Lavabe's Madagascar 2009 Lemur Thread

windsor · Post by **windsor** » June 5th, 2009, 6:24 am

Crocodiles and alligators don't chase you. They are ambush predators. After their initial strike they won't follow you on land unless you are a total moron (ie harassing babies in front of Momma) or they are on the brink of starvation.

You could bring along some Florida Gator Bait just in case (Gator Bait = small yappy dog) ... I didn't really say that did I?

CameronBornAndBred · Post by **CameronBornAndBred** » June 6th, 2009, 10:06 am

How often do different lemur species' territorial ranges cross, and are they territorial? Do they get along?

ILoveJimmy · Post by **ILoveJimmy** » June 6th, 2009, 5:06 pm

Dear friends,

I am posting today to let you know that LegacyLady and I received a PHONE CALL from Lavabe this morning. We were so excited! He has made it up to Diego, the northern city where he will be based from for the next 2+ months and where he has been based out of every time he has gone there. He has gotten a cell phone there, so it will be easier to reach him if necessary although still very expensive. He asked me to post to the site as he has been unable to get internet service there yet.

He said the safety issue in Tana and now in Diego has been good. He muses that safety in Detroit is far worse that anything he has seen in Madagascar. He is going on huge sleep deprivation from the last week of prep here, to the sleepless flights and day in Paris, to the noisy dogs and bed bugs in Tana, to mosquitoes at his first housing location in Diego. So, he has now moved to the Paradis du Nord, a hotel and his favorite resting place in Diego. He hopes to get some sleep now. He had hoped to go to Joffreville this weekend but due to some stomach issues and the general tiredness, he will not be able. Joffreville is the closest "city" to his research site and where he got many of his fresh food supplies during his 3-year tenure many years ago. That was also where he rented his mailbox for that period. He has many friends there.

He will start teaching in the English Department of the University in Diego this coming Monday. We will teach one class MWF, 3 hours each morning, for 3 weeks. I believe he is excited to do this. It is something different from his previous trips to Madagascar.

LL and I are surviving without Ben but missing him more. We let Georgia hear his voice today and I'm happy to say she certainly stopped in her tracks, looked at the phone, and listened to him. I'm happier to say that she neither slobbered on nor chewed the phone!!

Ben says he might be able to get internet access tomorrow so to look for an update from him soon. He sends his best to everyone!

ILJ

CameronBornAndBred · Post by **CameronBornAndBred** » June 6th, 2009, 5:12 pm

ILJ thanks sooo much for the update, fascinating read. Question that you probably know the answer to, what is the language there? From your post I get both French and Spanish. Is it either?

ILoveJimmy · Post by **ILoveJimmy** » June 6th, 2009, 8:42 pm

CameronBornAndBred wrote:ILJ thanks sooo much for the update, fascinating read. Question that you probably know the answer to, what is the language there? From your post I get both French and Spanish. Is it either?

There are 2 official languages in Madagascar, Malagasy and French. The native, most spoken language is Malagasy, which has many dialects depending on region. Malagasy is a Polynesian-based language with relations to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malasia, even Swahili. The governmental language is French and most people speak it except in the more remote areas. Madagascar used to be a French colony until sometime in the last 40 years or so when they became their own independent country. That is reason for the second official language. Believe me, it is very good that they do speak French since Ben knows some Malagasy words but is fluent in French!

DevilAlumna · Post by **DevilAlumna** » June 7th, 2009, 12:38 am

Thanks, ILJ, for the update on Lavabe! Glad to hear things are going well for him, sleep issues not withstanding.

Hope you and LL are managing at home with the puppy.

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 7th, 2009, 6:23 am

Tsara!

The local cibernet cafe cant connect me to my email, facebook, and business email, but it can, after 15 minutes, connect me to crazietalk.

So, some stuff in this post will be more science than normal, in the hopes of getting it out.

Health: caught a stomach bug that is almost giardia. Drinking lots of fluids. Catching up on sleep. Otherwise, my blood pressure is down, and I feel SOOOOOO much better than when I was in Tana.

