{"id":45857,"date":"2016-03-25T23:27:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T03:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45857"},"modified":"2016-03-25T23:28:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T03:28:51","slug":"sorcery-used-as-substitute-for-pre-meditated-murder-and-physical-violence-in-sri-lanka-ays-prof-gananath-obeysekere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=45857","title":{"rendered":"Sorcery Used as Substitute for Pre-meditated Murder and Physical Violence in Sri Lanka Says Prof.Gananath Obeysekere"},"content":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, sorcery is used as a substitute for premeditated murder and physical violence, says Princeton University\u2019s Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Gananath Obeyesekere.<\/p>\n

In his paper: \u201c Sorcery, Premeditated Murder and Canalization of Aggression\u201d revised in 2014, Obeyesekere says that sorcery helps canalize a person\u2019s murderous intention or wish to physically harm someone into a non-violent form of aggression which is thought to be as effective as the actual infliction of death or physical injury while being less risky and less messy.<\/p>\n

This explains the widespread use of sorcery by members of all communities in Sri Lanka \u2013 Sinhalese Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim \u2013 though users are predominantly Sinhalese Buddhist.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The use of sorcery is probably more now than before, because in modern Sri Lanka, sorcery is no longer a crime equivalent to homicide. In the times of the Sinhalese Kings, sorcerers were put to death as murderers.<\/p>\n

The most renowned places for sorcery in the island are Seenigama Devale on the Western coast, south of Colombo, which is a Buddhist shrine; the Kali kovil in Munneswaram in Chilaw, north of Colombo, which is a Hindu shrine; and the Kahatapitiya shrine in Gampola, in Central Sri Lanka, which is Muslim shrine housing the grave of a saint.<\/p>\n

Neither the people nor the shrines discriminate on the basis of religion, with the result, Muslims also consult sorcerers in Munneswaram\u2019s Kali Kovil or at Seenigama. <\/p>\n

Obeyesekere posits that if one were to go by the number of people resorting to sorcery, the number wanting to murder or cause bodily harm in a premeditated way should be larger than the figure mentioned in official crime statistics.<\/p>\n

In official statistics, incidents of spontaneous murder or violence vastly outnumber premeditated homicides or violence. But this could be misleading from the point of view of intention. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe present data on crime statistics with their high ratio of spontaneous crimes to premeditated ones are highly biased and might be corrected by taking into account the factor of sorcery,\u201d Obeyesekere suggests.<\/p>\n

To the anthropologist, the sorcerer is the equivalent of a \u201chired killer\u201d. In fact, sorcerers who recite \u201cpoison verses \u201d are thought to be \u201cdeadlier than actual killers,\u201d and are \u201cpopular among politicians as a technique for getting rid of their political enemies,\u201d Obeyesekere says. Given the high demand, the sorcerers charge high fees.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:New Indian Express<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran In Sri Lanka, sorcery is used as a substitute for premeditated murder and physical violence, says Princeton University\u2019s Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Gananath Obeyesekere. In his paper: \u201c Sorcery, Premeditated Murder and Canalization of Aggression\u201d revised in 2014, Obeyesekere says that sorcery helps canalize a person\u2019s murderous intention or wish to physically harm …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sorcery Used as Substitute for Pre-meditated Murder and Physical Violence in Sri Lanka Says Prof.Gananath Obeysekere’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45859,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45857\/revisions\/45859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}