A Survey on the Sri Lankan Black Magical Cultural Heritage: a Study based on Deniyaya and Pallegma Villages in the Southern Province

Abstract

The similar term for the traditional knowledge is the indigenous knowledge which can be described as an art that reflects the vernacular or the hereditary or the indigenous knowhow, ideas and practices, belief systems of each other over time in a particular community living in a particular region or location. Therefore this study belongs to knowledge management. When it comes to local knowledge, it can be classified in to two parts. Namely tangible heritage and intangible heritage. The intangible heritage is threatened with the decadence of such a knowledge system owing to the people’s ignorance of the value of such a knowledge system. Man's complex lifestyles, attitudes and the influence of modern knowledge systems have made it impossible to keep up this valuable indigenous knowledge system or intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, the root of human society is getting closer to the extremes and miss-practices of the human society. In Sri Lanka, this intuitive knowledge is mentioned with the knowledge of the invisible knowledge of agriculture, local medicine, folklore and folk literature, religious practices, or chemistry, and rite and rituals including belief system related the gods. The objectives of this study are to identify indigenous knowledge practices in the area of black magical heritage prevailing in Sri Lanka with a special reference to two selected villages in the Southern Province to identify the attitudes of people towards such practices and to study factors affecting the popularity towards the practices. The research method to be used is an ethnographic study or culture based study and the sample includes two villages in Southern province called Deniyaya and Pallegam. Research approach is a qualitative study covering qualitative data. For primary data collection, a survey is carried out covering two villages in the sample with communities using black magical knowledge practices and belief systems through a participatory observation and conducting interviews. The analyzed data will be presented through tabulation and interpretation of qualitative data