Paperback, 469 pages
English language
Published Sept. 6, 2007 by Indiana University Press.
Paperback, 469 pages
English language
Published Sept. 6, 2007 by Indiana University Press.
Betafo, a rural community in central Madagascar, is divided between the descendants of nobles and descendants of slaves. Anthropologist David Graeber arrived for fieldwork at the height of tensions attributed to a disastrous communal ordeal two years earlier. As Graeber uncovers the layers of historical, social, and cultural knowledge required to understand this event, he elaborates a new view of power, inequality, and the political role of narrative.