The Political Economy of Desire in Ritual and Activism in SriLanka (abstract)
- Translation(s):
- L’économie politique du désir dans le rituel et le militantisme au SriLanka [fr]
Abstract
Amidst the complexity of the development-religion nexus, this chapter examines desire and its varying expressions as fundamental concerns of many religions motivating both development and alternatives to development. In Sri Lanka, as people deal with social change, the neoliberal and globalised development is understood and re-interpreted through local idioms and formations of desire. The neoliberal economy cultivates desire and, as such, leads to a perceived increase in the presence of pretas (greedy, hungry ghosts) that occasionally emerge when people die. The hungry ghosts, as fetishised formations of desire, resonate with consumers and entrepreneurs, who exhibit an insatiable hunger for ever more material wealth. Hence, the ritual appeasement of hungry ghosts and the social activism of groups such as the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform are clearly linked by their mutual concern with the existential insecurity of fellow human and non-human beings caused by excessive and unbalanced desire. However, the explicit articulation of specific concerns regarding desire diverges between ritual action and social activism. Ritual materialises and condenses the anxiety related to desire, whereas social activism describes the fetishisation of desire in more abstract economic, political and scientific terms.
Editors' notes
Paperback reference : Van Daele, W. (2013) "The Political Economy of Desire in Ritual and Activism in Sri Lanka", in International Development Policy: Religion and Development, No.4, Geneva: Graduate Institute Publications, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 159-173.
Cite this article
Bibliographical reference
Wim Van Daele, “The Political Economy of Desire in Ritual and Activism in SriLanka (abstract)”, International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement, 4 | 2013, 159-173.
Electronic reference
Wim Van Daele, “The Political Economy of Desire in Ritual and Activism in SriLanka (abstract)”, International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement [Online], 4 | 2013, Online since 14 February 2013, connection on 11 September 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/1454; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.1454
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