Chapter Structure. This thesis is structured in six chapters. The accounts of interviewees are woven into analysis, informing and adding empirical texture to the thematic examination. Fieldwork commentary is included below as an introduction to the methodological challenges posed by researching a politically sensitive country such as Sri Lanka. Chapter One returns to the historical roots of the conflict; it traces the nation- building project of the Sinhala-Buddhist state and its gradual marriage with militarism. Providing an explanatory framework for the alienation and marginalisation of the Tamil minority group, this chapter is an overview of the content and dominant nature of this majoritarian nationalism. The military success of the Rajapaksa regime, and its successive elections to power, I argue, depended on a deep societal polarisation and appropriation of mass rituals by the state in the service of Sinhala-Buddhism. The Sinhala- Buddhist nationalist establishment – supported by a politicised Buddhism – was committed to a military defeat of the LTTE at the End. This chapter explains the manner in which a hegemonic militant Sinhala-Buddhist discourse was formed. Chapter Two explores the Sri Lankan state narrative at the End and highlights discursive themes that are central to the Rajapaksas’ nation-building project. This chapter also provides an account of the state of terror established in Sri Lanka. I examine the consolidation of power under the Rajapaksa government, the myriad mechanisms of social and discursive control, and the establishment of a national security state. Chapter Three provides the reader with a portrait of the post-conflict lived experience of the Tamil people in the North and Eastern provinces. Drawing heavily on interviews and fieldwork observation, this chapter is an account of Sinhala-Buddhist militarisation, the post-conflict detention and surveillance of the Tamil community, and projects designed to politically neutralise and culturally erase Tamil life. The birth of a ‘new independence’ where the military is the conveyor of a ‘charitable’ peace, I argue, is premised on the suppression of Tamil nationalism and political aspirations. Chapter Three also outlines the state reconciliation initiatives underway, arguing that they serve a merely performative function by a recalcitrant state. I examine the influence and interests of the so-called international community in monitoring and directing Sri Lanka’s adherence to standard post-conflict proces...
Chapter Structure. This thesis is structured in six chapters. The accounts of interviewees are woven into analysis, informing and adding empirical texture to the thematic examination. Fieldwork commentary is included below as an introduction to the methodological challenges posed by researching a politically sensitive country such as Sri Lanka.
Chapter Structure. In this dissertation, I argue for engaging local women’s narratives and practices as a way to generate a theological reading of the ways healing emerges in women’s lives despite the presence of violence. The next chapter begins by outlining the conversation partners, making a case for why religion matters in women’s conceptions of healing. Additionally, Chapter one provides a context for the Liberian Civil War, using women’s narratives to ground the discussion. I argue that there is a place for a feminist, practical theology in women’s human rights discourse around women and violence, in that feminist practical theologians are attuned to the ways that religion emerges in the everyday stories women tell about their lives and in the practices they engage in order to heal. Practical theologians must be willing to place women’s voices and practices at the forefront of our theological work. To do this, I develop a methodology in Chapter two that draws on pastoral practices of paying attention and deep listening, particularly to those voices that have gone unheard.15 I bring these methods of attention and care into a dialogue with feminist ethnographic methods of research, particularly the work of Xxxx Xxxxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx and Xxxxx Xxx. This emerging methodology developed between these two seemingly disparate fields will help to ground the theological language for understanding healing that follows in this dissertation. The second chapter of the dissertation provides both a reflection on method and a theoretical engagement of trauma and memory. The chapter discusses both the promises and limits of turning to narrative in trauma recovery. While many individuals are able to find healing through talking about their experiences of violence to an “empathic other,”16 for others telling stories of violence is not possible or desired,17 so practices of remembering and mourning become important ways of showing rather than speaking of violence. Given both the promises and pitfalls of narrative methodologies related to trauma and healing, this chapter outlines a methodology for the dissertation that engages not only narrative-based pastoral theological methods, but also participant observation 15 For examples of pastoral theological work in this vein, see Xxxxxx Xxxxxx-Xxxxxxxx, Xxxxxx and Xxxxx X. Xxxxxxxx, eds. Injustice and the Care of Souls: Taking Oppression seriously in pastoral care (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009); Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Pastoral ...
