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Lords and Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar | 
 enlarge | Author: Alison Jolly
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $5.49
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 210121
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0618367519
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.83
EAN: 9780618367511
ASIN: 0618367519
Publication Date: April 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new - Most copies have a publishers overstock mark (Publisher close-outs usually have a small ink mark or stamp at the base of the book, but are otherwise brand new.)
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Product Description
In the extreme south of Madagascar is a place called Berenty, where Tandroy tribesmen, French lords, mad scientists, and two or three species of lemurs may be found gathered peacefully under a tamarind tree. Forty years ago Alison Jolly went to Berenty to study lemurs, and she has been enthralled by it ever since. In Lords and Lemurs she tells the story of the place, its people, and its other animals.
The owner of Berenty, Jean de Heaulme, arrived there in 1928 as a six-month-old baby, riding with his mother in the sidecar of his father's Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The de Heaulme family has lived at Berenty ever since, supporting Madagascar's fight for independence from France, serving in the government, and enduring economic turmoil, civil war, and even imprisonment. Although they are relics of a colonial system that seized land and tortured dissidents, the de Heaulmes also epitomize noblesse oblige in the best sense of the phrase, showing a remarkable sense of responsibility for both the people and the ecosystem of Berenty. Early on they set aside a large portion of their estate as a nature preserve, where lemurs and other animals have thrived over the years. Jean de Heaulme became a blood brother to one of the local Tandroy nobles -- the kings with spears. Traditionally the Tandroy were warriors who raided for women, cattle, and slaves. Now those who live at Berenty can take what they need from the modern world -- medical care, education, and a cash income -- without giving up their own customs and way of life. Many Tandroy still live in traditional villages surrounded by walls of thorn, and even the men who hold salaried jobs work hard so they can return to their clan with enough cattle to buy a bride or two. When a clan elder dies, the family offers a grandiose funeral where, amid gunfire and dancing and merrymaking and sex, a whole herd of zebu cattle is sacrificed to honor the new Ancestor -- even if he happens to be a Christian. Alison Jolly and her husband were honored to be invited to attend a Tandroy funeral.
Poignant and colorful, tragic and funny, Lords and Lemurs is a remarkable tale of one of the last great places on earth and the extraordinary people who live there, a tale of marriage, birth, and death, of spear fights and stink fights and dancing. It shows how human warmth and dignity can reach out beyond any social system.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Allison understands this unique place May 18, 2008
During my years as a resident of Madagascar I had the great opportunity to meet and spend time with Allison Jolly, and also Helen Crowley and others and I get to know people who truly understand Madagascar and all that makes this land one of the most unique and wonderful places on earth. Indeed much of my own book was written while living there and the cover shot will there.
This book provides an insight into Madagascar that many may miss along the way, but is almost a must read for anyone who plans to sojourn there at some point in time.
Thanks Allison.
Read This Book Before Going December 4, 2007
I really loved this book. I thought it was well written and can add little to the reviews posted before mine, except to say that I wish I had read it before my trip to Madagascar. I tried to read a little history in Brandt's guide book but this book brought it to life through a story whose characters and setting surround you during your visit to the Capitol and southern part of the country.
Rich, eclectic, and readable April 20, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This rich, unusual book is hard to categorize -- It is a fascinating combination of history and memoir by renowned naturalist Alison Jolly, who has been working in Madagascar since 1963. She uses her own experiences in primate research and environmental protection in Madagascar, as well as the reminiscences of her friends the de Heaulme family, proprietors of the Berenty Reserve and numerous holdings in and around Fort Dauphin in extreme southeast Madagascar, to comment on a wide range of issues such as colonization, Malagasy politics, ethnic groups of southern Madagascar, donor environment, food security, and so on. While this very readable volume focuses on the southern zone from Fort Dauphin to Berenty Reserve and Amboasary, it provides a wealth of contextual information about Madagascar in general.
 Not What I Expected January 1, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a biologist, I was hoping for more Lemur biology than what I got. This book is an excellent history of Madagasacar, without a doubt, and includes detail I am sure is found nowhere else. If one were planning a trip to Madagascar, this would be a perfect primer.
However, I was hoping for more of a biological approach regarding the Lemurs, their society, behavior, etc. While I did get a taste, it wasn't enough.
Sorry to admit, I got just over half way through the book before I lost interest.
History and Natural History of a Neglected Island February 14, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
It never ceases to amaze me that people often think that history only happens to their cultures and possibly related ones. We, with good reason, teach American history in schools (although sometimes not well enough when you see polls showing that a unusually high number of our citizens cannot tell the Constitution well enough to distinguish it from the Communist Manifesto!) and to a lesser extent European and sometimes Asian histories. However when we were dealing with the two World Wars, others on the so-called fringes of the civilized world were doing the same. We tend to often ignore parts of the world that do not immediately impinge on us, but we may do so at our peril (as was graphically shown on September 11, 2001!)
It is one of the far-flung parts of the once huge French empire that is the subject of a very unusual book by the well-known primatologist Alison Jolly. "Lords and Lemurs" is mostly set in southern Madagascar in an area dominated by mimosa thorn scrub and populated by the native Tandroy, the French settlers and by several species of Madagascar's unique lemurs. Jolly writes a somewhat eccentric book about a very eccentric (from our view!) land. You find it difficult to dislike most of the people, even though some had to fight for the puppet government of Vichy during World War II and you find the fauna and flora fascinating.
Jolly does not spoon feed us. We are shown the horrors as well as the joys. Lemurs, we find, are not quite the cuddly creatures of Disney cartoons (they fight and sometimes kill even their own species), but they are for all that enchanting creatures (and who are we to throw stones anyway?) The people have not always had admirable intentions and are sometimes quite flawed. The French colonial government included some sadistic types who used their power to torture and rape and some natives staged somewhat brutal (if often also somewhat muted by today's standards) uprisings and sometimes threw their best friends in jail. On the other hand you see people go to extremes to help others in times of need in ways that make you admire their moral strength. You even understand the French fighting the British on Madagascar, despite the fact that the British forces are acting against Hitler and Tojo. Local conditions alter realities and "friends" may become bitter enemies. You are also to some extent shown the environmental successes as well as the stupidities. However, the book is mostly about very different peoples facing the often grim realities of life and often surviving.
If you would like to broaden your understanding of our world, both human and "natural" (a false dichotomy in any case!) read this book!
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