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The Presence of the Past : Chronicles, Politics, and Culture in Sinhala Life / Steven Kemper.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Wilder House series in politics, history, and culturePublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©1992Description: 1 online resource (272 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501736896
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Past Uses of the Past -- 2. Heroic Leaders and Discourses of Unity -- 3. Colonial Constructions of the Past -- 4. Contesting the Past -- 5. Races and Places -- 6. An Elected Government Invokes the Past -- 7. Nationalist Discourse -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Tracing the evolution of an ancient but ongoing Sri Lankan chronicle, Steven Kemper deepens our understanding of the complex role of the historical past in the rise of nationalist movements. Kemper focuses in particular on the Mahavamsa, a Buddhist historical narrative which has been periodically extended over the last fourteen centuries, most recently in 1977 when President Jayewardene assembled a committee of scholars, bureaucrats, and monks to bring the chronicle up to date.Kemper is concerned both with the development of Sinhala national identity and with the impact of historical consciousness in Sri Lankan culture and political life today. He discusses Sri Lankan party politics, ethnic conflict between Sinhala Buddhists and the Tamil minority, and political exchanges between the state, the monkhood, and the laity. Kemper argues that in Sri Lanka the past is made tangible through a set of social practices of genuine historical antiquity—chroniclekeeping, maintaining sacred places, and venerating heroes; and that the nationalist invocation of the past gathers its force from the way present-day circumstances impose new meanings on these practices.By taking up the contention that Sinhala nationalism antedates the rise of nationalist movements in Europe by over a thousand years, Kemper's analysis offers challenging implications for our interpretation of nationalism as a modern European phenomenon. Anthropologists specializing in political development, historical anthropology, and oral and popular traditions; historians of South Asia; political scientists concerned with ethnic conflict; and others interested in the intersection of politics and religion will welcome The Presence of the Past.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501736896

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Past Uses of the Past -- 2. Heroic Leaders and Discourses of Unity -- 3. Colonial Constructions of the Past -- 4. Contesting the Past -- 5. Races and Places -- 6. An Elected Government Invokes the Past -- 7. Nationalist Discourse -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Tracing the evolution of an ancient but ongoing Sri Lankan chronicle, Steven Kemper deepens our understanding of the complex role of the historical past in the rise of nationalist movements. Kemper focuses in particular on the Mahavamsa, a Buddhist historical narrative which has been periodically extended over the last fourteen centuries, most recently in 1977 when President Jayewardene assembled a committee of scholars, bureaucrats, and monks to bring the chronicle up to date.Kemper is concerned both with the development of Sinhala national identity and with the impact of historical consciousness in Sri Lankan culture and political life today. He discusses Sri Lankan party politics, ethnic conflict between Sinhala Buddhists and the Tamil minority, and political exchanges between the state, the monkhood, and the laity. Kemper argues that in Sri Lanka the past is made tangible through a set of social practices of genuine historical antiquity—chroniclekeeping, maintaining sacred places, and venerating heroes; and that the nationalist invocation of the past gathers its force from the way present-day circumstances impose new meanings on these practices.By taking up the contention that Sinhala nationalism antedates the rise of nationalist movements in Europe by over a thousand years, Kemper's analysis offers challenging implications for our interpretation of nationalism as a modern European phenomenon. Anthropologists specializing in political development, historical anthropology, and oral and popular traditions; historians of South Asia; political scientists concerned with ethnic conflict; and others interested in the intersection of politics and religion will welcome The Presence of the Past.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)