1st Edition

Suicide in Sri Lanka The Anthropology of an Epidemic

By Tom Widger Copyright 2015
222 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

222 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

222 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Why people kill themselves remains an enduring and unanswered question. With a focus on Sri Lanka, a country that for several decades has reported ‘epidemic’ levels of suicidal behaviour, this book develops a unique perspective linking the causes and meanings of suicidal practices to social processes across moments, lifetimes and history. Extending anthropological approaches to practice,... Read more

1. The Anthropology of Suicide 2. Of Villages, Courts, and Clinics 3. Suicide There, Suicide Here 4. Relational Flows 5. Suffering, Frustration, Anger 6. One Life, One Love 7. The Black Demon 8. The Search for Compassion 9. The Suicide Process

Biography

Tom Widger has conducted ethnographic fieldwork on suicide in Sri Lanka for more than ten years. He received a PhD in anthropology from the London School of Economics, UK in 2009. He has since held positions at Brunel University, UK, the University of Sussex, UK, the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Durham University, UK.