Editing Vedda (section)

==Cultural aspects==

===Language===
{{main|Vedda language}}
The parent of Vedda language is of unknown [[Genetic (linguistics)|linguistic origin]] and is considered a [[language isolate]]. Early linguists and observers of the language considered it to be either a separate language or a dialect of Sinhala. The chief proponent of the dialect theory was [[Wilhelm Geiger]], but he also contradicted himself by claiming that Vedda was a [[Relexification|relexified]] aboriginal language.<ref name=V227>{{Harvnb|Van Driem|2002|page=227}}</ref>

Veddas consider the Vedda language to be distinct from Sinhala and use it as an ethnic marker to differentiate them from Sinhalese people.<ref name=D81>{{Harvnb|Dharmadasa|1974|page=81}}</ref>

===Religion===
The original religion of Veddas is [[animism]]. The Sinhalized interior Veddahs follow a mix of animism and nominal [[Buddhism]]; whereas the Tamilized east coast Veddahs follow a mix of animism and nominal [[Hinduism]] with [[Dravidian folk religion|folk]] influences among anthropologists.{{clarify|date=March 2020}}

One of the most distinctive features of Vedda religion is the worship of dead ancestors, who are called ''nae yaku'' among the Sinhala-speaking Veddas and are invoked for the game and [[Yam (vegetable)|yam]]s.{{sfn|Seligmann|Seligmann|1911|pp=123-135}} There are also peculiar deities unique to Veddas, such as ''Kande Yakka''.{{sfn|Seligmann|Seligmann|1911|pp=30-31}}

Veddas, along with the Island's [[Buddhist]], [[Hindu]] and [[Muslim]] communities, venerate the temple complex situated at [[Kataragama]], showing the [[syncretism]] that has evolved over 2,000 years of coexistence and assimilation. Kataragama is supposed to be the site where the Hindu god Skanda or [[Murugan]] in [[Tamil language|Tamil]] met and married a local tribal girl, [[Valli]], who in Sri Lanka is believed to have been a Vedda.<ref name="Kataragama">{{Cite web|url=https://kataragama.org/|title=Ruhuṇu Kataragama Dēvālaya &#124; Katirkāmam Murugan Kōvil &#124; dedicated to Kataragama deviyo|website=kataragama.org|accessdate=26 May 2023}}</ref>

There are a number of less famous [[shrine]]s across the island which are sacred to the Veddas as well as to other communities.<ref name="Kataragama" />

===Rituals===
[[File:Veddah ritual.jpg|thumb|A Veddah ritual about to be performed]]
Vedda marriage is a simple ceremony. It consists of the bride tying a bark rope (''Diya lanuva'') that she has twisted, around the waist of the groom. This symbolizes the bride's acceptance of the man as her mate and life partner. Although [[endogamous]] marriage between cross-cousins was the norm until recently, this has changed significantly, with Vedda women even contracting marriages with their Sinhalese and Moor neighbors.

In Vedda society, women are in many respects men's equals. They are entitled to similar inheritance. Monogamy is the general rule, though a widow would frequently marry her husband's brother as a means of support and consolation ([[levirate marriage]]). They also do not practice a [[caste]] system.<ref>[http://www.scenicsrilanka.com/vadda-of-sri-lanka.html Vadda of Sri Lanka]</ref>

Death, too, is a simple affair without ostentatious funeral ceremonies where the corpse of the deceased is promptly buried.

===Burial===
Since the opening of colonization schemes, Vedda burials changed when they dug graves of {{convert|4|-|5|ft|m|abbr=in|order=flip}} deep and wrapped the body wrapped cloth and covered it with leaves and earth. The Veddas also laid the body between the scooped out trunks of the ''gadumba'' tree (''[[Trema orientalis]]'') before they buried it. At the head of the grave were kept three open coconuts and a small bundle of wood, while at its foot were kept an opened [[coconut]] and an untouched coconut. Certain cactus species (''pathok'', ''[[Opuntia dillenii]]'' or ''[[Opuntia stricta|O. stricta]]'') were planted at the head, the middle and the foot. Personal possessions like the bow and arrow, betel pouch, were also buried. This practice varied by community. The contents of the [[betel]] pouch of the deceased were eaten after his death.

