Vanishing aborigines: Sri Lanka's Veddas in transition
- New Delhi Vikas publishing house 1990
- 176p.
The International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is a non profit research organisation chartered under the Sri Lankan company law. Its main objective is the study of ethnic issues both nationally and across nations. The study of tribal groups forms an important facet of the ICES academic and research program. The Veddas of Sri Lanka have attracted the attention of anthro- pologists and linguists for well over a century. The last comprehensive study of the Veddas was by C.G. and B.Z. Seligmann in 1911. Although there have been several studies on various aspects of Vedda life and culture during the course of the century, the present volume can claim to be the most comprehensive in scope since the Seligmanns' The Veddas. It arose out of a workshop on the Veddas held in Kandy by the ICES in 1983. Four papers from that work have been included in this volume, in a substantially revised form, reflecting more recent findings. Several other chapters have been added to these in the compilation of the present volume.