Abstract:
Sri Lanka's 26-year-long protracted civil war triggered a variety
of social and economic issues in the Sri Lankan context. As a consequence,
people who were residing in the North and Eastern provinces were largely
displaced and it directly resulted in a huge amount of internal and external
migrations. However, displacement has changed relationship patterns among
Sinhala communities as well as some relationships, such as fictive kinship,
have an effect on how Sinhala people survive new lifestyles. This study is
concerned with the post-war survival of the new way of life for the war-affected
Sinhalese IDPs and how fictional relationships have affected that. The
objectives of this study were to identify reasons which Sinhalese IDPs tend
toward fictive kinship, to explore the impact of fictive kinship on the survival of
a new lifestyle for Sinhalese IDPs, and to identify trends related to the fictive
kinship of Sinhalese IDPs. The research method was the case study and data
was obtained through in-depth interviews. The research area was
Galkandegama village at Rambawa Divisional Secretariat in Anuradhapura
district in Sri Lanka and the research sample was purposely selected by pre-observations among displaced families. The findings show that the reduction
of blood relationships, although there are blood relatives, they were unable to
assist them due to various financial difficulties are the primary factors
influencing Sinhala people to trend toward fictive kinship. Therefore, fictive
kinship has positive effects on Sinhala people who were resettled. Fictive
kinship had positive effects on the resettled Sinhala community in that it helped
them meet their basic needs and obtain new homes and permanent
residences and to have psychological support in adoption to the new lifestyle
as well. The new trend of this is the expansion of these fictive relationships
among resettled people into blood relationships through marriage.
