Author Archives: thuppahi
Australian Aboriginal Peoples as Sophisticated Hunter-Gatherers?
Christine Judith Nicholls, reviewing the book Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? authored by Peter Sutton & Keryn Walshe …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor Thuppahi
Eminent Australian anthropologist Peter Sutton and respected field archaeologist Keryn Walshe have co-authored a meticulously researched n a meticulously researched new book, Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate. It’s set to become the definitive critique of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu: Black Seeds — Agriculture or Accident?
Filed under Aboriginality, accountability, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, performance, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, world events & processes
Duncan White: Trinitian, Hurdler and Trailblazer for Ceylon
KLF Wijedasa**
During this Olympic year it is pertinent to remember one of our country’s greatest athletes Major Duncan White on his 23rd death anniversary (July 3). On his way to success, he had to glide over 10 barriers and not break them!
14th August 1948: Duncan White of Ceylon fixes his starting blocks to the track at the 1948 London Olympics. Original Publication: Picture Post – 4582 – Fastest Men On Earth – pub. 1948 (Photo by Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The CHINA Bogey in Western Circles
Clive Williams, in The Australian, 9 July 2021, where the title reads “Chinese Military Threat is Overstated”
Comments in May by a Beijing newspaper editor suggesting strategic missile strikes on Australian targets under some circumstances should not alarm Australians. They were made in response to comments coming out of Australia about supporting the US in any conflict over Taiwan, and in the context of the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, australian media, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, military expenditure, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Vanni Hope’s Educational Charity Work
VANNI HOPE – It’s Motto: “Be the reason someone smiles today”
MESSAGE: Dear Friends, Relatives and Wellwishers
Once Again many thanks for helping us to serve indivduals and famlies in the poorest comunties in Sri Lanka. We indicate BELOW some of the enterprises in educational support for students in the face of the current covid pandemic — deploying brief You Tube Presentations.
ONE: HARSHINI – LAW DEGREE – LAPTOP – ONLINE CLASSES …. https://youtu.be/ixXniHBs96E
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, female empowerment, heritage, life stories, performance, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, teaching profession, tolerance, unusual people, voluntary workers, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
The Conquista: A Book on Sri Lanka’s Portuguese Period
Avishka Mario Senewiratne
Fr SG Perera who translated the work of Queiros
In an island nation which has more than two thousand five hundred years of written history, no book has provided a more detailed account of any period of Sri Lanka’s history than the Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon[1] authored by the Jesuit Father Fernaó de Queyroz.[2] This work covered the 150 years of Portuguese involvement in Ceylon. Ironically, this 17th century Jesuit Priest, had never visited the island of which he was researching and writing in the final two decades of life. This brief essay gives an overview of Queyroz the Historian, his cause and objective, the long and eventful delay of his work in reaching its readers, the controversy around it in the early 20th Century and its splendid translation by Fr. Simon Gregory Perera of the same Society.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, discrimination, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, Portuguese imperialism, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Hobson’s Choice in Lanka …. The Same Again Manikey! Kota Uda!
Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, whose preferred ttile is “Hobson’s or “Homben Yana” Choice?”
Way back in the 16th century there lived a man in Cambridge by the name of Thomas Hobson.
He rented and sold horses and was the proud owner of a stable that had 40 stallions of all colours and breeds. Anyone who wanted to rent a horse from him to ride the paddock or journey into the far horizon, paid money and got a horse. There was one condition, the renter was not allowed to select the horse. The ‘wanna be’ rider had only one choice. He had to take the horse that was in the stall nearest to the door. It was a simple matter of either ‘take it or leave it.’ When the word spread about this, it became known among possible horse renters that what they got was ‘Hobson’s Choice’.
Addressing History: Sri Lankan Identities over Time
HistoricalDialogue.lk
Dear Friends of HistoricalDialogue.lk, …. We’re happy to announce the launch of our new podcast series, ‘Witnesses to History’. Hosted by Smriti Daniel, the tri-part series is now live on our website and takes you on a journey through Sri Lanka’s history as living memories. Listen to the first episode ‘Holders of History’ which gives an insight into our shared understanding of identity and our shared past – Episode 01 ( 28 mins). Follow the link to also view some exciting bonus material that is archived on the page.
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, democratic measures, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Dry Zone Peasantry and Chēna Transformations in Sri Lanka
Gerald Peiris [i]
Chēna is an anglicized rendition of the Sinhala term hēna. Chēna cultivation is widely regarded as being equivalent to ‘shifting cultivation’ which is described as a form of agriculture engaged in by people living in sparsely populated areas with easy access to scrubland or forest that could be used as venues for rainfed farming which may, depending on circumstances, constitute their only, main, or supplementary source of livelihood. In conventional perceptions, moreover, ‘shifting cultivation’ is a subsistence-oriented economic activity of poverty-stricken peasant communities. It should, however, be noted that in most parts of Sri Lanka, the term hēna connotes a plot of land devoted to rainfed cropping, regardless of whether the farming practices pursued on the plot involves “slash-and-burn” and/or “land rotation”.
Precipitation & Irrigation Map of Lanka — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Sri_Lanka
Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Leonard Woolf’s Weliwewa Terrain: Gerald Peiris’s Profound Expertise
Michael Roberts
I have sustained a friendship and interacted with Gerald Peiris from Ramanathan Hall days at Peradeniya University beginning in July 1957. The formal discussions organised at the Ceylon Studies Seminar from 1968-1975 on the one hand and, on the other, casual, but occasionally dynamic, conversations at the Senior Common Room or the Campus Pub in those halcyon years deepened our cooperation …. and continually sharpened my brains.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
