Background
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyarajah was born on January 16, 1929 in Sri Lanka. Came to United States, 1973. Son of Charles Rajakone and Eliza Chellamma (Moothathamby) Tambiah.
(The central actors in this book are some reclusive forest...)
The central actors in this book are some reclusive forest-dwelling ascetic meditation masters who have been acclaimed as 'saints' in contemporary Thailand. These saints originally pursued their salvation quest among the isolated villages of the country's periphery, but once recognized as holy men endowed with charisma, they became the radiating centres of a country-wide cult of amulets. The amulets, blessed by the saints, are avidly sought by royalty, ruling generals, intelligentsia and common folk alike for their alleged powers to influence the success of worldly transactions, whether political, economic, martial or romantic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521277876/?tag=2022091-20
( Ethno-nationalist conflicts are rampant today, causing ...)
Ethno-nationalist conflicts are rampant today, causing immense human loss. Stanley J. Tambiah is concerned with the nature of the ethno-nationalist explosions that have disfigured so many regions of the world in recent years. He focuses primarily on collective violence in the form of civilian "riots" in South Asia, using selected instances in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India. He situates these riots in the larger political, economic, and religious contexts in which they took place and also examines the strategic actions and motivations of their principal agents. In applying a wide range of social theory to the problems of ethnic and religious violence, Tambiah pays close attention to the history and culture of the region. On one level this provocative book is a scrupulously detailed anthropological and historical study, but on another it is an attempt to understand the social and political changes needed for a more humane order, not just in South Asia, but throughout the world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520206428/?tag=2022091-20
(Dr Tambiah describes the religious practices and beliefs ...)
Dr Tambiah describes the religious practices and beliefs of the people of a remote village in north-east Thailand, relating them to the wider context of the civilization in which they are embedded, and examining the relationship of the religious practices of the villagers to the classical Buddhist tradition. Because they have based their studies on the Sanskrit and Pali literature, Western observers have tended to dismiss much of the popular manifestation of Buddhism as debased. Dr Tambiah demonstrates that this judgement is misleading, and emphasizes that the contemporary village religion that he describes manifests continuities as well as transformations with respect to the classical literary tradition. The village religion is described primarily through ritual.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521099587/?tag=2022091-20
(Bridewealth and dowry have certain obvious similarities i...)
Bridewealth and dowry have certain obvious similarities in that they both involve the transmission of property at marriage, the usual interpretation suggesting that what distinguishes them is the direction in which the property travels - in the case of bridewealth, from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin, and in the case of dowry, vice versa. The authors of these 1973 papers criticise this interpretation as oversimplified, and analyse the two institutions in the contexts of Africa, with its preponderance of bridewealth, and South Asia, where dowry is the commoner institution. Dr Goody seeks to explain these geographical differences in terms of the basic structure of the societies and the rules governing the inheritance of property. Dr Tambiah considers these institutions in India, Ceylon and Burma as two kinds of property transfer, examining Indian juridical concepts, and relating these to the concepts and practices of Ceylon and Burma.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/052109805X/?tag=2022091-20
( Focusing on the historical events of post-independence ...)
Focusing on the historical events of post-independence Sri Lanka, S. J. Tambiah analyzes the causes of the violent conflict between the majority Sinhalese Buddhists and the minority Tamils. He demonstrates that the crisis is primarily a result of recent societal stresses—educational expansions, linguistic policy, unemployment, uneven income distribution, population movements, contemporary uses of the past as religious and national ideology, and trends toward authoritarianism—rather than age-old racial and religious differences. "In this concise, informative, lucidly written book, scrupulously documented and well indexed, Tambiah trains his dispassionate anthropologist's eye on the tangled roots of an urgent, present-day problem in the passionate hope that enlightenment, understanding, and a generous spirit of compromise may yet be able to prevail."—Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor "An incredibly rich and balanced analysis of the crisis. It is exemplary in highlighting the general complexities of ethnic crises in long-lived societies carrying a burden of historical memories."—Amita Shastri, Journal of Asian Studies "Tambiah makes an eloquent case for pluralist democracy in a country abundantly endowed with excuses to abandon such an approach to politics."—Donald L. Horowitz, New Republic "An excellent and thought-provoking book, for anyone who cares about Sri Lanka."—Paul Sieghart, Los Angeles Times Book Review
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226789527/?tag=2022091-20
(Professor Tambiah is one of the leading anthropologists o...)
Professor Tambiah is one of the leading anthropologists of the day, particularly known for his penetrating and scholarly studies of Buddhism. In this accessible and illuminating book he deals with the classical opposition of magic with science and religion. He reviews the great debates in classical Judaism, early Greek science, Renaissance philosophy, the Protestant Reformation, and the scientific revolution, and then reconsiders the three major interpretive approaches to magic in anthropology: the intellectualist and evolutionary theories of Tylor and Frazer, Malinowski's functionalism, and Lévy-Bruhl's philosophical anthropology, which posited a distinction between mystical and logical mentalities. He follows with a wide-ranging and suggestive discussion of rationality and relativism and concludes with a discussion of new thinking in the history and philosophy of science, suggesting fresh perspectives on the classical opposition between science and magic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521376319/?tag=2022091-20
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyarajah was born on January 16, 1929 in Sri Lanka. Came to United States, 1973. Son of Charles Rajakone and Eliza Chellamma (Moothathamby) Tambiah.
Bachelor, University Ceylon, Peradeniya, 1951. Doctor of Philosophy, Cornell University, 1954. Doctor of Letters (honorary), Jaffna University, Sri Lanka, 1981.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), University Chicago, 1991. Doctor of Letters (honorary), University Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 1991.
Lecturer University Ceylon, 1955-1960. United Nations Educational technical assistance expert Thailand, 1960-1963. Smuts fellow University Cambridge (England) and Commonwealth fellow St. John's College, University Cambridge, 1963-1964.
Lecturer University Cambridge, 1964-1972. Fellow Clare Hall, 1965-1970. Fellow, tutor graduate students, director studies in social anthropology King's College, 1970-1972.
Fellow Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California, 1968-1969. Professor anthropology University Chicago, 1973-1976. Professor, curator South Asian ethnology Peabody Museum, Harvard University, since 1976.
Chairman department anthropological Harvard University, 1984-1987, Esther and Sidney Rabb professor of anthropology, since 1994. Malinowski memorial lecturer London School of Economics, 1968. Radcliffe-Brown memorial lecturer British Academy, 1979.
Radhakrishnan memorial lecturer Oxford University, 1982. Kingsley Martin memorial lecturer Cambridge University, 1982, Lewis Henry Morgan memorial lecturer, Rochester University, 1984, American Ethnological Society distinguished lecturer, 1988, Daryll Forde memorial lecturer University College, London, 1991, Hilldale lecturer University Wisconsin, 1996, Japanese Association Ethnology distinguished lecturer, 1997.
(Bridewealth and dowry have certain obvious similarities i...)
(Dr Tambiah describes the religious practices and beliefs ...)
(The central actors in this book are some reclusive forest...)
(Professor Tambiah is one of the leading anthropologists o...)
( Ethno-nationalist conflicts are rampant today, causing ...)
( Focusing on the historical events of post-independence ...)
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, Royal Anthropological Institute (Curl Bequest prize 1964, Rivers Memorial medal 1973), American Anthropological Association. Member Association Asian Studies (president 1989-1990, presidential address 1990), National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
Married Mary Wynne Huber, March 15, 1969. Children: Jonathan Anand, Matthew Arjun.