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1.
徐强  刘洋 《民族学刊》2017,8(1):70-74,117-118
Among Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes, the Paiwan has the most exquisite decorative adorn ̄ments on their costumes. In addition to the decora ̄tions of their clothing, they also give importance to the decorations on their headdress. Every group designs different headdresses according to social status— this also reflects the cultural identity of the group. The headdress is an external marker of ethnic culture, the carrier of ethnic customs and aesthetic consciousness, and it helps to transmit and promote traditional culture.
The Paiwan people have various forms and shapes of headdresses which are designed freely according to the designer’s artistic inspiration. However , the snake form can only be used by trib ̄al leaders. The headdresses are mainly made from natural materials, such as eagle feathers, animal hides, animal teeth, horns, flowers, grasses, seeds, colored glazed beads, shells, ceramics, metal, etc. However, eagle feathers, animal hides, animal teeth, horns, and colored, glazed beads can only be used by leaders and nobles;common people are strictly forbidden to use these materials.
The social organization of the Paiwan and their festivals and sacrificial ceremonies determine their various headdresses. The headdresses and head bands of the Paiwan are made mainly from black or red flannel; the shape and the use of the materials reflect hierarchical differences. Head ̄dresses can be divided into those of leaders, no ̄bles, warriors and commoners.
The form of the Paiwan people’s headdress consists of strong layering;each is decorated with a variety of materials, creating a three-dimensional effect. The decoration of a moulded cottonmouth snake on the head band reflects the people’s snake worship, and also the group’s aesthetic conscious ̄ness and worship of ancestors.
The decorative expertise and complex working process reflect the Paiwan people’s superb skills in weaving. The materials used for the headdresses of Paiwan people are mostly derived from nature, and strongly reflect regional characteristics.
Totem worship is characteristic of Paiwan reli ̄gion, and it is a form which combines the worship of nature and ancestors. The forms of animals re ̄flect the psychology of Paiwan people’ s original worship in which they depended on getting along with nature, and in which they placed their hopes in Totem worship.
The Paiwan have many myths, which is one of the characteristics of their culture. The forms of the sun and cottonmouth snake, which decorate the headdresses of the leaders, reflect that the sun is the creation of life. Chamilia beads are regarded as a class symbol by the Paiwan people, and have a protective function.
The first child of a Paiwan family, no matter whether it is a boy or girl, has the right to inherit property of his/her paternal or maternal home. One should also notice that the colors, materials, and forms of the headdress of Paiwan man and woman in the same class are the same.
In summary, the shapes and forms of the Paiwan people’s headdresses vary. They reflect the Paiwan people’s unique aesthetic consciousness, and embody the Paiwan people’s excellent tech ̄niques in traditional decorative handwork. The use of colors represents the Paiwan’s optimistic attitude towards life. Materials are derived from nature, which reflects the group’s harmonious relationship with the nature. Headdresses are not only an exter ̄nal form of decoration, but they also have profound cultural connotation and national consciousness. The class system, taking nature as beauty, worshi ̄ping ancestors, their myths, and the equality be ̄tween men and women reflected in the headdresses of the Paiwan people indicate the Paiwan people’s inheritance of tradition, natural worship and pur ̄suits in life. The study of the artistic features and cultural connotation of the headdress of the Paiwan people can help to protect Paiwan traditional adornment technique, and enrich the requirement of diversity in headdress design.  相似文献   

2.
刘俊哲 《民族学刊》2016,7(4):56-61,117-119
The principles of the theory of de-pendence arising from emptiness of original nature;of the nature of the human mind, and, the equality of all sentient beings are important philosophical tenets held by the different schools of Tibetan Bud-dhism, and they all have profound ideological im-plication. Through various ways, including belief, promotion, advocation, and education, these three philosophical principles are subtly integrated in most Tibetan people’s ideological structure. This helps them to understand the nature of the uni-verse, purify their minds, and promote their realm of life. As a result, it helps them to deal well with human relations, the relationship between man and nature, and it promotes the harmony and stability of Tibetan society. In today’s society, although so-cial conditions have changed dramatically, these three philosophical principles still play an impor-tant role in promoting the social harmony and sta-bility in Tibetan areas.  相似文献   

3.
陈然 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):61-64,113-114
Being one of the most ancient eth-nic groups in China, the ‘Yi’ have a long history and an abundant culture. Yi folk songs, which are widely sung in many regions of China, have vari-ous forms and styles. These folk songs reflect the lengthy history of the Yi society; indeed they ex-press the happiness and misery, the dreams and desires of the Yi people. Within this context, this article focuses on‘Qugu’ which is a unique type of music belonging to the Yi people. In fact most Yi people of Guizhou live in the Wumeng Mountains. In their quest for survival, over time the Yi had developed a series of natural worship rites which became one of the sources of their traditional mu-sic. In addition, Yi people formed a unique way to express their love: in times past they developed a tradition of singing in the mountains and forests as to convey their love to their beloved;the‘Qugu’ is one of these Yi’ s traditional love song genres.‘Qugu’ means ‘singing’ and this genre has its own social functioning. According to traditional Yi culture and habits, a ‘Qugu ’ should not be sung in front of parents, brothers, or other rela-tives;instead it should only be sung in a place sur-rounded by mountains and forests and on certain singing sites, called ‘Guji’(in Yi language). In most of the Yi settlements, such ‘singing sites ’ were placed far away from the villages, sometimes on flat areas and sometimes in the remote wilder-ness, in forests or caves. The singing activities on those special sites took place according to specific rules and calen-dars. During the so-called ‘singing festival’ peri-od ( from the 1 st to the 15 th day of the 1 st lunar month and on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month), the singing performances were particularly magnifi-cent. People of all ages, young and old, would gather together from all directions and would sing without interruption for several days. Moreover , the singing festival also had certain traditional rites ( ceremonies ) . For example, at the very beginning, certain clan elders or prestig-ious singers would offer wine and water to