Home›Sources›Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in MadagascarSourcesPlacing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in MadagascarCitation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/placing-the-dead-tombs-ancestral-villages-and-kinship-organization-in-madagascar.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/placing-the-dead-tombs-ancestral-villages-and-kinship-organization-in-madagascarCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-placing-the-dead-tombs-ancestral-village, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/placing-the-dead-tombs-ancestral-villages-and-kinship-organization-in-madagascar}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXMaurice Bloch is an anthropologist, and this Seminar Press book is his ethnographic study of tombs, ancestral villages and kinship organization among the Merina and related peoples of Madagascar. Its strength is that Bloch's fieldwork-based analysis connects Malagasy funerary and tomb practice directly to the kinship and social organization it expresses, becoming a widely cited reference in the anthropology of death and ancestor practice more broadly, not only in Madagascar studies. Its limit is that it documents the specific communities and period of Bloch's own fieldwork in the early study, so a claim about Malagasy funerary practice today, after decades of subsequent social change, needs a more recent source.FactsClaims Backed By This Source (32 claims)Comments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsAssessmentReliability TierWell-attested1Published by Seminar Press as Maurice Bloch's academic ethnographic study of Madagascar kinship and burial practice, scholarly anthropological monograph.NotesWell-attestedBloch's anthropological study of tombs, ancestral villages and kinship organization in Madagascar.CitationAuthorWell-attestedMaurice BlochPublisherWell-attestedSeminar PressPublication YearWell-attested1971Source TypeWell-attestedEthnographyClaims Backed By This Source (32 claims)This source backs 32 claims across the atlas. As facts: 23 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 5 holds. Plus 3 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.Disposition By TopicReligions, 9 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 2 holds, 1 general references.Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.Articles, 6 claims: 6 well-attested.Cultures, 5 claims: 2 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.Rituals, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.Well-attested23ArticlesA Highland Kingdom, the Burning of the Sampy, the ChurchesA Tradition Under PressureFamadihana, the Turning of the BonesRazana, the Turning of the Bones and the TombReligion and History in MadagascarZanahary and the RazanaCulturesMerinaReligionsMalagasy Traditional ReligionRitualsFamadihanaSourcesPlacing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in MadagascarScholarly debate1ReligionsMalagasy Traditional ReligionHolds5CulturesMerinaReligionsMalagasy Traditional ReligionRitualsFamadihanaGeneral References3CulturesMerinaReligionsMalagasy Traditional ReligionRitualsFamadihanaComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year