Work in Progress in the Social Studies (WIPSS): 2018/9 | 22nd Year
The Past haunts the Present: religion, memory, and ‘development’ in Sri Lanka
by Maurice Said
Faculty of Arts Library
Tuesday 18 December 1800-1900 hrs
Based on fieldwork in southern Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2013, this article provides an analytical account of the bahiravā puja in southern Sri Lanka, a ritual aimed at the expulsion of spirits of the dead [prēta] from land. Dr Said argues that the widespread resurgence of the ritual following the Asian tsunami of 2004 represents a form of collective nostalgia, an act of resistance to the rapid and unchecked development of village land by foreigners and Sinhalese outsiders. For villagers, prēta represent the troubled spirits of friends, family and community members, a nostalgic embodiment of a past sense of community, transformed by post-tsunami development and the resultant encroachment of foreigners on village land. Within this context nostalgia, as represented by preta, serves as an attempt to subvert outsider control over land, and through the ritual, draws villagers into political alliances aimed at challenging outsider control over their locality. This analysis is offered as a platform for reflecting on the role of religion when patterns of land use are under severe threat. Furthermore, such an analysis questions the moral conflicts surrounding increased intercultural and transnational mobility.
Maurice Said has his B.A. (Hons) and MA in Anthropology from the University of Malta and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Durham. He was formerly Teaching Fellow in International Development at the University of Bath and is now Teaching Fellow in Political Anthropology at the University of Durham, and Visiting Lecturer in anthropology and humanitarian action at the Department of International Relations, University of Malta.