the‘heavens and earth ’ . After this offering, ‘the soul of the song’ was invited. The Yi people tradi-tionally worship nature and believe in animism, so indeed a ‘Qugu’ also has its own ‘soul’ . There-fore, when the singing festival would commence, they would invite the ‘soul of the song’ to come;this custom is called ‘Guyexi’ in the Yi language. The nextritual would be the ‘Guyidai ’ ( in Yi) , which means‘the settling down of the soul of the song’ at the particular singing site. There are lyrics like:‘If there is no settling down of the soul of the song, then when the next spring comes the sil-ver flowers will sever their roots, the golden flowers will sever their roots, and the singing sites cannot be set up ’ . After the settling down of the soul of the song, the next ceremony would be the ‘Gukoupu’ ( in Yi) or ‘opening of the mouth of the song ’:this basically means the ‘opening of the door of love’ and also indicates the formal beginning of‘Qugu’ activity. All of this shows indeed that the rite of‘Qugu’ is not as solemn as other rites, as in fact the lyrics of ‘Qugu ’ are mostly about love af-fairs and romance. When the‘Gukoupu’ ends, the young people can start to freely sing. There are indeed lyrics like: ‘Three young chaps brought three axes and went into three directions of the universe; they chopped three pine trees, sawed off three boards, made three chairs, and placed these facing three di-rections. They invited girls to take a seat; the girls sat down and sang. The girls invited the chaps to take a seat;the chaps sat down and sang’ . When this‘free singing’ begins, an ‘antiph-onal group singing’ starts at the singing site (‘Gu-ji ’ ); males and females take part in this and stand/sit separately as they all sing in antiphonal style. In the middle there is a ‘go-between ’ in charge of coordination, judging, and passing on information. The males and females sing and ob-serve back and forth. During this process, affec-tions may emerge between a certain male and fe-male. If indeed a guy or young lady takes a fancy to another person, he or she will ask the go-be-tween for help. If the counterpart gives a positive response, then the two will leave the group and go elsewhere to talk and sing. During this ‘antiphonal group-singing’ , each group can allow a certain ‘representative ’ to sing solo;this solo should not be a repeat of some song performed by someone from another group. The young males and females thus can each show off their voices by singing songs with free rhyme, sweet melodies, and serious or deep topics. It is easy to see that this ‘antiphonal group singing ’ provided a major means of romantic communication between young Yi men and women. In fact, the number of songs they could sing as well as the technique used in singing these significantly deter-mined one’ s ability to attract the opposite sex. As a consequence, both males and females were strongly committed to learn to sing, trying their best to master more and better songs. Through learning from their predecessors, they made an ef-fort to improve their singing abilities. As said, traditionally at the beginning of the singing festival, ‘the soul of the song’ would be invited; well, likewise at the end of the festival‘the soul of the song’ should be sent away again. The Yi people believed that if they would not send the soul of the song away, the young would be ob-sessed by affections all the time and even lose their minds. Finally, Guizhou Yi ’ s folk music-generally speaking-has a great variety in content, perform-ance locations, forms, and genres. Moreover, due to the regional differences music styles also vary geographically. All of this makes the multi-colored Yi music even more delightful and appealing. Unfortunately, the entire tradition ( ceremo-nies) of the‘Qugu’ as described above, no longer exists today. The singers who still know these pro-cedures are getting old and eventually will forget these rites. This is a big loss for the living tradition of the Yi culture, and it is a source of grief for those who study Yi culture, in China and abroad.  相似文献   

4.
陈丽霞  杨国才 《民族学刊》2016,7(5):65-70,116-119
I. The current situation of ethnic minority women’ s economic security One of the most prominent problems faced by the international community is how to ensure the e-conomic security of the elderly, and how to help those elderly people who have lost the ability to work to be properly cared for. According to Yang Shijie’s investigation, 75% of the poor population in Yunnan are ethnic minorities, and of this fig-ure, minority women are more impoverished than men. 1 . The poverty rate in Yunnan is a little bit higher than the national average poverty level. Although Yunnan’s economic indicators have made considerable progress, they have yet to reach the national average because of the province’s ho-mogenous industrial structure, low level of indus-trialization, and high proportion of resource indus-tries. The average wage of workers in Yunnan is only 85. 85% of the national average wage, and the poverty rate is higher than the national aver-age. 2 . There is a significant number of elderly women without pensions, and their poverty rate is high in Yunnan. Due to the dual urban-rural structure of the social and economic system, as well as the design issues related to the social pension security system connected with employment, the number of elderly women without pensions is quite significant in Chi-
na. In ethnic minority areas, only 24. 12% of peo-ple over the age of 60 have a pension, among them, the number of women is considerably lower than for men, accounting for only 10%. Elderly women from ethnic minorities are further excluded from the social pension security system. Only a small population of elderly ethnic women enjoy the benefits of the system, and their average monthly pension is significantly lower than that of the men. Compared with elderly men, elderly women rely more on other members of the family. 3 . The high rate of widowhood brings difficul-ties to the elderly. According to a sampling survey of 10% of the national population in 2010 , the widower ratio is 29. 55%, and widow ratio is 70. 45% among eth-nic minorities aged over 60 . Ethnic minority women devote more energy to unpaid housework in their youth and middle age, and their chances of finding employment are low. This means they normally de-pend on their spouse when they become old, how-ever, the loss of their spouse makes them even poorer, and increases their risk of falling into pov-erty. 4 . The ethnic minority women ’s property rights are difficult to be protected. Because of the influence of outmoded feudal i-deas in the ethnic minority villages, women gener-ally have no right to inherit property. For example, among the Pumi, property is inherited by the men, and women generally have no right to inherit. The
