ABSTRACT
Malagasy tradition is less preoccupied with the enigmas of culture than are the outsiders. Starting with the central highlands of the Merina people, this survey of the great island reveals both the diversity of Madagascar's ecological endowment and the dispersal of its cultural groups. The great island contains one highly variegated, geographically dispersed culture subject to diverse economic, ethnic, and political influences. The extent of "tribalism" in Malagasy politics has often been exaggerated to disguise other animosities of political elites, social classes, or religion. Throughout Madagascar, people define their own identities through a conjunction of kinship and locality. Malagasy philosophy stresses the moral implications of all action, for a constant interpenetration of the two worlds imposes a strict responsibility for right behavior. The most tragic cleavage in contemporary Malagasy society separates westernized styles of urbanity from the traditional cultures of the rural localities, however much the latter may differ among them.
