Beyond methodological agnosticism: Ritual, healing, and Sri Lanka's civil war
Kaori Hatsumi
The Australian Journal of Anthropology June 19, 2017 DOI: 10.1111/taja.12235 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Tamil fishing villagers in the Vanni, Sri Lanka, who survived the final battle of the civil war |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key findings | Argues that the Catholic Easter ritual enactments of the paschal mystery, called 'pasch', had therapeutic effects for Tamil war survivors during Holy Week, shaped by the orthodox rite and local traditions, the postwar historical context, and the villagers' readiness for healing and new life. Calls for abandoning methodological agnosticism to understand religious experience. |
Abstract
In April 2010, eleven months after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, I participated in the Catholic Easter rite in a Tamil fishing village in the Vanni, where the last battle between the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was fought. This article explores the way in which the ritual enactments of the paschal mystery, called pasch, came to have enormously therapeutic effects for the survivors during Holy Week. The decisive factors in the villagers’ Easter experience included: the nature of the orthodox rite and accompanying local traditions, the unique historical context in which they found themselves, and their readiness to receive healing and start a new life. The article calls for the abandonment of methodological agnosticism in order for us to understand the villagers’ religious experiences, and contributes to the emerging field of ‘post‐secular’ anthropology.