Talk on: Personhood and Suicidal Devotion to Cause: Kamikaze, Jihadist, Tiger

Date:	19 October 2006
Location:	University Scholars Programme, Conference Room,Blk ADM, #07-06 NUS, Singapore.

• Jointly organized by Religion Research Cluster, FASS and University Scholars Programme, NUS.
• Speaker: A/P Michael Roberts, Dept of Anthropology, University of Adelaide

The phenomenon of sacrificial devotion to a specific cause involving suicidal action usually arises within a situation of beleagurement determined by political and military factors. But within these foundational parameters, cultural processes influence the specificities of practice in complex ways. Comparative historical sociology has the capacity to illuminate these particulars by juxtaposing different cases so that they enrich an understanding of each other.

In an intuitive reading based mostly on secondary material A/P Roberts focused specifically on ideas of personhood within the worlds of the Japanese in the period 1870s-1840s, the radical Arab Muslims and the South Asian Tamils of the contemporary world and tentatively outlined the significant differences in Personhood as it relates to Cause.

In the second part of his presentation A/P Roberts concentrated on the case of the LTTE and the misconceptions diffused by Robert Pape in his influential survey of "suicide bombers" in today’s world. Pictorial illustrations of public events organized by the LTTE served as backdrop to this aspect of the paper.