BADDDDDDD News: The guy, Jaomaro, who first introduced me to my field site is raising QAT (it aint just a SCRABBLE word, Shamm) near my site. There is now some encroachment... must see to verify. Someone tell my colleague, Lisa Gezon. Two other villages, including Beanamalao, pressing a little closer to the site. Will investigate; so far it is just word of mouth.

BADDDDDD News: Will try to contact a close friend and researcher, Ian C., that his former dissertation site is now home to a new town... sapphire mining. It is like the gold rush. Will verify, but this is new, just in the last month.

GOOD News: My guide, Louis-Philippe says we will find Sanfords lemurs north of that resort I mentioned. Fishermen report that some are stranded on an island/atoll. They cross at low tide. The good news is that if this is correct, I can probably partner with the tourist resort to actively conserve the region and its lemurs. This is also WAYYYY COOL, as it expands the range of this species. The crowned lemurs are there as well. That means long term possibilities. Again, MUST verify.

The students are good, but must find cibercafe that handles Outlook/earthlink.

CBaB: The two species overlap their home ranges, both within species and between species. That means, they dont have territories. Rather, the two species get along together better than they get along between groups of the same species. The other Lavabe reports observations that confirm what I have seen. You will often see the two species together, but they spend more time within their group.

I am already back in French mode, and I still have to get used to the azerty keyboards. STILL cant find the apostrophe.

On language here, I still get by with my French, but more people are learning English. It isnt great English, but it has improved.

I guess I am a little depressed with the conservation news, doubly so because one forest that I had intended to see was on fire when I flew in. On the other hand, the traditional places seem to be in good shape. We shall see. Diego is good to be in, but I am anxious to get into forests.

Cheers to everyone, and thanks on the crocodile front, Windsor. I wont let any errant gator get me. ;)

Lavabe

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 7th, 2009, 7:17 am

Good news: I figured out how to get my work email at th local cibercafe, AND have figured out how to access NASCAR fantasy league at yahoo. STILL cant figure out my earthlink webmail URL access. ILJ?

Have a meeing scheduled with the surf resort owner. Maybe it is just a dream...

Cheers,
Lavabe

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 7th, 2009, 7:23 am

TillyGalore wrote:
Lavabe wrote:Tilly: what was the secret to dealing with gators in "Live and Let Die?"
I recall James ran across their backs to get to the mainland, but I think he did something first to distract them and I'm drawing a blank.

Yes, but the guy with the artificial arm told him something he had to do with them. And it was ludicrous.

windsor · Post by **windsor** » June 7th, 2009, 11:44 am

I think the apostrophe is with the '4' in an azerty keyboard.

I hope the resort owner is willing to partner on conservation. fingers crossed.

Keep the updates coming!

captmojo · Post by **captmojo** » June 7th, 2009, 11:50 am

Lavabe wrote:
Have a meeing scheduled with the surf resort owner. Maybe it is just a dream...

Cheers,
Lavabe

I'm curious. Do resort owners there have as many pillows on the guest's beds as I have here at home? $:-\$

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 8th, 2009, 10:04 am

captmojo wrote:
Lavabe wrote:
Have a meeing scheduled with the surf resort owner. Maybe it is just a dream...

Cheers,
Lavabe
I'm curious. Do resort owners there have as many pillows on the guest's beds as I have here at home? $:-\$

Sorry if this is a duplicate message. Having trouble with my new wireless modem from here.

ROTFLMAO.
For the record: 4 on my bed each night.

Have yet to see a comfy chair.

Had my first day of teaching here. It worked well. Good students. In the second class today, I had a lot of advanced students, including one who was about 7 years old and remembers when I first arrived in Joffre-ville. It's good to be giving back to the folks here. The university in Diego is one of only TWO universities with an English department. Fortunately, this one has an emphasis on the environment.

Tomorrow I meet with the surf resort owner. COOL!! $\m/$ $\m/$
Cheers,
Lavabe

CathyCA · Post by **CathyCA** » June 8th, 2009, 11:17 am

Manao ahoana! (or Salama!)

