Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-x5cpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T13:23:13.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conversion and Demonism: Colonial Christian Discourse and Religion in Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David Scott
David Scott
Affiliation:
Bates College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978, it has been difficult for anthropology to avoid the fact that its own discourse is ever entangled in a whole Western archive. What became clear, of course, was that the categories through which anthropology constructs descriptions and analyses of the social discourses and practices of non-Western peoples are themselves participants in a network of relations of knowledge and power. Interestingly enough, however, whereas the general import of this Foucauldian thesis has now been quickly assimilated, its challenge has hardly been taken up in terms of tracing out the lines of formation of specific anthropological, or, let us say, anthropologized, concepts.

Type
Colonial Conversions
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 331 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arberry, A.J. 1943. British Orientalists. London: William Collins.Google Scholar
Asad, Talal. 1979. “Anthropology and the Analysis of Ideology.” Man (n.s.), 14:607–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asad, Talal. 1983. “Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz.” Man (n.s.), 18:237–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaglehole, J.A. 1941. “The Colonial Office, 1782–1854.” Historical Studies of Australia and New Zealand, 1:170–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benians, E.A. 1961. “The Beginnings of the New Empire, 1783–1793,” vol. 2 of Cambridge History of the British Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi. 1983. “The Other Question—The Stereotype and Colonial Discourse.” Screen, 24:18–36.Google Scholar
Bradley, Ian. 1976. The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Brynn, Edward. 1973. “The Marquess Wellesley and Ceylon, 1798–1803: A Plan for Imperial Consolidation.” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies (n.s.), 3:1–13.Google Scholar
Burrows, Sir Montagu. 1929. “The Conquest of Ceylon, 1795–1815,” vol. 4 of The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Dodwell, H.H., ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohn, Bernard. 1987. “Representing Authority in Victorian India,” in An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Colgate, H.A. 1964. “The Royal Navy and Trincomalee: The History of their Connection, c 1750–1958.” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 7:1–16.Google Scholar
Davy, John. 1821. An Account of the Interior of Ceylon and of its Inhabitants. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. 1988. Foucault, Sean, Hand, trans, and ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
de Silva, Colvin R. 1953. Ceylon Under the British Occupation, 1795–1833, 2 vols. Colombo: Apothecaries' Co., Ltd.Google Scholar
de Silva, K.M. 1965. Social Policy and Missionary Organizations in Ceylon, 1840–1855. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
de Silva, K.M. 1973. “The Coming of the British to Ceylon, 1762–1802,” vol. 3 of University of Ceylon History of Ceylon. Colombo: University of Ceylon Press.Google Scholar
Dirks, Nicholas. 1987. The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1948. “Christianity in Ceylon in the Portuguese and Dutch Periods.” University of Ceylon Review, 6:267–88.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1949a. “Christianity in Ceylon in the British Period.” University of Ceylon Review, 7:135–141.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1949b. “Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period.” University of Ceylon Review, 7:198–207.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1949c. “Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period II.” University of Ceylon Review, 7:269–77.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1950a. “Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period III.” University of Ceylon Review, 8:110–115.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1950b. “Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period IV.’ University of Ceylon Review, 8:203–6.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1950c. “Some Aspects of Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period (1796–1830) VI.” University of Ceylon Review, 8:264–71.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1951a. “Christian Missions: IX. Some Aspects of Baptist and Wesleyan Work from 1827–1864.” University of Ceylon Review, 9:106–112.Google Scholar
