This project supports a cultural anthropologist in a research project in Sri Lanka. The project will restudy a rural community of pottery producers who have experienced significant economic growth and relative prosperity since the 1970s. The project will conduct ethnographic research in producer households and surveys of local markets, with the goal of relating current economic activity to development policy of the past 20 years. This project is important because Sri Lanka has undergone "structural adjustment" in response to pressures from international development lending agencies. These policies have been associated with reports of declining living standards of the rural poor. This study of a case of improving conditions of life will provide ideas and descriptive examples to refine and improve the theory of economic development under structural adjustment.
