Stonehenge Connected to Malagasy Megaliths?

On Friday, January 11, my "Archaeology of Death" class was instructed to examine the ideas presented in an interview between journalist Richard Covington and Madagascar native and archaeologist Ramilisonina. They discussed the potential connection between the Madagascar beliefs and Stonehenge, Woodhenge, and the newly discovered Bluestonehenge. The interview can be found by clicking the link below:

http://archive.archaeology.org/1001/etc/conversation.html

A fellow blogger, Brian John, responded to this article with disagreement. The link to his post is below:

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.ca/2010/11/sacred-stones-and-madagascar.html

Immediately a quote from Sherlock Holmes comes to mind.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” -The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892, p. 163

I must say I agree with Brian John's response on this one. Or perhaps I am misinterpreting Ramilisonina's definition of "connection".

Ramilisonina explains that stones represent the dead in Madagascar beliefs while wood is associated with the living. He goes on to make the connection that the same thing is happening with Stonehenge and Woodhenge, a place for the dead and a place for the living, respectively.

How can he say with such conviction that these two sites are connected? As I said before, perhaps we are reading into the meaning of connection. Maybe Ramilisonina meant to say "coincidence"? I don't think that the Malagasy people are taking queues from the creators of Stonehenge. I think they're both just doing what the aliens told them to do. Just kidding. It was the Chinese, definitely the Chinese. They always seem to know everything (Chinese medicine is, like, so totally old!) before everyone, Okay, semi-kidding again. Let's be serious.

I think that this is mere coincidence. To say wood represents the living is easy - you just look at a tree and know that majestic life-form is onto great things, i.e. delicious air to breath, shade, tree fort foundations, etc. Then you look at stone and know it's going no where fast, much like a human corpse! Bam!

Now, going back to the Sherlock Holmes quote. I believe that Ramilisonina just got a little excited and instead of telling the journalist that these sites and cultures are both very neat-o uses of stones and wood, he implied that there was a direct connection. Maybe a stretch, geographically and contextually.