case is the same with the Naxi ethnicity. In the in-heritance systems of the ethnic minority people in Yunnan, wives rarely have the right of inherit-ance;the custom of“passing property to the men, but not the women” is still quite prevalent. If the husband dies, the wife will not only find it difficult to inherit her husband’s property, but may also lose her own property, including land rights. This leads to a low rate of property ownership among widows. II. Analysis of the causes of vulnerability of the gender structure 1 . Cultural lag American sociologist W. F. Ogburn was the first to use this concept, which refers to the time lag between material culture and non - material culture in the course of social change. Generally speaking, change in material culture occurs faster than in non -material culture, and they are not synchronized, so there is a gap between them. Ethnic minority women in Yunnan have been af-fected by the patrilineal system up to the present day, which influences the thought and behavior of all ethnic groups, and gradually builds a psycho-logical barrier in the ethnic women’ s minds, con-straining their talent and creativity. Yunnan is lo-cated in China’s southwest frontier region, and the ethnic minorities live in remote and isolated moun-tainous areas, where the concept of the low status of women is ingrained, and thus not easily changed. 2 . The cumulative effect of education and em-ployment Compared with boys, there are different edu-cational expectations on or investments in the girls in the social culture, which brings disadvantages to women looking for employment of in their youth and middle age. Because they can generally only involve themselves in housework, it is not possible for them to accumulate employment experiences, and this leads to a negative economic status when they become old. 1) Low level of education. Due to the tradi-tional influence of “valuing sons over daughters”,
the number of ethnic minority women who have not attended school is significantly higher than that of men; the number of ethnic minority women who have never received an education is more than twice as high as the number of men. The phenome-non of early marriage and childbearing in ethnic minority areas is still prominent. Due to the influ-ence of early marriage culture, the girls do not generally wish to receive a higher education. Addi-tionally, because of the development of tourism, girls tend to drop out of school very early and in-volve themselves in business or becoming tour guides. All these factors lead to ethnic minority women’s lower level of education. Because they do not receive a higher, or even elementary educa-tion, women’s lives are concentrated around the family and housework. 2 ) Devotion to housework. The elderly ethnic minority women not only have to take part in agri-cultural production, but they also have to take care of the “left-behind” children whose parents have left to work in urban areas. For instance, De’ang women play an important role in family, social and economic activities; they have to bear the load of heavy housework every day, including carrying wa-ter, collecting firewood, cooking, feeding pigs, cattle and children, weaving, washing clothes and farming. The Bulang women, together with the men, have created the ancient Bulang culture, and women play the role of “main tentpole” in the housework and farming. According to our investi-gations of the Yi in Chuxiong of Yunnan province, Yi women spend on average over six hours each day on housework, and most men almost never par-ticipate in housework. 3 ) Unemployment or low paid occupation. Ethnic minority women’s degree of participation in social labor is low, however, their housework du-ties are taken for granted, and not recognized by the wider society, so their labor value is underesti-mated, even ignored. Due to their low level of ed-ucation and contribution to unpaid housework, a lot of ethnic minority women are unemployed. E-
ven though a small number of them are in employ-ment, their jobs are concentrated in the low in-come industries, and few of them are supported by social insurance. 3 . Traditional gender roles in the division of labor Because of the traditional gender roles in the division of labor, the social expectations for the women’s role is still family-centered. This means women have to bear a lot of housework duties and child rearing responsibilities. Due to women’s spe-cial physiological characteristics, women have a double burden: the responsibility of human pro-duction and social production. However, under the influence of gender inequality, women who have made great contributions to the development of so-ciety and humanity have been subjected to unfair treatment. Their contribution is regarded as a bur-den unique to women or indeed the women’s natu-ral weakness, and can even become a discrimina-tory factor in employment and promotion—this is a great injustice to women. In summary, it seems that the structure of the fragility of elderly ethnic minority women is a sim-ply an issue of sex difference, but it essentially re-flects the social system and conceptual culture of“valuing sons over daughters” which is ingrained in the minority areas, and is an issue of gender in-equality. III. Countermeasures and suggestions The elderly ethnic minority women are a spe-cial group in China’s aging population. This group shows a structural vulnerability due to such as in-fluences of ethnicity and regional location, eco-nomic conditions, educational level, marital sta-tus. From the perspective of social gender, this paper studies the economic security status of ethnic aged women, analyzes the problems of economic security for this group, and puts forward some poli-cy recommendations for improving the economic se-curity situation of the elderly women in ethnic mi-nority areas. 1 . The state should increase investment in tye economic development of ethnic minority areas in order to provide more jobs and solve the problem of employment of women. Economic development in the minority areas could provide adequate economic security to improve the living conditions of the eld-erly women in those areas. 2 . The concept of gender equality needs to be strengthened. Women should enjoy equal rights in education, and equal employment opportunities as men, as well as equal rights in the husband-wife relationship. In addition, we cannot simply take each gender as exactlythe same, but should under-stand the psychological and physiological difference between men and woman, and pursue gender e-quality in terms of society, personality, opportuni-ties, and rights. 3 . National policy should afford some recogni-tion to women and their capacity for childbirth. Due to physiological factors, women have to take the responsibility of childbirth and feeding the child, however, they also have to work . Women’s contributions to the family will inevitably lead to their inferior position in terms of social professional competition. Therefore, when policies are drawn up, the physiological characteristics of men and women should be considered, moreover, gender awareness and gender equality should be a part of various policies. 4 . Policies should protect women’s employ-ment rights, and ethnic minority areas should en-courage women to go out to work. The state should make policies to protect women’s employment rights, solve the problem of sexual discrimination which might exist in the workplace, and create e-qual employment opportunities so as to reduce the probability of elderly women from ethnic minority areas becoming impoverished . 5 . Improve the urban and rural pension sys-tem, and improve women’s pension insurance cov-erage rate.  相似文献   

5.
