Writing Within: Anthropology, Nationalism, and Culture in Sri Lanka [and Comments and Reply]

Anti-Muslim Buddhist Nationalism in Burma and Sri Lanka: Religious Violence and Globalized Imaginaries of Endangered Identities

“…He is buried at the ruins of Sarnath, the site of the Buddha's first sermon 35. For details on the history, Buddhism, the chronicle and violence, see, Deegalle (2003); Tambiah Stanley (1992); Kapferer (1988); Spencer (1990a), and Spencer (1990b). Here the space is too limited for details of the complex history including the Tamil uprising in 1976 and the ensuing civil war.…”

Introducing Discipline

“…In these areas, too, anthropologists have moved away from earlier support of such projects and now position themselves rather as external critics. Cunningham (1999) makes the same observation about globalization, as does Spencer (1990) with respect to anthropological collusion with nation-building projects.…”

Philanthronationalism: Junctures at the Business–Charity Nexus in Post‐war Sri Lanka

“…The vast majority of Sri Lankan companies interviewed, both majority‐ and minority‐community owned, expressed vocabularies of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in and through their work. Commenting on the pastoral aesthetics of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, Spencer (: 286) has described the importance of a triage of symbols — tank, temple and paddy field — in the nationalists’ rhetoric. In their own use of such nationalist imagery, companies are merely following the lead of state‐ and foreign donor‐sponsored development projects and in particular the politicians who have exploited them for electoral advantage (Brow, : 77–87; Spencer, : 623).…”