I'm fascinated by ILJ's description of the Malagasy language, so I've been doing some more reading on it. Most surprising to me is that Malagasy is not related to the languages spoken in African, but that it shares and derives from the Polynesian languages. Looking at a map, it appears that Madagascar is a piece of the African continent that cracked off of Mozambique. I guess I had always assumed that the people of Madagascar would speak a language similar to that spoken in Mozambique. (Their official language is Portuguese, a result of colonization.)

Anyway, look at how far away Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Borneo are from Madagascar, and yet they share a language. That is truly amazing.

Okay, so I'm going off in a cultural anthropology/linguistics tangent here and Lavabe is a physical anthropologist, but this language thing has really gotten my attention.

Does this linguistic thing mean that Madagascar was settled by boat people who traveled from the southeast Pacific islands? I guess I thought that the people of Madagascar were of African descent.

Are the lemurs originally from Africa? Or are they original to Madagascar? Or did they arrive by boat from the southeast Pacific islands many years ago?

Going to do some more reading. . . .

DukePA · Post by **DukePA** » June 8th, 2009, 12:58 pm

CathyCA wrote:Manao ahoana! (or Salama!)

I'm fascinated by ILJ's description of the Malagasy language, so I've been doing some more reading on it. Most surprising to me is that Malagasy is not related to the languages spoken in African, but that it shares and derives from the Polynesian languages. Looking at a map, it appears that Madagascar is a piece of the African continent that cracked off of Mozambique. I guess I had always assumed that the people of Madagascar would speak a language similar to that spoken in Mozambique. (Their official language is Portuguese, a result of colonization.)

Anyway, look at how far away Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Borneo are from Madagascar, and yet they share a language. That is truly amazing.

Okay, so I'm going off in a cultural anthropology/linguistics tangent here and Lavabe is a physical anthropologist, but this language thing has really gotten my attention.

Does this linguistic thing mean that Madagascar was settled by boat people who traveled from the southeast Pacific islands? I guess I thought that the people of Madagascar were of African descent.

Are the lemurs originally from Africa? Or are they original to Madagascar? Or did they arrive by boat from the southeast Pacific islands many years ago?

Going to do some more reading. . . .

Fantastic questions, Cathy. This is so cool, we get to have our own Madagascar/lemur course!! Hmmm, if I win the the lottery, I'll take us all to Madagascar! What do think Dr. Lavabe???

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » June 8th, 2009, 9:46 pm

Am getting caught up after being out of town for over a week. Lavabe, glad you arrived safely and have recovered from the stomach bug. ILJ, thanks for the updates when Lavabe wasn't on the net. Best wishes to you and LL during the next few months.

I like DA's suggestion on the gators.

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 9th, 2009, 3:24 am

I may be more of a biological/physical anthropologist, I am an anthropologist, with a solid foundation in cultural and archaeology. If I ignore those two branches in my field work, I am dead. In fact, most of my work recently has been in collaboration with a cultural, so it's not far off my field of expertise.

Madagascar was originally settled by people from modernday Indonesia/Sulawesi who sailed the trade winds west to Madagascar. The popular Madagascar music group, Tarika, did an album entitled SULAWESI, that tried to draw on the similarities between the two. Note that at the same time the Indonesians got to Madagascar, they also settled elsewhere, including Polynesia (Hawaii). The similarities between Hawaii and Madagascar are extraordinary: kinship systems, language similarities, and even the music (note to Tilly: that's how I first got interested in Hapa, and other slack-key guitar folks).

The similarities extend even to diet, as this immigration brought over to Madagascar rice agricultural not unlike what is seen in Indonesia. Having said that, there have been waves of immigration to Madagascar as the Indian Ocean trade networks developed.

Kinship systems: When I use that term, I am mostly dealing with how people refer to their family. For example, in the US, there's mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc... In some of the villages I've been in Madagascar, on the other hand, most folks I've seen use what is known as Hawaiian nomenclature. In this system, your mother, her sisters, your father's sisters ... they are all termed MOTHER. Likewise, you can have MANY brothers and sisters ... and you would also have many sons and daughters. The terms are mostly generational. Example: When ILJ taught one of our guides English, he learned the term GRANDMOTHER. He explained that he had 5 grandmothers in one village. TRUE STORY.

