Until its defeat in 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled numerous civil institutions in the north and east of Sri Lanka. However, the Hindu temples within these territories managed to maintain their autonomy. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Sri Lanka, I contend that central to this paradox was contestation over who had the power to govern the life and death of Tamil subjects. Revisiting the anthropology of sovereignty, I propose an alternative idiom of sovereignty: a vulnerable sovereignty emerging with Hindu deities and based on interdependency and coexistence. I stress that vulnerability does not necessarily make the deities powerless but is the point where the sovereign deity reasserts its power. Finally, I contend that, faced with this idiom of sovereignty, the LTTE learned to embody its logic in its relation with the deities. I argue, thus, that sovereigns can also be thought of outside the notion of absolute sovereign power, bare life, and biopower and instead as sites of vulnerability.

中文翻译：

---

脆弱的主权

在 2009 年失败之前，泰米尔伊拉姆猛虎解放组织 (LTTE) 控制着斯里兰卡北部和东部的众多民间机构。然而，这些领土内的印度教寺庙设法保持了自治。借鉴斯里兰卡的民族志田野调查，我认为这个悖论的核心是关于谁有权管理泰米尔人的生死的争论。重新审视主权人类学，我提出了另一种主权习语：一种脆弱的主权，伴随着印度教诸神的出现，并基于相互依存和共存。我强调脆弱性并不一定会使神灵无能为力，而是至高无上的神灵重新彰显其力量的地方。最后，我认为，面对这种主权的习语，猛虎组织学会了在与神灵的关系中体现其逻辑。因此，我认为，主权也可以被视为绝对主权权力、裸生命和生物权力的概念之外，而是被视为脆弱的场所。