17

In Madagascar, the magical and religious rituals orchestrated by the diviners-healers are performed in accordance with cultural standards. Some substances are considered necessary for the smooth functioning and efficacy of the action: among them, rum is used both as libation and as drink. Its consumption by ritual masters or mediums is hence part of a legitimate social practice because it values power and control in an alcoholic state. Among those masters, those who drink alcohol without showing a state of intoxication are considered to be specialists. Nevertheless, the ethnographic field that articulates observations, interviews and photographic and filmic shots, leads to question the drunkenness after the consumption of rum. The issue of this article is about a re-reading and a decentering of the ethnological viewpoint on the practices of drinking. While drunkenness seems measured and undetectable in ritual action, it can be spotted in a distant context, far from the experience of the ethnographic fieldwork. These re-reading questions the idea of a hierarchy of data that influences the production of ethnological analyze.