蓝薇 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):14-21,95-97
Already for quite some time, the u-nique power structure of the traditional Chinese so-ciety has been viewed and discussed in the field of humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the status and role of its gentry class, Chinese and Western scholars have deeply researched the gen-eral characteristics of the political structure in the traditional Chinese society. And the analysis of the interaction between different social groups from the perspective of the traditional Chinese ‘hydraulic ’ structure has even gradually deepened and expand-ed this research topic. This paper looks at relevant research conducted by former scholars like e. g. Weber, Wittfogel, and Fei Xiaotong while attemp-ting to come to a more historic understanding of the relationship between the imperial power and the gentry class within the power structure of tradition-al Chinese society: this essay indeed focuses on the political status and social function of the gentry class in the traditional Chinese hydraulic society. Based on the research findings of scholars like Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Heinrich Marx, Weber pointed out that in Eastern societies there was a certain relationship between the autoc-racy and the local irrigation-based agriculture. And Weber believed that the relationship between the autocratic imperial power and the more local Con-fucian gentry was the key to understanding the po-litical structure of the Chinese society. At that time and place, the local water management-projects, other entrenched bureaucracies, the respected Confucian gentry, as well as the central imperial power were all intertwined together; this shaped a unique form of political power in traditional China. By borrowing Marx’ s concept of ‘the Asiatic mode of production’ , Wittfogel discussed the rela-tionship between ( i ) the political autocracy and ( ii) indigenous irrigation projects in Eastern socie-ties, seen from the perspective of political econom-ics. He proposed that the political autocracy was a result of the social functioning of hydraulic pro-jects, and briefly described the Eastern society as an ‘Oriental-authoritarian ’ society under the rule of an ‘absolute monarchy’ . In the eyes of Wittfo-gel, the traditional Chinese gentry was just a bu-reaucratic group attached to the totalitarian rule:their power did not draw from their own knowledge monopoly of value ethics and ritual standards, but solely from their power-relationship with the des-potic ruler. According to Wittfogel, the‘hydraulic society’ , totalitarian rule, bureaucratic groupings, and imperial power were all intertwined and togeth-er made up the government form of the traditional Chinese society. While Weber described the gentry as reputa-ble Confucian intellectuals, Wittfogel regarded them as mere bureaucrats firmly attached to the to-talitarian rule. In contrast with the Western schol-ars’ too simple view of the ‘gentry group’, Chi-nese scholars have emphasized that this ‘gentry group’ was an organism made up of bureaucrats and literati:they not only participated in local gov-ernance and cultural activities, but they also lived and passed on the inheritance of Confucian ortho-dox ideology. Fei Xiaotong stressed constantly that the tradi-tional Chinese political system wasn ’ t completely arbitrary;instead it was closely related to the so-cial class of the scholar-officials ( a combination of the bureaucrats and gentry within Chinese socie-ty) . Fei stated that the traditional Chinese society had a‘bottom-up’ or‘secondary/parallel’ track:this ‘informal track’ made it possible for the ordi-nary people to pass on their opinions to top level people. Guided by tao-t’ung ( Confucian orthodox-y) , the scholar-intellectuals were able to influence political power by expressing their opinions and by putting forward a set of ethical principles. Al-though they had no part in real political power, they still maintained a social prestige. As a buffer between imperial power and the common people, the scholar-officials could not only extend the pow-er of the monarch to the far corners of society, but they also could properly protect the interests of farmers through some informal channels outside of the system. In the view of Yu Yingshi, the scholar-offi-cials not only were royal officers but also teachers of the emperor: that is why they could exert con-straint to autocratic imperial power. Nevertheless, autocratic imperial power also constrained them. Even so, the bureaucrats and gentry kept alive the tao-t’ung in traditional Chinese political life, which safeguarded basic social values. However, the strength of tao-t’ung was always weaker than that of the royal power, therefore, Chinese society did have a tendency of ‘oriental despotism’ described by Wittfogel. In the study of Zhang Yahui, the scholar-offi-cial group was positioned right in middle of the so-ciety: this allowed them to work upwardly and downwardly. They thus could ( i) cooperate with the public to fight against the rulers ’ invasion of local life, and they ( ii) could compromise and a-gree with the rulers as to construct a new harmoni-ous coexistence model. His study reemphasized the historical role of the scholar-official group in keep-ing social harmony. In this study, the scholar-offi-cial group on one hand counterbalanced the central power’ s interference with local affairs, and on the other hand shaped more reasonable identities of the central power, acceptable for local communities. Zhang Yahui’ s study reminds us that-in the tradi-tional Chinese society-authoritarian rulers, the scholar-official group, and the public interlaced with, constrained, and supported each other, and thus constituted the overall picture of the traditional China. The scholar-official group thus was a major force in maintaining the social cohesion of the tra-ditional Chinese society. When indeed we consider both the ‘master-scholars’ and ‘bureaucrats’-the two special components of Chinese scholar-official class-we can better understand the characteristics of the vivid and interactive relationships between the rulers, the scholar-officials, and the local com-mon people. In other words, only when we recog-nize these two aspects of the gentry class, can we see the ‘unifying mechanism ’ of the traditional Chinese society;this allows us to develop a clearer social and historical picture of the traditional Chi-nese interaction between imperial power, scholarly power, and civil rights. To get to this new under-standing of the power structure of the traditional Chinese hydraulic society, we need to critically re-view all sorts of other simplified understandings of the period gentry group.  相似文献   

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严奇岩 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):36-40,104-106
Funeral and interment reform is a social revolution of changing customs and tradi-tions, which is conducive to promoting the con-struction of the socialist material, spiritual and ec-ological civilization. The replacement of burial with cremation is the direction of China’s reform on fu-neral and interment traditions. The reform itself is put forward by aiming at the disadvantages of the Han people’s traditional burial custom, however, Guizhou is a typical karst region in China, in which several forms of karst burial have existed throughout history, such as cliff coffins, cave tombs, and sarcophagi, and these customs have been continued to some certain degree up to now. Therefore, how to manage the relation between cre-mation and karst burials has a significant meaning to the respect of the ethnic minorities’ customs and promoting the funeral and interment reform in eth-nic regions. The Binzang guanli tiaoli ( Funeral and inter-ment management regulations) issued by the State Council in 1997 stipulates that “ the objective of the funeral and interment management is to carry out cremation, reform burial, save the interment land, abolish undesirable customs related to the fu-nerals and interment actively and methodically, and advocate civilized and thrifty funerary prac-tices”. That is to say, the original intentions for promoting cremation in the funeral and interment reform for many years include the advocating of thrifty funerals, reducing the burden of funerals on the masses, changing the people’s concept of luxu-rious burials, and saving the cost of funeral in the aspect of economy;banishing superstitions, getting rid of bad habits, and opposing the feudal dross in the aspect of culture; and saving resources and protecting limited cultivated land in the aspect of ecology. In general, the abolition of burial and im-plementation of cremation has become the reform direction of China’s funeral and interment system. Guizhou is a typical karst area in China. There are various forms of cliff-burying, rock tombs, sarcophagi, and cave tombs etc. , especial-ly the cave-burial which is still popular among the Waishu Miao at Taohua village in Qibo township, Pingba County and among the Qing Yao at Yaolu village in Libo County, and sarcophagus burial which is still popular among the Li clan of the