The Malagasy Sikidy Divination Described by Étienne de Flacourt
- Date of account
- 1658 publication; observations from French settlement period
- Location
- Southern and southwestern Madagascar
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
Étienne de Flacourt’s Histoire de la grande isle Madagascar, published in 1658, describes Malagasy customs including sikidy, a form of geomantic divination using seeds or marked patterns and specialist interpretation. It offers a concrete early modern source for comparing claims of hidden knowledge with formal symbolic procedures rather than spontaneous clairvoyance. Flacourt’s account is valuable but uneven: terminology, local variation, translation, and European assumptions about “magic” all affect its meaning. Later Malagasy ethnographies are necessary for reconstructing the practice more accurately.
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