommodities
he had purchased (a bicycle and shirt,totaling no more than one-
quarterof the value of the windfall), and then, following a brief
pause, he wrote the rest off to la vie. Most of his money, I later
learned,went to buy beer and pot to be sharedin bars and homes
with others,payingfor prostitutes,and, in one splurge,hiringa taxi
to take him and a group of friendsto the nearbytown of Anivorano
for a night of dancing.
15. See Day'sworkon Londonprostitutesfor anotherexampleof
how, in some cases, "itis easierto spend than to save"(1999:146).
16. Muchlike acts of "daring"in otherMalagasycontexts,"daring
consumption"is obviously central to the construction of youthful
masculinityin Ambondromifehy.It is undoubtedlysignificantthat
the things that young men spend their money on (i.e., drinking,
drugs,women, etc.) arethe verythingsthatyoung men are expected
to desire most of all. For a sampling of views on the significanceof
consumptionin genderconstruction,see Butler1990;Connell1995;
Mills 1997;Suggs 1996.
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daringconsumption
* American Ethnologist
17. See especiallyGill's(1999)and Day's (1999)contributionsto
Lilies of the Field, in which they describethe uncertaintiesfaced by
Japaneseday-laborersand Londonprostitutes,respectively.Foran
alternatetake on risk management in India's diamond trade, see
Westwood2000.
18. Byfocusingon whathe is ratherthanwhathe does in describ-
ing his successes in the sapphiretrade,Jaomight be seen as attrib-
utingto himselfthe sortof powerthathas elsewherebeen attributed
both to elitebourgeoiswomen proneto personaladornment(Berger
1972,cited in Graeber1996)and feudalaristocratsintent on beingin
the present ratherthan doing prospectively(Weber1978, cited in
Graeber1996). As indicatedin the lives of the former,this is "apower
born of subordination"or "amere residualof power, all that is left
to those who have no access to the more direct variety"(Graeber
1996:9).Itis also, as indicatedin the lives of the latter,a sort of power
that encouragesthe people whose lifestylesindicatetheirclaim to it
to imagine themselves immune to risk.
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