Waishu Miao at Xinyi village in Guangzhao town-ship, Qinglong County. These structures reflect the karst characteris-tics of Guizhou tombs, and have an important eco-logical value. The funeral and interment reform is put forward by aiming at the drawbacks of the tra-ditional burial practices of the Han, so if the cliff burial or sarcophagus tombs which have ecological value had been forced to be replaced with crema-tion in the funeral and interment reform, it will lead to an embarrassing situation which is contrary to the original intention of the reform no matter if we consider it from cultural, economic or ecologi-cal viewpoints. Firstly, it will cause a dilemma at the cultural level. We must consider the characteristics of the funeral customs of the ethnic groups during the process of reforming the funeral and interment cus-toms in the ethnic minority areas, in other words, respect the funeral customs of ethnic minorities, as it is an important content of the CCP and the state’s policy for respecting the customs and habits of eth-nic minorities. Due to the differences in geograph-ical environment and social economy, the ethnic minorities have different funeral customs with their own characteristics. These funeral customs, as a part of ethnic culture, help to construct a ritual with a kind of ethnic identity;it is the mark of na-tional culture, which embodies ethnic emotions and maintains ethnic consciousness. The ‘univer-sal application’ in the funeral and interment sys-tem reform doubtlessly make the disappearance of karst characteristics in Guizhou’s burial culture, the diversified burial way has been replaced with single cremation, and that is not good for the pro-tection of cultural diversity. Secondly, it will cause an economic dilemma. One of the purposes of the funeral and intermentre-form is to save funeral costs, and change the con-cept of organizing luxury funerals. The traditional burial custom contains a set of complex funeral cer-emony, which is organized in a very luxurious way, spend a lot of money and increase the people’s economic burden. In contrast, cremation can save costs. However in today’s rural areas, af-ter cremation, the ashes are still buried after being put into a coffin, so it not only increases the eco-nomic burden of the people, but also does not meet the purpose for farmland conservation, hence, it is contrary to the original intention of the funeral re-form, and also causes dissatisfaction among the people. Therefore, compared with cremation, sar-cophagus and cave burial which are still popular in Guizhou are actually a more economic practice. Thirdly,it causes an ecological dilemma. The purpose of funeral reform is to save resources and protect the limited farmland. The traditional burial practice uses coffins and pile graves, which wastes wood, occupies farmland, and also pollutes the en-vironment. Therefore, the environmental protection is the premise and ultimate goal of the funeral and interment reform. Cave burial in Guizhou uses the natural caves, and does not occupy farmland; sar-cophagus burial does not use wooden coffins, so both of them belong to ecological burial practices. However, the implementation of cremation in the areas which used to conduct cave or sarcophagus-burials has created an embarrassing situation. Cave burial and sarcophagus tombs in Guizhou karst areas contain rich ecological ideas, which not only have positive social and practical significance for the protection of the ecological en-vironment of the area, but also have an important reference meaning for the promotion of “ecological funeral” or green funeral in China. Different ethnic groups and different areas have different forms of funeral customs, which have their own justifications. Therefore, the Fu-neral and Interment reform should adapt to local conditions, and take into the consideration the characteristics of the karst region in the case of Guizhou, and fully draw on the rational factors of ethnic burial. The present funeral and interment reform can take reference from the following three aspects from the ethnic burial culture of Guizhou:The first is to delimit some appropriate burial zones and maintain properly some burial customs which has ecological value. We advocate various forms of burial in these specific burial zones, for instances, tree burial of the Basha Miao in Con-gjiang country, deep burial of the Chang-clan Yao in Libo county, and sarcophagus tombs of Li-clan Waishu Miao in Qinglong County. These forms of burial with ecological protection value not only play an exemplary role for the ecological protection in ethnic regions, but also will help for the ethnic cultural inheritance. The second is to make full use of the natural characteristics of the karst area, and properly en-courage cave burial which does not take up the cul-tivated land. In this way, not only can the cave burial custom of the Yao in Libo and the Washu Miao in Pingba be kept, but also the cliff burial custom which does not take up the cultivated land could be encouraged among the residents in the karst region. This kind of cliff burial not only re-duces the waste of cultivated land, but also re-stricts the superstitious activities in the funeral. The karst area in Guizhou is very extensive, so it has a unique advantage in conducting cave burial. The funeral and interment reform can take the local conditions into consideration, and play up the ad-vantages of natural environment. Instead of empha-sizing cremation blindly, we should take the cave burial into practice. The third is to convert karst caves into ceme-tery for placing ashes so as to change the tradition-al way of building a cemetery on the hill for placing ashes in the cremation areas. In the karst area, if an area is delimited as a cremation zone, then the burial of body or burial of bone ash coffin should be prohibited. Generally, ashes should be deposi-ted in sepulchral chapels or buried in cemeteries. Although most cemeteries are built on barren hills or land, they still occupy land and waste land re-sources. The use of cement and stone materials creates white pollution. Meanwhile, the construc-tion of cemeteries destroys the mountain and causes soil erosion. Therefore, the cemetery is not the di-rection of the funeral and interment reform in the long run, and also does not meet the original inten-tion of the reform.  相似文献   

9.
王永莉 《民族学刊》2017,8(1):22-31,98-100
Ecological civilization is a mode of civilization which is constructed on the concept of multiple-wins, such as economic benefit, social benefit and environmental benefit, etc. It requires that a harmonious relationship between man and nature permeate various aspects of civilization, such as material civilization, spiritual civilization, and political civilization, forming an ecological mode for production, living, consumption, and other behaviors. The theories and practices of eco ̄logical civilization both at home and abroad, as well as the strategic planning for the construction of ecological civilization in China, have constituted important theoretical and practical guidelines for the construction of ecological civilization in the western ethnic areas of China.
Constructing ecological civilization in the western ethnic areas has important theoretical and practical significance. Compared with the eastern part of China or the whole country, the level of e ̄conomic and social development in the western eth ̄nic areas still lags behind; energy consumption is generally high , and the number of national key ecologically functional areas is large. Furthermore, these areas face a daunting task for their environ ̄mental protection and energy saving. In addition, the most concentrated areas of desertification in China are found in the western ethnic areas, espe ̄cially Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Qing ̄hai. Therefore, the construction of ecological civi ̄lization in the western ethnic areas has an impor ̄tant role for the sustainable development of the e ̄conomy and society, ecological security, energy saving and emission reduction, and the prevention of land desertification.
Generally speaking, the western ethnic areas actively participate in the national demonstration areas of the construction of ecological civilization, and constantly improve the level of ecological civi ̄lization construction. However, their overall level is low, and the differences between various prov ̄inces are considerable. Although the western eth ̄nic areas have rich forest resources, tourism re ̄sources, etc. for the construction of ecological civ ̄ilization, they still face many problems in the use of their ecological resources and the construction of ecological civilization.
As noted above, the western ethnic areas ac ̄tively take part in the construction of the key na ̄tional ecological civilization demonstration areas. At present, among the 55 ecological civilization demonstration areas of China, 22 are in the west ̄ern ethnic areas. These demonstration areas are actively exploring the construction of ecological civilization by taking the property rights of natural resources, ecological compensation and cadres as ̄sessment, etc. into consideration.
