This book offers an anthropological account of Sri Lanka’s Eelam
Wars III and IV. It is based on the life-narratives of
ex-servicemen who fought on the frontlines. The volume approaches
militarism as a practice of masculinity. It explores the sense of
embattlement that young recruits feel, which stems from the inner
war between notions of bodily deference instilled in childhood and
having to conduct offensives on the battlefield. Thus though they
wish to move smoothly into the assault techniques learnt in
combat-training, they sometimes find their bodies are acting-out a
different trajectory; engaging in acts of spectacular violence or
simply running away. It traverses themes such as masculinity and
Sinhala society, British martial masculinity vs the composed body
in Sinhala discourse, combat-training and the battlefield. The
author traces the ways in which troops tried to negotiate the thin
line between valour and violence in a context in which the
enemy’s suicide fighters engaged in the more extreme code of
sacrificing-the-body, which derided the very manliness of soldiers
who couldn’t prevail against them. She argues that the Sri Lankan
experience has resonance for soldiers on battlefields everywhere,
who become embattled when confronted by adversaries whose practice
seems to diminish their own manliness. Rich in ethnographical
narratives, this book will be interest scholars and researchers of
war studies, gender studies, masculinity studies, peace and
conflict studies, ethnic studies, political science, international
relations, sociology, social anthropology, cultural studies, and
South Asian studies, especially those concerned with Sri Lanka.
General
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