The Presence of the Past
Chronicles, Politics, and Culture in Sinhala Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8077812 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven Kemper (0009-0000-4091-5721, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-16 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | The Presence of the Past (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Cornell University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.7591/9781501736896 |
| OpenAlex | W2330336906 |
| ISBN | 9781501736896 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 26 |
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
Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Indian and Buddhist Studies · History
Exile in Colonial Asia
Buddhism and the Religious Other
Des usages de l’histoire et de la linguistique
Religion's 'state effects
Religion and violence
(Re)producing Buddhist hegemony in Sri Lanka
The Mahābhārata as national history and allegory in modern tales of Abhimanyu
Buddhism, the Asokan Persona, and the Galactic Polity
The monks and the pontiff
Territorial spaces and national identities
Linking Self and Social Structure
Galactic Polities and the Decentralisation of Administration in Sri Lanka
Pakistani Nationalism and the State Marginalisation of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan
Of traditions, memories and ideological blockages
On sacred ground
Destabilizing the identity–territory nexus
From Batticaloa via Basel to Berlin. Transimperial Science in Ceylon and Beyond around 1900
Buddhist Kingship, British Archaeology and Historical Narratives in Sri Lanka c.1750 1850
Locations of Authenticity
Culture as Freedom
Securing the Sasana through Law
Utopia's New-Found Space
Post-Orientalism and the Interpretation of Premodern and Modern Political Identities
Dissimulated Landscapes
Please Give a Drop of Blood
Tigers and temples
| Unique citing works | 26 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,81 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2020 (27) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 26 |