The Presence of the Past

Tracing the evolution of an ancient but ongoing Sri Lankan chronicle, Steven Kemper deepens our understanding of the complex role of the historical past in the rise of nationalist movements. Kemper focuses in particular on the Mahavamsa, a Buddhist historical narrative which has been periodically extended over the last fourteen centuries, most recently in 1977 when President Jayewardene assembled a committee of scholars, bureaucrats, and monks to bring the chronicle up to date.

Kemper is concerned both with the development of Sinhala national identity and with the impact of historical consciousness in Sri Lankan culture and political life today. He discusses Sri Lankan party politics, ethnic conflict between Sinhala Buddhists and the Tamil minority, and political exchanges between the state, the monkhood, and the laity. Kemper argues that in Sri Lanka the past is made tangible through a set of social practices of genuine historical antiquity—chroniclekeeping, maintaining sacred places, and venerating heroes; and that the nationalist invocation of the past gathers its force from the way present-day circumstances impose new meanings on these practices.

By taking up the contention that Sinhala nationalism antedates the rise of nationalist movements in Europe by over a thousand years, Kemper's analysis offers challenging implications for our interpretation of nationalism as a modern European phenomenon. Anthropologists specializing in political development, historical anthropology, and oral and popular traditions; historians of South Asia; political scientists concerned with ethnic conflict; and others interested in the intersection of politics and religion will welcome The Presence of the Past.

Steven Kemper is Professor of Anthropology at Bates College.