Location: Southwest portion of Sri Lanka. The Low Country Sinhalese in the maritime provinces have a longer history of colonial rule, whereas the Kandyan Sinhalese in the mountainous interior of the island were protected from colonial invasion until the 19th century. Thus, there is some cultural distinction between the two regional groups.
Language: Sinhalese is in the Indo-European language family.
Daily Life: Traditionally, Sinhalese villages were composed of two to four-room mud and plaster houses thatched with woven palm fronds, each with its own garden. Homes were built in a ring around the paddy fields.
Subsistence: The Sinhalese consume rice as the staple of their diet along with jack-fruit, bread-fruit, coconut, vegetables, and manioc. Some farmers raise cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, and pigs. Many are now engaged in the industrial and service workforce.
Kinship: The Kandyan Sinhalese kinship system has been one of the most well-studied by anthropologists. The primary unit of kinship is the pavula, or micro-caste, the convergence of several families into a group that cooperates in agriculture, trade, and politics. Property is individually owned, but kin members help each other without expecting compensation.
Sinhalese kinship is very fluid; an actual blood relationship can be denied and non-consanguine kin become fully integrated into the group and treated as blood kin. For instance, future in-laws may be referred to by kinship terms before the marriage even takes place and may continue to be considered family members if the marriage is terminated. Thus, fictional kin relations are not fictional at all: they are defended as rigorously as blood relations. Almost all social relationships are qualified by kinship terms, such as akka (elder sister) or malli (younger brother).
Sinhalese culture is patriarchal, but they reckon descent bilaterally. Property is divided equally between all siblings, including women. Traditionally, cross-cousin marriage was preferred to prevent land from leaving the kin group when a woman got married. Today many young people choose their own marriage partners, though parental approval can still make or break a match.
Religion: More than 90% of Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhist, but they also practice Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, or Islam. Many families with Buddhist affiliation will visit Hindu temples to make offerings and vice versa. However, Buddhism receives special protection under the Sri Lankan constitution and under the pre-colonial feudal system the authority of the king was interdependent with the Buddhist monastic order (sangha).
Traditional animist religion still has a role in Sinhalese culture and is in some cases fused with Buddhism. For example, a village priest will begin most magic rites by paying homage to the Buddha. Parents usually consult astrology when they name a newborn and traditional arts such as palm-reading are practiced by some Buddhist monks.
References:
Pfaffenberger, Bryan and John Beirle
1997 Cultural Summary: Sinhalese. eHRAF World Cultures, New Haven, CT.
Robinson, Marguerite S.
1997[1968] Some Observations on the Kandyan Sinhalese Kinship System. eHRAF World Cultures, New Haven, CT.
Yalman, Nur
1962 The Structure of the Sinhalese Kindred: A Re-Examination of the Dravidian Terminology. American Anthropologist 64(3):548-575.
Written by Melissa Lorentz, 2008