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Using the example of Brno, one of the leading royal cities in Moravia (as one of the lands of the Czech Crown), the author outlines methodological issues related to the study of the so-called heraldic burghers. In towns located on the territory of Bohemia, Moravia and Bohemian Silesia, they constituted a kind of transitional group between the townspeople and nobility, based on a royal privilege granting them a coat of arms, occasionally supplemented with an actual ennoblement. However, admission to lower nobility was conditioned by acceptance from the relevant noble community. Most of the privileged burghers thus preferred to live in the city, making their living by practicing occupations typical of the urban environment. For her study, the author uses sources of Brno provenance for the early modern period, when this class of burghers was created in connection with the so-called closing of the noble estates, as well as sources of provincial provenance previously processed in thorough editions and monographs. The urban sources include not only written materials, but also preserved burgher epitaphs and possibly also burgher seals. The author pays particular attention to the social and professional composition of the armorial burghers, their share in the city administration and, last but not least, to the creation and inheritance of their coats of arms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The article focuses on the ethnic representation at the university level in Sri Lanka. The University of Sri Lanka was established in 1942. A comparison of statistics with the island-wide distribution of different ethnic groups resulted to the finding that the ethnic groups Burghers and the Tamils were over-represented in the university population. The Sinhalese and the Moors/Malays were under-represented. The arguments of the Ministry of Education in the standardization of marks and the district quota scheme are presented. The scheme, however, ignores the genetic factor in intelligence.