Marginal placeholders

Peasants, paddy and ethnic space in Sri Lanka's post-war frontier

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2157472
AutoresB Klem (0000-0001-7491-3994, The University of Melbourne, autor correspondente), Thiruni Kelegama (0000-0002-6545-0868, Political Geography, Geographical Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland)
Ano2020
Volume47
Fascículo2
Páginas346-365
Data de publicação2020-02-23
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03066150.2019.1572604
OpenAlexW2934363309
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas49

This study explores the political significance of peasant identities, rice cultivation and land struggles in the context of civil war. It comprises two agrarian settlements in Sri Lanka's former war zone: a state-sponsored Sinhala settlement colony (Weli Oya) and a village formerly ruled by the Tamil insurgency (Sampur). We conceptualise both communities as 'marginal placeholders' positioned in Sri Lanka's embattled Dry Zone frontier. Their contentions, and the elite support for their contentions, make little sense in terms of material gain or agrarian surplus. We therefore argue that they must be understood as territorial struggles over ethnic space, rival sovereign claims, peasant ideology and cultural purification. Marginal placeholders are fielded to secure politically strategic territory, but ironically their marginality is reproduced in the process

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economics · Economy · Elite · Ethnic group · Frontier · Geography · Ideology · Insurgency · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Tamil · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Law