Fernandez, C.N.V. 1951b. “Christian Missions: X. Some Aspects of the Work of American Missionaries in Jaffna District from 1827–1866.” University of Ceylon Review, 9:191–201.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1973. The Birth of the Clinic: The Archaeology of Medical Perception, Alan, Sheridan, trans. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Alan, Sheridan, trans. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Gogerly, Rev. Daniel J. 1837. “The Wesleyan Mission Station, Matura.” Friend, 1:101–7.Google Scholar
Gogerly, Rev. Daniel J. 1908 [1847]. “An Introductory Sketch of Buddhism,” in Arthur Stanley, Bishop, ed., Ceylon Buddhism, vol. 1. Reprint. London.Google Scholar
Gooneratne, Dandris de Silva. 1866. “On Demonology and Witchcraft in Ceylon.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 4:1–117.Google Scholar
Gooneratne, M.Y. 1968. English Literature in Ceylon, 1815–1878. Dehiwala: Tisara Prakasakayo.Google Scholar
Gooneratne, M.Y. 1980. Diverse Inheritance: A Personal Perspective on Commonwealth Literature. Adelaide: Centre for Research in the New Literatures in English.Google Scholar
Goonewardena, K.W. 1958. The Foundation of Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1638–1658. Amsterdam: Djambatan.Google Scholar
Grant, Charles. 1797. Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, particularly with respect to Morals; and on the Means of Improving It. London.Google Scholar
Guha, Ranajit. 1989. “Dominance Without Hegemony and its Historiography.” Subaltern Studies VI: Writings on South Asian History and Society, Ranajit, Guha, ed. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Guha, Ranajit and Gayatri Chakravorty, Spivak, eds. 1988. Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Halverson, John. 1974. “Dynamics of Exorcism: The Sinhalese Sanniyakuma.” History of Religions, 19:4, 334–59.Google Scholar
Hardy, Robert Spence. 1839. The British Government and the Idolatry of Ceylon. Colombo.Google Scholar
Harington, J.H. 1809. “Introductory Remarks.” Asiatick Researches, 8:529–34.Google Scholar
Harvard, Rev. William M. 1823. A Narrative of the Establishment and Progress of the Mission to Ceylon and India. London.Google Scholar
Inden, Ronald. 1986. “Orientalist Constructions of India.” Modern Asian Studies, 20:3, 401–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingham, Kenneth. 1952. “The English Evangelicals and the Pilgrim Tax in India, 1800–1862.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 3:191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joinville, Joseph Endelin de. 1803. “On the Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon.” Asiatick Researches, 7:397–444 [Written circa 1801].Google Scholar
Jones, William. 1788a. “On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.” Asiatick Researches, 1:188–235 [Written 1784].Google Scholar
Jones, William. 1788b. “Third Anniversary Discourse.” Asiatick Researches, 1:345–6 [Delivered February 1786].Google Scholar
Jones, William. 1803. “On the Chronology of the Hindus.” Asiatick Researches, 7:88–113 [Written January 1788].Google Scholar
Kapferer, Bruce. 1983. A Celebration of Demons. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Knighton, William. 1854. Forest Life in Ceylon. London.Google Scholar
Knorr, Klaus E. 1944. British Colonial Theories, 1570–1850. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopf, David. 1969. British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kopf, David. 1980. “Hermeneutics versus History.” Journal of Asian Studies, 39:495–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludowyk, E.F.C. 1966. The Modern History of Ceylon. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Ludowyk, E.F.C. 1967. The Story of Ceylon. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Mahony, Capt. 1803. “On Singhala, or Ceylon, and the Doctrines of Bhooddha.” Asiatick Researches, 7:32–56.Google Scholar
Malalgoda, Kitsiri. 1976. Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 1750–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mani, Lata. 1987. “Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India.” Cultural Critique, 7:119–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, P.J. 1970. “Introduction,” in The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McGrane, Bernard. 1989. Beyond Anthropology: Society and the Other. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
