Stories and histories

by Gananath Obeyesekere

This book narrates Sri Lankan pasts and the dilemmas of narrative representation.

535 pages

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Gananath Obeyesekere was a Sri Lankan anthropologist who was emeritus professor of anthropology at Princeton University and had done much work in his home country of Sri Lanka. His research focused on psychoanalysis and anthropology and the ways in which personal symbolism is related to religious experience, in addition to the European exploration of Polynesia in the 18th century and after, and the implications of these voyages for the development of ethnography. His books include Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Medusa's Hair, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (coauthor), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Making Karma.

Reviews

[Mike Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well done, and a really good application of constructivism onto a cultural and historical contexf. Initially considered whether a chronological structure would have worked, but realised that the very message of manyness is better felt in the more thematic and non-chronological approach taken.