Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2023
Document Type
Thesis (Master's)
Department or Program
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
First Advisor
Barbara Kreiger
Second Advisor
Tom Zoellner
Third Advisor
Anna Minardi
Abstract
The following thesis tells the story of my year in rural Sri Lanka. After college, I traveled from suburban New York to the highlands of the island country with the hopes of writing an ethnography on agrarian Buddhism. I soon realized, however, that I was not just embarking on an academic project, but an inner journey to explore ways of being that had been lost in the modern culture I had known. My narrative recounts how immersion in a rice cultivating village deepened my sense for what it means to live in reciprocity with the more-than-human world—a world of plants, animals, ancestors, and spirits dwelling in a sacred land suffused with stories. More broadly, I suggest that the ability to re-member animistic ways of being is vital to restoring a healthy human presence in the Earth community. My narrative is organized into twelve chapters that trace how my inner journey mirrored the transformation of the rice paddies across time.
Recommended Citation
King, Samuel C., "Re-membering the Living Earth: A Year in Rural Sri Lanka" (2023). Dartmouth College Master’s Theses. 99.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/masters_theses/99
Included in
Buddhist Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