As just noted, although the level of the con ̄struction of an ecological civilization in western ethnic areas has been improving, the overall level is still low. The overall level of ecological civiliza ̄tion in western ethnic areas lags significantly be ̄hind the nation or eastern regions. In addition, the levels of every province are quite different. For in ̄stance, the level of Guangxi and Yunnan is rela ̄tively high. Therefore, the construction of ecologi ̄cal civilization must be adapted to the local condi ̄tions of the provinces.
There are a large number of key forestry en ̄terprises in the western ethnic areas, but the struc ̄ture of the forestry industry is not equitable. For ̄estry is an important force, and provides important content for the construction of ecological civiliza ̄tion. On the one hand, there are a large number of key national forestry enterprises in the western eth ̄nic areas, but their distribution is not balanced. At present, there are 295 key national forestry en ̄terprises , among which 48 are found in the western ethnic areas and are included in the list. Among them, the advantage held by Guangxi and Yunnan’s forest resources are obvious, while those in Tibet, Ningxia and Qinghai are not so obvious. On the other hand, the forestry resources in the western ethnic areas are unevenly distributed, and the structure of the forestry industry is not equita ̄ble;the proportion of the primary industry of for ̄estry is too high, and the proportion of the second ̄ary industry is relatively low. This means that the economic benefits of forestry resources are not fully transformed, something which has seriously affect ̄ed the promotion of ecological civilization.
Tourism resources in the western ethnic areas are rich, but the contradiction between tourism de ̄velopment and environmental protection is sharp. The tourism industry can effectively improve the level of ecological civilization construction. With rich tourism resources in the western ethnic areas, the tourism industry has become one of the impor ̄tant regional pillar industries, especially in Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi. However, the conditions of tourism infrastructure and the tourism environment are still relatively backward in western ethnic areas. This is seen especially in the tourist foreign exchange income ratio which is not high. In addition, theunique tourism resources have not strongly attracted more overseas visitors; and, as just said, there are contradictions between regional tourism development and ecological environment protection, which are still very sharp.
The construction of an ecological civilization is a complicated social system project. The con ̄struction of an ecological civilization in the western ethnic areas has just started, so we need to in ̄tegrate the idea of ecological civilization throughout political, economic, cultural, and social construc ̄tion. Furthermore, we need to promote the process of ecological civilization construction according to the local conditions by taking the central authorities’ construction plan of ecological civiliza ̄tion as guidance; consider the economic develop ̄ment level of each province; and the characteris ̄tics of ecological protection and resource environ ̄ment in ethnic areas.
First of all, we should change the concept of government at all levels and the entire society in western ethnic areas, and improve the system of ecological civilization construction. For this pur ̄pose, we must:( i) strengthen the top-level de ̄sign of the ecological civilization system; ( ii) im ̄prove relevant systems, such as the development of the national land space; and ( iii ) improve envi ̄ronmental protection and ecological compensation in the western ethnic areas and the whole country. Furthermore, through making use of both formal systems, such as political, economic and legal ones, and informal systems, such as ecological culture, we should jointly safeguard and promote the construction of ecological civilization. On the one hand, we must establish and improve various policies related to finance, tax, population and land to improve the level of ecological political civ ̄ilization in the western ethnic areas from the level of central government to local administrations. On the other hand, the central government and local administrations in the western ethnic areas must enhance the awareness of the construction of eco ̄logical civilization through various ways, including school education and the internet.
Secondly, we should vigorously develop the advantages of the ecological industry in western ethnic areas, such as ecological tourism, ecologi ̄cal agriculture and other ecological industries. The construction of ecological civilization should strive to find a balance between ecological environment and stable economic growth. Therefore, according to the characteristics of their ecological environ ̄ment, resources, climate and the capacity of the ecological carrying capacity, we should choose ec ̄ological industries suitable for regional develop ̄ment, such as ecological agriculture, ecological tourism;change the original model of industrial de ̄velopment to an ecological mode of production, and improve the level of ecological civilization while protecting the environment.
Thirdly, we should speed up the development of secondary and tertiary industries of forestry in the western ethnic areas, and further optimize the structure of the forestry industry. For this purpose we must further increase forestry investment and construction;and improve the total output value of forestry through afforestation, returning farmland to forest, and coordinating the relationship between the economic forest and ecological forest. Moreo ̄ver, we should actively participate in China’s forest food certification and forest certification program;improve the proportion of secondary and tertiary forestry industires; take the initiative to transform the advantage of forestry resources into economic advantages;and improve the level of civilization of the ecological environment.
Finally, it is necessary for the western ethnic areas to continue the practice of constructing an ec ̄ological civilization. Though adjustment to local conditions, and actively exploring the practice of ecological civilization construction, we should gradually accumulate experience in the construc ̄tion of ecological civilization for the western ethnic areas, and even the whole country. In particular, in Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai, we must active ̄ly promote the process of regional ecological civili ̄zation construction based on the scheme of their own ecological civilization demonstration area pro ̄grams. In addition, the western ethnic areas should fully play an important role in informal in ̄stitutions, such as national ecological culture.  相似文献   

10.
