Abstract:
It is a globally accepted phenomenon that different ethnic, racial and religious groups form
abstract social strata in all the societies in the world. The differences in social strata are seen
through different lenses such as ethnocentrism, xenocentrism, cultural relativism, etc.
Though human civilization has kept less weight on ethnicity, especially with the expansion
of liberal ideology in the 20th century, the class distinction is getting thicker day by day due
to the unequal distribution of global capital. As class is an achieved status, the racial notion
of cultural identity creates a parallel stratum based on the ethnic identity with a hierarchy in
the vertical social strata. This compels the high-level racial notion in the parallel strata to
look at out-groups through an ethnocentric lens. The Vedda people in Sri Lanka were
considered as a distinct ethnic group until 1971- But thereafter they have not been identified
as so. Once the distinct cultural identity is diluted, the identity becomes discursive. As
society transforms within the modernization process, cultural discourses help shape the
cultural identities owing to cultural lag or cultural lead. The shaping of the cultural identity
of Vedda people in Sri Lanka is not owing to the gradual transformation of their culture but a
creation to cater the western interests. Consequently, the Vedda peoples’ cultural identity
has been hyper-realized with ‘savage’ & ‘barbaric’ notions. Nevertheless, some cultural
discourses claim a ‘noble barbaric’ notion. However, the ‘savage’ and ‘barbaric’ notions have
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overshadowed the “noble barbaric’ notion, thus creating an inferior cultural identity for the
Vedda people. The purpose of this documentary research was to explore whether the
perceptions created by the cultural discourses have made the socio-cultural identity of
Vedda people discursive. The objective of this study is to understand how the discourses
created can shape the small groups’ socio-cultural identities. This paper is based on
secondary sources of data and the data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis
method. The themes infer that Vedda people in Sri Lanka are entrenched in a hyperrealistsc
hybrid cultural identity as a result of discursive links descried in cultural discourses.
