Past and the present in the present -- Symbols, song, dance and features of articulation : is religion an extreme form of traditional authority? -- Disconnection between power and rank as a process : an outline of the development of kingdoms in central Madagascar -- Marriage amongst equals : an analysis of the marriage ceremony of the Merina of Madagascar -- From cognition to ideology -- Hierarchy and equality in Merina kinship -- Descent and sources of contradiction in representations of women and kinship -- Almost eating the ancestors -- Ritual of the royal bath in Madagascar : the dissolution of death, birth and fertility into authority