耿瑞芹 《民族学刊》2016,7(3):80-94,125-128
Seasonal customs, also called“performances that take place within a one year cycle”, refer to a series of customs, patterns or norms practiced periodically and habitually on spe-cific days within the regular cycle of the four sea-sons. Seasonal customs are found in every month, such as the Spring Festival in the first month, Laborers’ Day in the second month, The 3rd day in the third month, the birthday of Sakyamuni in the fourth month, the Dano Festival in the fifth month, etc. ( all dates mentioned in this paper are in the lunar calendar) . As the years go by, the seasonal customs change constantly. Many of them have been faded as society has changed, and they have been replaced by National Holidays or other legal holidays which regulate people’s lives. In addition, as western and other cultures filter in, holidays like Valentine’s Day, and Christmas have stepped into people’s lives. Because these festivals are no longer linked with traditional religious meanings found in the old customs, and place more emphasis on entertainment, they have been accepted almost instantly, taking up social space, and changing people’s activities and behaviors. Apart from these, festivals in some particular areas became popular and spread nationwide as the result of na-tional policies. As an important constituent, seasonal customs can reveal the cultural state and spiritual world of a country or region. Jeollanam-do in South Korea, known as the treasure house of customs, possesses rich customs and heritage and various annual cus-toms can be seen here. This paper, by making a general investigation of the customs in Jeollanam-do, can help us further understand the state of this region’s history and ideology, and the cultural im-plications hidden within it. In the first month of the lunar calendar, the primary festivals are the Spring Festival, the First Day of the First Lunar Month, and the Fifteenth Day of the First Lunar Month. 1 ) In the Spring Festival, the most important activities are offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, sweeping tombs, and paying New Year’s visits. People also believe that this is the proper time to avoid the“three dis-asters”, keep away night ghosts, burn hair, and go to fortune tellers, etc. There are also games played in this period, such as the see-saw and board-turning. 2) the First Day of the First Lunar Month cannot be counted as a traditional festival. However, a day’s rest is taken in the countryside when every house sticks spring couplets on their doors or pillars. These are pairs of long strips of paper on which auspicious words or sayings are written. 3 ) In traditional society, when farming dominated, people observed the Fifteenth Day of the First Lunar Month with grand ceremony, main-ly through engaging in entertaining activities. In Jeollanam-do, the festival atmosphere is warmly created by playing folk or peasant music, flying kites, playing tug-of-war games, or Gohssaum, and so on. In addition to the group activities, indi-vidual families might offer sacrifices in their hou-ses. Each village also offers sacrifices together, known as the Tangshan Sacrifice and Dragon King Sacrifice. There are various superstitions related to this day. For example, many people will buy a strainer and hang it at home, believing that it will bring blessings. Or, on the eve of this day people might set fires on field ridges, believing that this will bring a good harvest. People might also set up Changsheng or Changganzi, along the borders or milestones separating villages from each other, which are known as the patron gods protecting their territory. On this day the staple food is supposed to be“Wugufan”, literally“Rice with Five Grains”, which actually includes more than five kinds of va-rious grains. It is so-called because all the main grains are collectively called “five grains”. In ad-dition, people also cook the“Eight Treasures Rice Soup” which contains glutinous rice, Chinese dates, chestnut, honey, pine nuts, an beans, etc. In the second lunar month, there are the Laborers’ Day and the Yongdung Festival. On the 1st of the second month, Laborers’ Day, laborers used to be given a day’s rest when people made a kind of dessert known as “Agecake”. However, because no one hires laborers nowadays, this cus-tom has actually disappeared. It is said that on 1st day of the second month, Yongdung Halmoni de-scends from the sky, and returns there on the 15th or 20th day. Yongdung Halmoni is said to be the goddess in charge of wind, so, in fishing areas where wind matters a lot, people will offer sacri-fices to her. It is said that if Yongdung Halmoni descends with her daughter-in-law, the wind throughout the whole year will be too strong to guarantee a good harvest, but good sailings can be counted on if she descends with her daughter. On the 3rd day of the third month, women in Jeollanam-do bring simple cooking equipment to the riverside, and pass a pleasant day there. They mix glutinous rice powder with rhododendron petals to make pancakes which they call “flower pan-cakes”. While they eat, they sing songs about flower pancakes or other folk songs. Around 3 rd day of the third month, butterflies start to appear and “dance”. It is believed that if yellow butter-flies are seen first, the coming year will be smooth, but if white butterflies are seen first, there will be many funerals or other inauspicious things. On the 8 th day of the fourth month the birthday of Sakyamuni, many people go to the temples and hang Buddhist lanterns. The display of lanterns on that day is truly grand. It is attended mainly by women who pray for happiness, safety, good health, success and prosperity for their family members. In the temples, people perform the ritu-al of“circumambulating the stupas”, spending the entire night sleepless walking around the stupas, praising gods’ merits and credits, and repeating their wishes in their hearts. While circling the stu-pas, people usually listen to Buddhist chants,some places may play the traditional music with tradi-fional instrument. On the 5th day of the fifth month, on the Dano Festival, the following activities are found in Jeol-lanam-do. 1 ) wrestling, a competitive game played mainly by males; 2 ) swinging, played mainly by females; 3 ) washing hair with acorus calamus. It is believed that hair becomes smooth and shiny if washed with water boiled with acorus calamus. Therefore, many women wash their hair in this way on the 5th day of the fifth month. 4) imbibing herbal medicine. During the Dano Festi-val, all things on the earth are said to be suitable for medicine. There are drinkable herbal juices made from Leonurus heterophyllus, or Ay Tsao. People pluck all kinds of herbs and dry them for future use. The 15 th day of the sixth lunar month is Yudu Day. It is believed that if you wash your hair with clear stream water on this day, bad luck is kept a-way and you will not suffer heatstroke in summer. According to local folklore, the Dragon God and God of the field ditches check on the crops on this day, so no fieldwork is allowed, and a day’s rest is required. If people insist on going to work, it is said they will not have a good harvest. Rice cakes are also prepared on this day and placed in the crop fields as simple offerings to the Dragon God for a good harvest. In June, which has the hottest days in the year, the month is divided into the ini-tial, middle and final hottest days. In order to build up their health, people cook delicious gin-seng chicken soup by putting ginseng, jujubes and glutinous rice into the chicken’s abdomen. Or, for the sake of vitality, some men may drink a body-protecting soup, the so-called dog meat soup. The 7 th day of the seventh month is the Chilseok Festival. Since Chilseok is closely con-nected with the Chilseok God, every family will pray to the Chilseok God for blessings, or go to temples to offer sacrifices. In this festival some families may offer sacrifices to Chengzhu God as in other festivals, but not many offerings are required except for some rice and vegetable dishes. On the 15th day, the Baekjung Day, all kinds of fortune-telling activities prevail. All fieldwork stops and a day’s rest is taken. On this day people also prepare food to offer to the ancestors. The 15th day of the eight month, the Mid-Au-tumn Festival, is characterized by harvest and