An ethnographic survey of the island's people, written by Nandadeva Wijesekera and first issued in Colombo by M. D. Gunasena. This printing comes from Godage International Publishers, in English. The volume carries a foreword by Julius de Lanerolle.
Wijesekera works outward from the physical setting to the human one. He begins with space and time, then takes up racial composition, racial history and ethnic composition, before settling into the Sinhalese village and the social organisation found there. From that base the study moves through family life and the crises that mark it, the livelihoods of fishing and hunting, and the means of transport in use. The later chapters turn to belief and magic, to processions and pilgrimages, and finally to culture contact. A bibliography and an index close the book, and the text is accompanied by plates.
The chapter sequence, in order:
- Space and time
- Racial composition
- Racial history and ethnic composition
- The Sinhalese village
- Social organisation
- Family and the crises of life
- Fishing and hunting
- Transport
- Beliefs
- Magic
- Processions and pilgrimages
- Culture contact
The framework is that of mid-century anthropology, with its interest in racial classification sitting alongside village-level description of households, rites, crafts and religious practice. Readers coming to it now will find both a record of the communities Wijesekera described and a record of how such communities were then being described — the categories, the ordering of material, the questions thought worth asking. The bibliography indicates the sources he drew on.
Of interest to anyone reading in Sri Lankan anthropology and social history, to students working on the formation of ethnic categories on the island, and to readers who want an account of village life, ritual and subsistence set down in one volume. The inclusion of plates and an index makes it usable as a reference as well as a continuous read. Wijesekera wrote in English, and the prose is that of a scholar addressing a general educated readership rather than a specialist one.
- Author: Dr.Nandadeva Wijesekera
- Publisher: Godage International Publishers
- Language: English
- Pages: 314
- ISBN: 9786240001311
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