Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah

Infobox Scientist
name = Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah
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birth_date = birth date and age|1929|1|16
birth_place = Sri Lanka
death_date =
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residence = Sri Lanka
United States
citizenship =
nationality = Sri Lankan
ethnicity = Tamil
field = Social anthropologist
work_institutions = University of Ceylon
University of Cambridge
University of Chicago
Harvard University
alma_mater = University of Ceylon
Cornell University
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
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influences =
influenced =
prizes = Balzan Prize (1997)
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (1998)
religion = Christian
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Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah (born January 16, 1929) is a leading social anthropologist and Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. He specializes in studies of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tamils, as well as the anthropology of religion and politics.

Biography

Tambiah was born in Sri Lanka to a Christian Tamil family. After finishing his undergraduate education at the University of Ceylon in 1951, he attended Cornell University, graduating in 1954 with a PhD.cite news
first = Ken
last = Gewertz
title = Stanley Tambiah To Be Awarded Balzan Prize For Groundbreaking Work on Ethnic Violence
url = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/10.23/StanleyTambiahT.html
work = Harvard Gazette
date = 1997-10-23
accessdate = 2007-08-19] He began teaching anthropology at the University of Ceylon in 1955, where he remained until 1960. After a few years as the UNESCO Teaching Assistant for Thailand, he taught at the University of Cambridge from 1963 to 1972 and at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 1976.cite web
url = http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/tambiah_stanley.html
title = Stanley Tambiah
accessdate = 2007-08-19
last = Anthony
first = Peterson
work = Anthropology Biography Web
publisher = Emuseum @ Minnesota State University, Mankato] He joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1976.cite news
title = Harvard Foundation unveils portraits: Six minority faculty and administrators recognized and recognizable
url = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/05.12/01-portraits.html
work = Harvard Gazette
date = 2005-05-12
accessdate = 2007-08-19]

His earliest published work was an ethno-historical study of modern and medieval Thailand. He then became interested in the comparative study of the ways Western categories of magic, science and religion have been used by anthropologists to make sense of other cultures which do not use this three-part system. After the outbreak of civil war in Sri Lanka, he began to study the role of competing religious and ethnic identities in that country. At Harvard, he has trained several generations of anthropologists in a number of fields. He also serves on the National Research Council's Committee for International Conflict Resolution.

Awards

In November 1997, Tambiah received the prestigious Balzan Prize for "penetrating social-anthropological analysis of the fundamental problems of ethnic violence in South East Asia and original studies on the dynamics of Buddhist societies [that] have opened the way to an innovative and rigorous social-anthropological approach to the internal dynamics of different civilizations". [cite web
url = http://www.balzan.it/Premiati_eng.aspx?Codice=0000001326&nome=Stanley%20Jeyaraja%20Tambiah
title = Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah
accessdate = 2007-08-20
publisher = Fondazione Internazionale Balzan] A month later, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland awarded him its highest recognition, [cite web
url = http://www.therai.org.uk/honours/honours.html
title = Honours
accessdate = 2007-08-19
work = Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland] the Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture. [cite web
url = http://www.therai.org.uk/honours/prior_huxley.html
title = Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture: Prior Recipients
accessdate = 2007-08-19
work = Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland] In September 1998, he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize by the city of Fukuoka, capital of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.cite news
first = Ken
last = Gewertz
title = Stanley Tambiah To Be Awarded Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize
url = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/08.06/StanleyTambiahT.html
work = Harvard Gazette
date = 1998-08-06
accessdate = 2007-08-19]

In 2000, he became a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, [cite news
title = British Academy elects Tambiah
url = http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/11.09/03-newsmakers.html
work = Harvard Gazette
date = 2000-11-09
accessdate = 2007-08-19] a title given to those who have "attained high international standing" in a discipline in the humanities or social sciences. [cite web
url = http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/index.html
title = The Fellowship of the British Academy
accessdate = 2007-08-19
year = 2006
publisher = The British Academy]

Selected publications

*"Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand". Cambridge University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-521-09958-7.
*"World Conqueror and World Renouncer : A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background" (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology). Cambridge University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-521-29290-5.
*"Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality" (Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures). Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-521-37631-9.
*"Buddhism Betrayed? : Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka" (A Monograph of the World I"nstitute for Development Economics Research). University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN 0-226-78950-0.
*"Leveling Crowds : Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia". (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society). University of California Press, 199. ISBN 0-520-20642-8.
*"Edmund Leach: An Anthropological Life". Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-521-52102-5.

See also

*List of Balzan Prize recipients

References