Crucible of conflict : Tamil and Muslim society on the east coast of Sri Lanka

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Crucible of conflict : Tamil and Muslim society on the east coast of Sri Lanka

Dennis B. McGilvray

Duke University Press, 2008

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

Available at  / 8 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [395]-417) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Crucible of Conflict is an ethnographic and historical study of Hindu castes, matrilineal family structure, popular religious traditions, and ethnic conflict. It is also the first full-length ethnography of Sri Lanka's east coast, an area that suffered heavily in the 2004 tsunami and that is of vital significance to the political future of the island nation. Since the bitter guerrilla war for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka broke out in 1983, the easternmost region of the island has emerged as a strategic site of conflict. Dennis B. McGilvray argues that any long-term resolution of the ethnic conflict must accommodate this region, in which Sinhalese Buddhists, Tamil Hindus, and Tamil-speaking Muslims are each a significant share of the population. McGilvray explores the densely populated farming and fishing settlements in this coastal zone, focusing on the Tamil and Muslim inhabitants of an agricultural town in the Ampara District. Drawing on fieldwork conducted over more than thirty years as well as on Tamil and Dutch historical sources, he describes the regional dominance of a non-Brahmin matrilineal caste of thirteenth-century Kerala origin. The Muslims, who acquired dowry lands and matrilineal family patterns through local intermarriages, have in the twentieth century emerged from Hindu caste domination and are now the Tamil Hindus' political and economic equals. Crucible of Conflict offers a uniquely detailed account of Muslim kinship and community organization in eastern Sri Lanka, as well as a comparison of Tamil and Muslim practices and institutions. McGilvray concludes with an analysis of the interethnic tensions and communal violence that have intensified in recent years.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xv Note on Transliteration xvii Part 1. Framing Fieldwork in the Batticaloa Region Introduction 3 Chapter 1. The Research Setting 21 Part 2. Problems of History and Anthropology Chapter 2. Past and Present 55 Chapter 3. Issues in Comparative Ethnography 97 Part 3. Tamil and Muslim Social Structure Chapter 4. Views of the Tamil Caste Hierarchy 151 Chapter 5. The Tamil High Caste Alliance 167 Chapter 6.The Kudi in Action 189 Chapter 7. A Profile of the Tamil Specialist Castes 210 Chapter 8. The Moors: Matrilineal Muslims 266 Chapter 9. Muslim Elites and Specialists 292 Part 4. Ethnicity, Conflict, and the War in the East Chapter 10. Ethnic Identities and Communal Violence 313 Epilogue: Fieldnotes from the War Zone 331 Appendix 1. Tamil Kinship Terms in Akkaraipattu 365 Appendix 2. Moorish Kinship Terms in Akkaraipattu 367 Notes 369 Glossary 389 Bibliography 395 Index 417

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