| Research Abstract |
This research has two main themes. 1. Accumulate a collection and make a database of accounts of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict ; 2, Research regarding the situation and ethnic conflicts of Sri Lankans in Japan. Below are the main results and conclusions.
1. Trends of research on Sri Lanka : Made a catalog of documentary research and data file. This led to the following conclusion regarding the flow of research on Sri Lanka over time : 1950s-1960s, research focused on history, language, customs, and land tenure ; 1970s- first half of 1980s, research consisted of anthropological studies of culture, religion, and rituals ; second half of 1980s- present, main object of research has been ethnic conflict (history, language, cultural anthropology, political science, etc...).
2. Ethnic relations among Sri Lankans in Japan : Conducted research on the activities and groups of Sri Lankans in Japan and made a data file. Individual interviews were also conducted. I found that groups to promote communic
… More
ation between Sinhalese and Tamils were rare but there were was a little continuing support for movements of Tamil separatism and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. However, most Sri Lankans are uninterested in these activities as they are mostly concerned with promoting their economic activities and study during their time in Japan.
During the research I became aware of the importance of NGO activities in Sri Lanka and made a data file on the main NGOs in Sri Lanka. As a result I came to understand the following. The number of NGOs in Sri Lanka increased rapidly in the second half of the 1980s. NGOs can be divided into three classifications according to their parent organization : foreign NGOs ; domestic NGOs ; mixed foreign-domestic NGOS.While most of the NGOs are the development organizations from the 1970s (i.e., village economic self-sufficiency movement, land development movements, etc...), human rights organizations (i.e., women's' rights advocacy movements, children's rights protection movements, etc...) came increased among the NGOs during the intensification of ethnic conflict in the second half of the 1980s. Although Sri Lankans actively want to receive NGO aid, this coming of foreign culture and intervention into ethnic culture causes much apprehension about the control of foreign capitalism. Less
|
