Vanishing aborigines: Sri Lanka's Veddas in transition

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.