Madagascar in 500: Austronesian arrival

Through staples, techniques and social meals — with regional variation, not tourist clichés alone. As lived practice and festival calendars, without treating any faith as a racial essence. State borders and conflicts appear when they shaped culture; the page is not a news wire. Yes. Overseas communities often conserve and reinvent tradition; they appear in the Today section.

Wikipedia article titles resolve to Commons files with reusable licences; attribution lives on the credits page. Outrigger settlers bring rice, loom tech and Malagasy language roots (*dates debated). Arab and Swahili merchants link coasts to Indian Ocean networks. Highland state unifies much of island; court culture spreads.

Plantation economy and mission schools reshape land and language. Anti-colonial uprising crushed; memory shapes independence politics. Malagasy Republic born; Merina–coastal tensions continue in politics. Coastal dance music goes national via radio. Coup and instability disrupt economy and conservation funding.