Gananath Obeyesekere

Gananath Obeyesekere
Born	(1930-02-02)2 February 1930 Meegama, British Ceylon
Died	25 March 2025(2025-03-25) (aged 95) Colombo, Sri Lanka
Education	University of Peradeniya (BA) University of Washington (MA; PhD)
Occupation(s)	Anthropologist, professor
Scientific career
Fields	Anthropology
Institutions	Princeton University (1980–2000)

Anthropology
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Gananath Obeyesekere (2 February 1930 – 25 March 2025) was a Sri Lankan anthropologist of religion and professor of anthropology at Princeton University. His research focused on psychoanalysis and anthropology and how personal symbolism is related to religious experience, in addition to the European exploration of Polynesia in the 18th century and after, and the implications of these voyages for the development of ethnography. His books include Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Medusa's Hair, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (coauthor), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Making Karma. He did much of his fieldwork in Sri Lanka.