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ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN THERAVADA BUDDHISM

Manning Nash, Gananth Obeyesekerem Michael M, Ames

Southest Asia Studies

Yale University

INTRODUCTION

These nine papers by anthropologists are the products of recent fieldwork among the people of Southeast Asia and were written at the request of Dr. Nur Yalman and myself, who convened a conference on Theravada Buddhism at the University of Chicago. These two features of the papers – their origin in recent anthropological fieldwork and their adaptation an assigned topic in the wide field of Buddhism in Southeast Asia – explain both the title and the contents of the volume.

As studies by anthropologists, they carry some of the distinguishing feature of modern theory and research in social and cultural anthology; as studies on Buddhism they confront an established tradition of historical and textual scholarship; and as studies of the relations of religion and society they explore and venture into a large region of philosophical uncertainty. Three major canons of contemporary field research are exemplified here. First, the basic is the writer`s own observations, made during a protracted residence among the people reported on. The immediacy, the richness of detail, the careful attention to informant and observer bias in these reports all stem from the anthropological dedication to firsthand fact and observation. The second, growing out of the first, is that the reports are on bounded, named, and real societies or social systems. The papers deal with aspects of Buddhism in a village in Burma, or a region in Ceylon, or a segment of the Cambodian peasantry, or a quasi-tribal people in northern Thailand. Where in order anthropological writings description and analysis of the bounded, located social system observed and reported by the fieldworker himself had usually sufficed, these papers exemplify the shift from the study of tribal to peasant peoples. All the authors show an awareness of the fact that their unit of study forms but part of a large social and cultural system. One of the repeated themes in this volume is the attempt to take systematic account of the “part-whole” problem which arises in the study of civilizations and their peasantries…

CONTENTS

Publisher`s Note

Acknowledgment

Introduction

The Buddhist Pantheon in Ceylon and its Extensions

Ritual Prestations and the Structure of the Sinhalese Pantheon

The priest role in central Village Thailand

The Buddhist Monk in Rural Burmese Society

Ritual and Ceremonial Cycle in Upper Burma

Living with Nats: An Analysis of Animism in Burman Village Social Relations

Ban Ping`s Temple: The Center of a “Loosely Structured” Society

Interrelations between Buddhism and Social Systems in Cambodian Peasant Culture

Dual Organization in Central Ceylon

A note on the Glossary

Glossary of Religious Terms

LIST OF MAPS AND CHARTS

Simplified Diagram of the Rambadeniya Pantheon

Main Center of Pilgrimage in Ceylon

Ritual Cycle of two villages in Upper Burma

Seating Pattern in Vihara during Morning Service

Lay Participation in Temple Services, by Age and Sex

Age of Novices at Ordination

Temple Tenure of Former Clergy

Kinship between Various Candidates and Their Sponsors

Genealogy of Headman`s Associates

The Leaders of Ban Ping.

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