Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: Ethnic and Regional Dimensions

The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which devastated 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed an estimated 35,000 people, was remarkable both for the magnitude of the disaster and for the unprecedented scale of the relief and recovery operations mounted by national and international agencies. The reconstruction process was soon hampered by political patronage, by the competing efforts of hundreds of foreign humanitarian organizations, and by the ongoing civil war.The book is framed within this larger political and social context, offering descriptions and comparisons between two regions (southwest vs. eastern coast) and four ethnic communities (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and Burghers) to illustrate how disaster relief unfolded in a culturally pluralistic political landscape. Approaching the issue from four disciplinary perspectives - anthropology, demography, political science, and disaster studies - chapters by experts in the field analyse regional and ethnic patterns of post-tsunami reconstruction according to different sectors of Sri Lankan society. Demonstrating the key importance of comprehending the local cultural contexts of disaster recovery processes, the book is a timely and useful contribution to the existing literature.

About the Author

Dennis B. McGilvray is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder. His research focuses on Tamil-speaking Hindus and Muslims of eastern Sri Lanka, including caste identities, matrilineal family patterns, popular religious traditions, and ethnic conflict. He is the author of Crucible of Conflict: Tamil and Muslim Society on the East Coast of Sri Lanka (Duke 2008)

Michele R. Gamburd is Professor of Anthropology at Portland State University. She has performed ethnographic research in Sri Lanka since 1992 and her theoretical interests focus on globalization, gender relations, violence, and social change. Her most recent book is Breaking the Ashes: The Culture of Illicit Liquor in Sri Lanka (Cornell 2008)