Search

Portuguese Burghers are a minority ethnic community in Sri Lanka who speak an endangered creole language, Sri Lanka Portuguese (SLP). This paper explores the way Portuguese Burgher identities are articulated in their main performance tradition: a syncretic quadrille dance known as káfriinha. This dance is an important social dance which is embedded in the proceedings of wedding celebrations and other formal events and is a prominent expression of Portuguese Burgher identity. As the primary form of Portuguese Burghers' performative expression, káfriinha reflects aspects that are core to their identity including the socialisation of gender roles and the self-definition of their identity. Its groove is arresting to the observer, enduring in its history and catching in its cultural influence—both within Sri Lanka and across the Indian Ocean. In this article I demonstrate how ethnographic analysis of káfriinha is revealing of continuity and change in Portuguese Burgher identity, bringing into focus processes of creolisation and aesthetic (and cultural) value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay studies the impact of the 2004 Asian Tsunami on a marginalized ethnic community of Burghers in Batticaloa, Eastern Sri Lanka. Through a case study of the displacement and re-settlement of Burgher women, their role in a cooperative society, and property ownership strategies, the essay argues that while gender positions may not have altered significantly at the macro level, changes have occurred at a micro-political level, and that these “small changes from below” mark the emergence of the women as a political community. It also points to the need, if these transformative practices are to be deepened and sustained, for developmental actors such as the state and international donors to recalibrate their approaches to rural women. This includes placing greater value on local social practices such as matrilineal inheritance that favor women in Eastern Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper considers the historical processes and human agency involved in the creation of a particular identity category, the Dutch Burghers of Sri Lanka, by reflecting upon Karl Marx's maxim that 'People make their own histories, but not just as they please'. I pay homage to the guidance I received from my supervisor, Doug Miles, who enabled me to recognise that people are not so weighed down by colonial pasts that they cease to be creative agents in constituting their own life worlds and who encouraged me to analyse Dutch Burgher writings, published in the Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union, as cultural products and as material evidence of social agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]