EOL 5: Professional Weeping (Greene)

Acknowledgements 

 

Plate 7. The author and the village Ex-President walking into Icaikurichi.

I would like to thank Marina Roseman, Deborah Wong, and Webb Keane, who worked with me through earlier versions of this document; Shannon Keenan Greene, who offered many valuable insights; and the three EOL reviewers. I would like to thank the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, which funded my field research project in Tamil Nadu. I also wish to thank Mr. S. N., head of the Muttumariamma Temple Committee and unofficial headman of Icaikurichi,4 who is known as the Ex-President of the village, and Mr. Jayabal, who was my host in the village. The villagers were very kind and supportive in countless ways of my field project, and I wish to thank them for their tremendous hospitality.

Special thanks also to my guide and friend Mr. G. ManiVannan M.Phil, Ph.D. Because of his help this project has been possible. Also of tremendous help were Mr. J. Inbaraj, Mr. G. KammalaVannan, Prof. Joseph Pandian, and Mr. Thomas Royyan.

Thanks also to Ms. Seetha Krishnan, who translated countless songs, including the oppari performances analyzed here, from Tamil into English. Prof. Shanmukam Pillai of the Institute for Asian Studies in Chennai (then Madras) offered helpful words of guidance in the summer of 1993, when I was just beginning my Tamil field research. And finally, thanks to Matthew Schroeder and Matthew Bodek, web technology specialists at Penn State University.

"Professional Weeping" | EOL 5 | email Author