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| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
136941
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| Summary/Abstract |
Drawing from ethnographic work carried out between 2005 and 2007, this article considers the ways in which a women’s network has developed strategies to find meaning around the absences of loved ones, killed or ‘disappeared’ during the decades of conflict in Sri Lanka. For most of these women, the fate of their husbands, brothers, sons and fathers is not known and the lack of answers means that they are unable to fully grieve and find closure. In order to survive, they must find ways to deal with the absent bodies and present memories of those who may never be located and accounted for. These strategies include tree-planting ceremonies carried out as a way of not only remembering and mourning loved ones but also asking questions about how one makes sense of loss and what it means to carry the burden of unanswered absences through everyday life and into the future.
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| 2 |
ID:
099924
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Batticaloa district on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka has been one of the most disrupted and devastated areas of the island since civil war began in the early 1980s. Ethnically and culturally diverse, it has been under the control of different military actors; however, none had maintained full control, until May 2009 when the Sri Lankan Army successfully defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. While political, social, developmental, and humanitarian issues in the East receive much scholarly attention, local actors are often cast through the dichotomy of victim and agency that often ignore the details and textures of daily life, which tell us not only about violence but also aspects of the everyday that negotiate through and outside of violence. Taking the question of the ordinary as the driving concept, this paper explores what is meant by an 'ordinary life' for Tamil-speaking communities in Batticaloa where people suffer, survive, and resist within the endurance of the everyday. Highlighting the spaces in which relationships can be strengthened, this paper argues that a capacity for hope, for building trust, and safety, however fragile and tentative, is as much an integral part of a conflict situation as the more obvious capacity for fear and silence.
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