In highland Madagascar, people often let social relations drift into a ‘dormant’ state. Within this state, people refrain not only from interaction, but also from further defining the nature of social relations. This ‘dormant’ state, which may last for a considerable time, reflects cultural norms of social interaction and, as this article argues, needs to be considered when aiming for a better grasp of the mechanisms upon which social relatedness in highland Madagascar is based. So far, social organisation in highland Madagascar has generally been described as highly pragmatic, situational and generally ‘fluid’ in nature. By ethnographically exploring the social dynamics of music bands in Antananarivo, I will show how it is due to a widespread reluctance to deal with conflict directly that social relations drift into a rather vaguely defined mode referred to by Malagasy musicians as ‘on standby’. The article aims to contribute a processual perspective to the situational structure of relatedness and, in doing so, provides an explanation for the more general atmosphere of mistrust which has recently been considered to characterise social relations in Madagascar.

在马达加斯加高地，人们经常让社会关系陷入“休眠”状态。在这种状态下，人们不仅避免了互动，也避免了进一步界定社会关系的性质。这种“休眠”状态可能会持续相当长的时间，它反映了社会互动的文化规范，正如本文所论证的，在旨在更好地掌握马达加斯加高原社会关联所依据的机制时，需要考虑这一点。到目前为止，马达加斯加高地的社会组织通常被描述为高度务实、情境化且通常具有“流动性”。通过民族志探索塔那那利佛乐队的社会动态，我将说明，由于普遍不愿直接处理冲突，社会关系如何陷入一种定义相当模糊的模式，马达加斯加音乐家称之为“待命”。本文旨在为相关性的情境结构提供一个过程性的视角，并在此过程中为最近被认为是马达加斯加社会关系特征的更普遍的不信任气氛提供解释。