To be fair, Diego (Antsiranana), the city I'm living in, is very mixed in ethnicity, having loads of French expats, "Creoles", Mauritians, Reunion Islanders, Seychellois, Comoroans, South Asians, and Chinese. Lots of Islam and Christianity, but also I have seen one Hindu temple too.

Sadly, I've only seen a maximum of four pillows on the beds. Sorry, mojo!

The language is even more complex than what Cathy mentions, as NO ONE here would EVER say "manao" or "manao tompoko" -- that would identify you as being from the capital, Tana. "Salama tompoko" is also used a little south of where I am. In this region, we say something like "Mba aolitsara" (spelling?), which gets reduced to something like "bo -li-TSA-ra" (the first syllable is pronounced like BEAU).

A lot of phrases vary throughout the island, and it's not like the US "youze" vs. "y'all." The phrases can vary WILDLY.

Having LOADS of connectivity issues with Facebook. No Scrabble with folks for a long time, I think.
More later,
Lavabe

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 9th, 2009, 3:50 am

DukePA wrote:
CathyCA wrote:Are the lemurs originally from Africa? Or are they original to Madagascar? Or did they arrive by boat from the southeast Pacific islands many years ago?

Going to do some more reading. . . .
Fantastic questions, Cathy. This is so cool, we get to have our own Madagascar/lemur course!! Hmmm, if I win the the lottery, I'll take us all to Madagascar! What do think Dr. Lavabe???

THIRD try at responding to this.
Fossils VERY much like modernday lemurs appear in the fossil record at 34-28 million years ago in South Asia. At about 28 million years ago, there is some strong evidence of a great reduction in sea level. One hypothesis is that they traveled along a chain of land from S. Asia to Madagascar at this time. A 2nd hypothesis is that later African prosimians (from around 20 million years ago) made it across the Mozambique Channel, then rapidly evolved (adaptive radiation).

And if Duke PA has the moola, I'm up for lemurs and surfing!!
Cheers,
Lavabe

captmojo · Post by **captmojo** » June 9th, 2009, 5:52 am

Lavabe wrote:
Sadly, I've only seen a maximum of four pillows on the beds. Sorry, mojo!

Clearly, there is a definite need to establish a "Pillows for Madagascar" foundation.

Oh yeah...the other stuff isn't without it's educational charm. Keep up the good work.

ILoveJimmy · Post by **ILoveJimmy** » June 9th, 2009, 2:26 pm

Lavabe wrote:
Had my first day of teaching here. It worked well. Good students. In the second class today, I had a lot of advanced students, including one who was about 7 years old and remembers when I first arrived in Joffre-ville. It's good to be giving back to the folks here. The university in Diego is one of only TWO universities with an English department. Fortunately, this one has an emphasis on the environment.

I wrote Lavabe that he needed to clarify this statement about the 7-year-old boy he refers to. It reads sort of like the boy is 7 years old now while in Lavabe's class. Actually, the boy was 7 years old when he first knew of Lavabe doing his lengthy field research back in the late 80's/early 90's. The student remembers Lavabe from that time when he was 7. Now he is older and in Lavabe's class at the University. You all may have understood that was how Lavabe meant it, but just thought I would spell it out.

ILJ

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » June 10th, 2009, 6:48 am

Today it is raining in Antsiranana. If it rains here an hour, it rains in Mt d'Ambre (where I did my doctoral work) all day long. The warm 93 degree temps here have cooled off at 80 degrees or so, but with rain, puddles, and mud on the streets. My meeting with the resort owner was postponed to today. I have to meet him at the $120/night hotel downtown. I will be hopelessly out of place there.

Internet connections are spotty, and I can forget any sites that involve loads of flash, streaming video, youtube, etc...

Lavabe's Madagascar 2009 Lemur Thread

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