Legends of People, Myths of State: Violence, Intolerance, and Political Culture in Sri Lanka and Australia (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)

Kapferer, Bruce

ISBN 10: 0857454366 / ISBN 13: 9780857454362

Published by Berghahn Books, 2011

About this Item

Fine copy in softcover. Red spine with white titles.

Seller Inventory # 033126

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Legends of People, Myths of State: Violence, Intolerance, and Political Culture in Sri Lanka and Australia (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857454366
• ISBN 13: 9780857454362
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • ANTHROPOLOGY

About this title

Synopsis

The civil war in Sri Lanka and the part that nationalism seemed to play in it inspired the writing of this book some twenty-three years ago. The argument was developed through a comparative analysis of nationalism in Sri Lanka with the author's native Australia. At the time this constituted an innovative approach to comparison in anthropology, as well as to nationalism and its possibilities. It was not based on differences but on the way in which perspectives from within the two nationalisms, when seen side-by-side, could present an understanding of their implication in producing the violence of war, racism, and social exclusion. The book has lost none of its importance and urgency as proven by the chapters in the Appendix, written by top scholars working in Sri Lanka and in Australia. These contributions bring together new material and critically explore the book's themes and their continued relevance to the various trajectories in nationalist processes since the first publication of the book.

About the Author

Bruce Kapferer is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has held academic positions in Zambia, Manchester, Adelaide, London, and Queensland and carried out extensive fieldwork in Zambia, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, and South Africa.