Table of Contents

Introduction: The Hybrid Island - Neluka Silva 1. Where Have All the Vaddas Gone? Buddhism and Aboriginality in Sri Lanka - Gananath Obeyesekere 2. What's in a Name? Aryans and Dravidians in the Making of Sri Lankan Identities - Arjun Guneratne 3. Identity on the Borderline: Modernity, New Ethnicities and the Unmaking of Multiculturalism in Sri Lanka - Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake 4. From Hybridity to Authenticity: The Biography of a few Kandyan Things - Nira Wickramasinghe 5. The Performance of Hybridity in the Visual Culture of the No Order Group of Sri Lanka - Yolanda Foster 6. Situating the Hybrid 'Other' in an Era of Conflict: Representations of the Burgher in Contemporary Writings in English - Neluka Silva 7. Kiribath: A Search for Good Luck and Common Ground - Vikram Singh 8. Baila Music: European Modernity and Afro-Iberian Popular Music in Sri Lanka - Anne Sheeran

Promotional Information

A tribute to the mixed hybrid and multicultural nature of Sri Lanka's society, which challenges assumptions of ethnic purity and attempts to recover a hidden history of hybridity.

About the Author

Neluka Silva is head of the Department of English, University of Colombo. Her research interests include nationalism and gender issues in cultural production in south Asia, Sri Lankan teledrama and theatre. She has been involved in the Sri Lankan theatre for over 15 years. Most of the Contributors are Sri Lankan anthropologists. They include Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Princeton.