===Cult of the dead===
The Veddas practice what is referred to by Western ethnologists as "a cult of the dead".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Seligman |first1=C. G. (Charles Gabriel) |url=https://archive.org/details/veddas__00seliuoft |title=The Veddas |last2=Seligman |first2=Brenda Z. |date=1911 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |others=Robarts - University of Toronto}}</ref> The Vedda perception of the world when originally studied in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries was not divided into polarities as life and afterlife or living and dead. At that time when asked whether the dead lived on as spirits they found that "they did not consider whether the departed were living or dead, they were just spirits...all spirits were alike neither good nor bad".<ref name=":1" />

In the words of John Bailey studying this population in 1853: "the Veddahs have a vague belief in a host of undefined spirits, whose influence is rather for good than evil...they believe the air is peopled by spirits, that every rock and every tree, every forest and every hill, in short every feature of nature, has its genus loci;but these seem little else than nameless phantoms whom they regard with mysterious awe than actual dread".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Bailey |first=John |date=1863 |title=An Account of the Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon: Their Habits, Customs, and Superstitions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3014327 |journal=Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London |volume=2 |pages=278–320 |doi=10.2307/3014327 |jstor=3014327 |issn=1368-0366}}</ref>

In addition to this experience of the world often referred to as "animism" they have a belief that after death every relative is a spirit "of those who watches over the welfare of those left behind. These, which include their ancestors and their children, the term their 'nehya yakoon', kindred spirits. They describe them as ever watchful, coming to them in sickness, visiting them in dreams, giving them flesh when hunting".<ref name=":2" />

The Vedda behavior at the time of these original ethnological studies regarding the recently dead is quite different from our behavior toward the dead.
"When a person dies it is the hetha that killed him; and the hetha of the dead one remains by the corpse and haunts the vicinity for years."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spittel |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2tM-AAAAIAAJ |title=Wild Ceylon: Describing in Particular the Lives of the Present Day Veddas |date=1924 |publisher=Colombo Apothecaries Company, Limited |language=en}}</ref>

The majority of the Vedda tribes studied at that time held what is referred to as a "kirikohraha ceremony". This was often held "to present an offering to the newly dead within a week or two of their decease...The yaku of the recently dead....are supposed to stand towards the surviving members of the group in the light of friends and relatives, who if well treated will continue to show loving kindness to their survivors, and only if neglected will show disgust and anger by withdrawing their assistance, or becoming actively hostile."<ref name=":1" />

===Clothing===
[[File:Groepsportret van Veddah mannen in de bossen van Ceylon Veddahs (titel op object), RP-F-F80068.jpg|thumb|Group portrait of Veddah men in the forests, between 1870 and 1904.]]
Until fairly recent times, the clothing of the Veddas was limited. In the case of men, it consisted only of a [[loincloth]] suspended with a string at the waist, while in the case of women, it was a piece of cloth that extended from the navel to the knees. Today, however, Vedda attire is more covering, men wear a short [[sarong]] extending from the waist to the knees, while the women clad themselves in a garment similar to the [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] ''diya-redda'' which extends from the breast line to the knees.

===Music===

{{organize section|date=March 2017}}

{{blockquote|''Bori Bori Sellam-Sellam Bedo Wannita,''

''Palletalawa Navinna-Pita Gosin Vetenne,''

''Malpivili genagene-Hele Kado Navinne,''

''Diyapivili Genagene-Thige Bo Haliskote Peni,''

''Ka tho ipal denne''

|A Vedda honeycomb cutter's folk song<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vedda.org/keerthisinghe.htm|title = The Veddas of Sri Lanka}}</ref>}}

Meaning of this song: The bees from yonder hills of Palle Talawa and Kade suck nectar from the flowers and made the honeycomb. So why should you give them undue pain when there is no honey by cutting the honeycomb.