The Veddas

The standard reference ethnography of the indigenous aboriginal Vedda people of Sri Lanka, first published in 1915.

Charles Gabriel Seligmann (Author), Brenda Zara Seligmann (Author)

9781108010788, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2010

634 pages, 87 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 3.6 cm, 0.8 kg

Dr C. G. Seligmann (1873–1940) was a renowned anthropologist who was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute between 1923 and 1925. After joining the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait in Melanesia in 1898, he changed his career from medicine to anthropology and began his career as a distinguished field anthropologist. This book contains his pioneering ethnology of the indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka. The social, political, religious and economic life of the Veddas is systematically examined in this detailed study, first published as part of the Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series in 1911. This ethnology remains the standard reference work for the social structure and material culture of the Vedda people, as they have ceased to exist as a separate community in Sri Lanka. This volume contains views on ethnicity which were acceptable at the time it was published.

Preface
Note on transliteration
1. Historical and geographical
2. Present condition of the Veddas
3. Social organization
4. Family life
5. Property and inheritance
6. Religion
7. Religion continued
8. Magic
9. Ceremonial dances
10. Invocations
11. Arts and crafts
12. Coast Veddas
13. Music C. S. Myers
14. Songs
15. Language
16. Senses of the Veddas
17. Conclusions
Vocabulary
Appendix A. M. Gunasekara
Glossary
Index.

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