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Anthropologist David Graeber seeks in this ethnography of politics, history, and culture to uncover the roots and political significance of an old conflict that divides the social, economic, ritual and political life in Befato, a small town of between 300 and 500 people in Madagascar. At the time of his arrival in Befato in 1990, many of its inhabitants were not on speaking terms with each other. Social life and local politics were structured along cleavages produced by old ancestral rivalries and family histories which impelled descendants to act with a "hidden source of bitterness and resentment" (p. 367). This conflict stands central to the problematique Graeber wants to address in this ethnography: how is it that Befato became divided between two sections, each considering themselves to be the descendants of two quarreling ancestors? What is the significance of the fact that one of these two ancestors was a noble (andriana) whose descendants today are impoverished farmers, while the other was a former slave (mainty) whose descendants are relatively well off? And how is it that Befato people believe that the mixing of these two ancestors' bodies or their contemporary descendants can only lead to catastrophe? What exactly...