Gananath Obeyesekere | |
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| Born | (1930-02-02)2 February 1930 Meegama,British Ceylon |
| Died | 25 March 2025(2025-03-25) (aged 95) Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Education | University of Peradeniya (BA) University of Washington (MA; PhD) |
| Occupation(s) | Anthropologist,professor |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropology |
| Institutions | Princeton University (1980–2000) |
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| Anthropology |
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Gananath Obeyesekere (2 February 1930 – 25 March 2025) was a Sri Lankan anthropologist of religion and professor ofanthropology atPrinceton University. His research focused onpsychoanalysis andanthropology and how personal symbolism is related to religious experience, in addition to theEuropean exploration of Polynesia in the 18th century and after, and the implications of these voyages for the development ofethnography.[1] His books includeLand Tenure in Village Ceylon,Medusa's Hair,[2]The Cult of the Goddess Pattini,[3]Buddhism Transformed (coauthor),The Work of Culture,The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, andMaking Karma. He did much of his fieldwork inSri Lanka.
Obeyesekere was born in Meegama,British Ceylon (now inWestern Province, Sri Lanka).[4] He completed a B.A. in English (1955) at theUniversity of Ceylon, Peradeniya,[5] followed by an M.A. (1958) and PhD (1964) at theUniversity of Washington.[6] Before his appointment to Princeton, Obeyesekere held teaching positions at theUniversity of Ceylon,[5] the University of Washington and theUniversity of California, San Diego.[7] He was chair of the Princeton University Anthropology department and a professor from 1980 until his retirement in 2000.[8]
Obeyesekere received several academic awards, including theThomas H. Huxley medal by theRoyal Anthropological Institute in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the discipline.[9] He was awarded aGuggenheim fellowship in 1978.[10] He died in Colombo on 25 March 2025, at the age of 95.[4]
In the 1990s, Obeyesekere entered into a well-known intellectual debate withMarshall Sahlins over the rationality of indigenous peoples. The debate was carried out through an examination of the details of thedeath of James Cook in theHawaiian Islands in 1779. At the heart of the debate was how to understand the rationality of indigenous people. Obeyesekere insisted that indigenous people thought in essentially the same way asWesterners and was concerned that any argument otherwise would paint them as "irrational" and "uncivilized". In contrast, Sahlins argued that each culture may have different types of rationality that make sense of the world by focusing on different patterns and explain them within specific cultural narratives, and that assuming that all cultures lead to a single rational view is a form ofEurocentrism.[11]
