The Bara people are a Malagasy ethnic group

Ethnic groups of Madagascar

The number of ethnic groups of Madagascar has long been a point of contention and debate. The island of Madagascar is predominantly populated by people broadly classified as belonging to the broader Malagasy ethnic identity...

 living in the southern part of the central plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

s of Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, in the Toliara Province

Toliara Province

Toliara is a former province of Madagascar with an area of 161,405 km². It had a population of 2,229,550 . Its capital was Toliara...

, especially in the Ihosy

Ihosy

Ihosy is a city in Ihorombe Region in central south Madagascar.Ihosy is the capital of Ihorombe Region.It is located on the Ihosy River and home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ihosy....

-Betroka

Betroka

Betroka is a hilly city in Anosy Region in southern Madagascar, and is the source of the Onilahy River...

 area. They are estimated to account for 3% of the overall malagasy population. Along with Sakalava

Sakalava

The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar numbering approximately 700,000 in population. Their name means "people of the long valleys." They occupy the Western edge of the island from Toliara in the south to Sambirano in the north. The Sakalava denominate a number of smaller ethnic groups...

, Bara are one of the two malagasy ethnic groups of clear bantu descent. They speak Bara Malagasy

Bara Malagasy

Bara is a Malagasy dialect spoken by the Bara people in southern Madagascar, roughly the regions Ihorombe and Atsimo Andrefana...

, a dialect of the Malagasy language

Malagasy language

Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...

, which is a branch of the Malayo-polynesian language group

Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. These are widely dispersed throughout the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia...

 derived from the Barito languages

Barito languages

The Barito languages are a score of Dayak languages of Borneo, and most famously Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar. They are named after the Barito River....

, spoken in southern Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

.

Society and culture

Bara society is structured into clan

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

s. They are polygamist

Polygamy

Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

 and traditionally nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

s, living on cattle (zebu

Zebu

Zebu , sometimes known as humped cattle, indicus cattle, Cebu or Brahmin cattle are a type of domestic cattle originating in South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. They are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap...

) farming. A great deal of Bara traditions and habits revolve around cattle farming. Cattle raiding

Cattle raiding

Cattle raiding is the act of stealing cattle.In Australia, such stealing is often referred to as duffing, and the person as a duffer...

 (dahalo) has a symbolic meaning in wedding rituals, as the groom-to-be is expected to raid cattle to prove his strength and to give the raided cattle to the bride-to-be family as a payment of bride price

Bride price

Bride price, also known as bride wealth, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom...

.
While some Baras are christians, most retain their traditional religious beliefs. They bury the dead in natural caves, and cut their hair to express mourning

Mourning

Mourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate...

. The spirits of the dead are regarded as dangerous, and in the past Bara communities have been known to relocate after someone's death to leave the dead's spirit behind. They also believe in natural spirits such as the helo, that are believed to appear beside trees.

Bara are also known as dancers and sculptors. Their wooden statues have long eyelash

Eyelash

An eyelash or simply lash is one of the hairs that grow at the edge of the eyelid. Eyelashes protect the eye from debris and perform some of the same function as whiskers do on a cat or a mouse in the sense that they are sensitive to being touched, thus providing a warning that an object is near...

es that are implemented using human hair.