McKenzie, Capt. Colin. 1803. “Remarks on Some Antiquities on the West and South Coasts of Ceylon.” Asiatick Researches, 6:425–54 [Written 1796].Google Scholar
Mendis, G.C. 1948. Ceylon Under the British. Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries' Co., Ltd.Google Scholar
Mendis, G.C. 1956. “Introduction,” in The Colebrooke-Cameron Papers. Documents on British Colonial Policy, 1796–1833, Mendis, G.C., ed. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mill, Lennox A. 1933. Ceylon Under British Rule. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nandy, Ashis. 1983. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
North, Frederic. 1803. “Letter to the Secretary of the Society for Asiatic Researches.” Asiatick Researches, 7:396 [Written September 27, 1801].Google Scholar
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1963. “The Great Tradition and the Little in the Perspective of Sinhalese Buddhism.” Journal of Asian Studies, 22:2, 139–53.Google Scholar
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1969. “The Ritual of the Sanni Demons: Collective Representations of Disease in Ceylon.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11:2, 174–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peiris, The Rt. Rev. Edmund. 1953. “Joinville's Translation of the Kokila Sandesaya.” Ceylon Historical Journal, 3:256–67.Google Scholar
Pieris, P.E. 1918. Ceylon and the Hollanders, 1658–1796. Tellippalai: American Ceylon Mission Press.Google Scholar
Pieris, P.E. 1920. Ceylon and the Portuguese, 1505–1658. Tellippalai: American Ceylon Mission Press.Google Scholar
Pieris, P.E. 1939. Tri Sinhala: The Last Phase, 1796–1815. Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries' Company Ltd.Google Scholar
Pieris, P.E. 1950. Sinhale and the Patriots, 1815–1818. Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries' Company Ltd.Google Scholar
Prakash, Gyan. 1990. “Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 32:2, 383–408.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Lorna Amarasingham. 1983. “Laughter and Suffering: Sinhalese Interpretations of the Use of Ritual Humor.” Social Science and Medicine, 17:14, 979–84.Google Scholar
Ryan, Michael T. 1981. “Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23:4, 519–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Samaraweera, Vijaya. 1973. “The Colebrooke–Cameron Reforms,” in vol. 3 of University of Ceylon History of Ceylon. Colombo: University of Ceylon Press.Google Scholar
Samaraweera, Vijaya. 1980. “The ‘Village Community’ and Reform in Colonial Sri Lanka.” Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies (n.s.), 8:68–75.Google Scholar
Scarre, Geoffry. 1987. Witchcraft and Magic in 16th and 17th Century Europe. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Scott, David. 1989. “Yaktovil: The Cultural Poetics of a Minor Sinhala Practice.” Ph.D. disser. New School for Social Research.Google Scholar
Scott, David. 1990. “The Demonology of Nationalism: On the Anthropology of Ethnicity and Violence in Sri Lanka.” Economy and Society, 19:4, 491–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, David. 1991. “The Cultural Poetics of Eyesight in Sri Lanka: Composure, Vulnerability, and the Sinhala concept of Distiya.” Dialectical Anthropology, 16:1, 85–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, David. 1992. “Anthropology and Colonial Discourse: Aspects of the Demonological Construction of Sinhala Cultural Practice.” Cultural Anthropology (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Scott, David. n.d. “Minor Knowledges: Sinhala Buddhism and the Discourse of Yakkū.” Manuscript.Google Scholar
Stokes, Eric. 1959. The English Utilitarians and India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tennent, Sir James Emerson. 1850. Christianity in Ceylon. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Upham, Edward. 1829. The History and Doctrine of Budhism, Popularly Illustrated, with Notices of the Kapooism, or Demon Worship, Bali, or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon. London.Google Scholar
Vimalananda, Tennakoon. 1963. Buddhism in Ceylon under the Christian Powers. Colombo: M.D. Gunasena.Google Scholar
Welbon, Guy Richard. 1968. The Buddhist Nirvana and its Western Interpreters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
White, Hayden. 1978. Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickremeratne, Ananda. 1984. The Genesis of an Orientalist: Thomas William Rhys Davids and Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Yalman, Nur. 1964. “The Structure of Sinhalese Healing Rituals.” Journal of Asian Studies, 27:115–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar