Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere passes away

March 25, 2025 01:50 pm

Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Gananath Obeyesekere has passed away at the age of 95.

Obeyesekere, a renowned Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, has done much work in his home country of Sri Lanka.

His research focuses on psychoanalysis and anthropology and the ways in which personal symbolism is related to religious experience, in addition to the European exploration of Polynesia in the 18th century and after, and the implications of these voyages for the development of ethnography.

Among his popular books are Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Medusa’s Hair, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (coauthor), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Making Karma.

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