A Case Study on the Capitalist Perspective of Traditional Indigenous Vedda Society in Dambana, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka's indigenous people, the Veddas (forest-dwellers), have inhabited Sri Lanka's monsoon dry forest for at least 16,000 years and probably much longer (Obeysekara, 1990). The Veddas’ country changed drastically into vast areas of rice-paddy cultivation, towns, villages, highways, and infrastructure. Under Mahaweli development and other development projects, thousands of people were resettled in the area. Eleven thousand hectares of hunting grounds were inundated (Obeysekara, 1990). Though they were marginalized for 40 decades, in the contemporary time this traditional indigenous community is converting into a capitalist society due to globalization and development of Sri Lanka. The research problem addressed by this study is “the capitalist perspective of traditional indigenous Vedda society.” The study area of this study is Dambana in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it is expected to discuss the converting capitalist perspective and its causes.