Charred Lullabies

by E. Valentine Daniel

How does an ethnographer write about violence? How can he make sense of violent acts, for himself and for his readers, without compromising its sheer excess and its meaning-defying core? How can he remain a scholarly observer when the country of his birth is engulfed by terror? These are some of the questions that engage Valentine Daniel in this exploration of life and death in contemporary Sri Lanka. In 1983 Daniel "walked into the ashes and mortal residue" of the violence that had occurred in his homeland. His planned project--the study of women's folk songs as ethnohistory--was immediately displaced by the responsibility that he felt had been given to him, by surviving family members and friends of victims, to recount beyond Sri Lanka what he had seen and heard there. Trained to do fieldwork by staying in one place and educated to look for coherence and meaning in human behavior, what does an anthropologist do when he is forced by circumstances to keep moving, searching for reasons he never finds? How does he write an ethnography (or an anthropography, to use the author's term) without transforming it into a pornography of violence? In avoiding fattening the anthropography into prurience, how does he avoid flattening it with theory? The ways in which Daniel grapples with these questions, and their answers, instill this groundbreaking book with a rare sense of passion, purpose, and intellect.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Abdulla · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I did feel there were parts, especially in the chapter on representing violence, in which he tried to apply more post-modern jargon than necessary, his writing in general is well theorized, and above all sincere and empathetic.

[Mike Mena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charred is a great book for those interested in Peircean semiotics. This is an emotionally powerful book without being overly spectacular (although, any kind of violence is automatically "spectacular" to western readers). The book is definitely for grad-level readers that have some control over Peircean terminology. However, even this is not totally essential.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of theory and the history behind the civil war in Sri Lanka. Val Daniel does not focus on violence to make his book seem sensationalistic, rather, as an anthropography, outlining the history and theory makes the book more widely applicable than an ethnography would.