Gananath Obeyesekere

Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, Gananath Obeyesekere specializes in psychoanalysis and anthropology, hermeneutics, social anthropology, and Buddhism.  Completing fieldwork in Sri Lanka and India, Obeyesekere’s research considers the ways in which personal symbolism is related to religious experience.  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 The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Experience.