Power and Religiosity in a Post-Colonial Setting
Sinhala Catholics in Contemporary Sri Lanka

Dr Stirrat, who has worked in Sri Lanka over a long period, is interested both in how people behave at the shrines and in the historical and social contexts in which the shrines have appeared.

R. L. Stirrat (Author)

9780521415552, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 September 1992

260 pages, 9 b/w illus. 2 maps 5 tables
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.516 kg

'This monograph should serve as a reference point for future studies of Christianity in non-Western settings.' Anthropos

Over the past few decades a series of Catholic shrines have sprung up in Sri Lanka which draw hundreds of pilgrims. Although best known as centres for the exorcism of the demonically possessed, their miraculous efficacy also extends to helping people find jobs and preferment, and to alleviating suffering. Dr Stirrat, who has worked in Sri Lanka over a long period, is interested both in how people behave at the shrines, and in the historical and social contexts in which the shrines have appeared. He argues that an understanding of their religious importance is intricately connected with power, religious and political. This view challenges the conventional distinction between 'religion' and 'politics', and accordingly, religious suffering is seen as a complex metaphor linking together various social domains and a means through which conflicts over power and authority can be expressed.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The colonial Church
3. The Church in crisis
4. The rise of Kudagama
5. Demonic possession and the battle against evil
6. Suffering and sacrifice
7. Holy men and power
8. Patronage and religion
9. On the borders
10. Conclusion
Notes
List of references
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]