thanks-giving. Various activities can be seen in Je-ollanam-do, among which offering sacrifices and sweeping tombs are given priority, even more than during the Spring Festival. During the mid-autumn days everyone, rich or poor, makes Songbing, which is very much like a Chinese moon cake, and it is still the most representative festival food for the Mid-Autumn Festival Day. After finishing mak-ing the Songbing with newly harvested rice, people will carry them together with many fruits to offer sacrifices in the early morning and sweep tombs. Some people may go to the cemetery to pull weeds before sweeping tombs. At night, during the full moon, in order to liven up atmosphere, women will perform traditional dance . There is also a custom observed on the Mid-autumn day—married daugh-ters will meet with their own parents and relatives in a place located mid-way between the two homes. Sometimes, female neighbors may agree to meet with each other at a certain appointed place and bring food along to spend a pleasant day to-gether. The 9 th day of the ninth month is the Jungu Festival. It is no longer regarded as a particular festival, but it is still considered a lucky day. In the past, on this day, people would make wine, rice cakes and even medicine, out of chrysanthe-mums. Moreover, literati would appreciate poems as well as maple leaves, which were quite scenic. There are no special festivals during the 10 th lunar month, though this is considered a lucky month because many things forbidden in other months are permissible during this month. The 15th day is a day for some families to offer sacrifices to ancestors or drive away disasters. In rural areas, one of the family customs is for women to bathe and change their clothes before replacing the old rice in ancestor pot with newly harvested rice. This is re-garded as a recommended ritual to domestic gods of new rice. In the 11th lunar month, at the winter sol-stice, it is customary to have red bean soup, which is cooked with glutinous rice powder and red beans mixed together. Its red color is believed to protect people against evil spirits. People offer the red bean soup to their ancestors, and, splash it in front of doors, on walls, around the kitchen, and in their yards. This is all done in order to keep ghosts outside. The 30th day of the 12th month, New Year’s Eve, is the time to stay up late to see in the New Year. So, every house has lights on overnight. It is customary to visit elderly people and inquire a-bout their physical condition and to show care on this eve. This is called “paying an old year’s call”. In olden times, snow which fell in the 12 th month was put into bottles, and when the snow melted the water was believed to be a good medi-cine for curing heatstroke in summer. To sum up, seasonal customs in Jeollanam-do are multi-functional, including the following five aspects:1 ) worshipping the ancestors;2 ) praying for a good harvest and good fishing;3 ) keeping a-way bad luck and calling for blessings;4 ) sharing happiness and improving harmony;5 ) hygiene and health care. Folk customs in Jeollanam-do are diversified. While taken as the concrete outward representa-tions of seasonal customs, these folk scenarios car-ry distinctive features of local customs: 1 ) rural music is the most important factor constituting these seasonal customs by enriching the functions and connotations; 2 ) With its keen local charac-teristics, distinctive quality of including spells, and carrying a religious sensibility, games are part and parcel to seasonal customs; 3 ) Different cul-tural circles are accompanied by different customs and habits. So there are differences between inland and coastal or island areas, and even within the coastal area, differences can occur among particu-lar sea areas.  相似文献   

11.
加白晋/著 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):28-35,101-103
This article explores the promotion of tea culture at Wudang Mountain, a Daoist tem-ple complex in Hubei Province that is a popular tourist destination. At shops in temples and market areas, vendors brand their tea as Wudang Daoist tea, emphasizing its health benefits and connecting their teas to the Daoist discourse of life-nourishing ( yang sheng) practices. In their marketing materi-als and on their websites, the management of the Eight Immortal Temple Tea Plantation further cites folklore and mythic history to claim profound local roots for Wudang tea culture. In so doing, this company echoes the memory narratives of more fa-mous Chinese teas like Iron Guanyin and Dahong-pao. In China as elsewhere, convenient travel now puts people in contact with areas and peoples that a few decades earlier only a few non-locals explored. As a consequence of a global trend towards com-modification, members of local groups, including distinctive ethnocultural groups, now seek to create distinctive local brands for a tourist market. Corpo-rations now regularly mine local traditions to find i-tems that they can transform into commodities for a wider market ( Comaroff and Comaroff 2009 ) . One of Hubei’s richest tourism assets is the Daoist temple complex at Wudang Moutain, which draws pilgrims and tourists from China and Greater China. China’s State Council identified Wudang Moutain as a National Key Scenic Area in 1982 , and UNESCO added its ancient temples to its World Heritage list in 1994 . The Chinese govern-ment has worked with the Daoist Federation to de-velop Wudang’s temples and pavilions, which are spread over 400 square kilometers of mountainous terrain, into a major tourist destination. The gov-ernment tourist office promotes Wudang Mountain for its scenic beauty, its deep historical heritage, its religious culture, and famous martial arts. Al-though its tea culture is less renowned, local tea sellers claim that Wudang tea has a deep history and Daoist qualities. At Wudang Mountain, the Eight Immortal Temple Tea Plantation markets their tea as Wudang Daoist Tea, using history, legend, ritual, and sa-cred location to distinguish its green, black, and oolong teas from those produced elsewhere. They seek to valorize their teas through claims about the excellence of their growing environment ( not un-like the terroir of a fine wine ) and the historical depth of their tea history. They further use legend and mythic history to position their products, and associate their teas with Daoist traditions of health preservation, including martial arts. Finally, they use modern marketing techniques to promote their teas, including a promotional video directed by a In Ethnicity Inc, John and Jean Comaroff pro-pose that “commerce has been instrumental either in crystallizing or in reproducing the sociological entities (‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘community’ ) in which cultural identity is presumed to inhere”( Comaroff and Comaroff 2009:114 ) . In particu-lar, they conclude that people use identity-laden objects as a vehicle through which “ethnic con-sciousness is materialized” ( 33 ) . They focus on the modern discourse of intellectual property rights, including competing national claims to trademark signature products (122). Wudang tea vendors have used story, packa-ging, and performance to promote teas that evoke Wudang’s history, local traditions, and landscape. Hubei officials pay premium prices for the Eight Immortal Temple Plantation’s highest quality teas, but outside China Wudang tea is not well known. As global awareness of this world heritage site grows, Hubei’s Wudang Daoist tea series may find a place among the specialty teas now sold on the world market. But for now, Wudang Daoist Tea is an innovative brand that symbolizes a heritage that is simultaneously imperial, national, Daoist, and deeply local.  相似文献   

12.
和虎 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):41-49,107-108
Taking the Ritual of Sacrifice to Heaven of the Naxi at Lezhu village as a case stud-y, this article tries to explore how a typical Naxi village handles the relationship between its tradi-tional culture and modernity, and how it reshapes its unique culture in the process of cultural change, and preserves its cultural characteristics. The Ritual of Sacrifice to Heaven is a grand and complicated ceremony of the Naxi. The proce-dure of this ritual at Lezhu village generally in-cludes the following steps: 1 ) planting sacred trees;2 ) offering incense sticks and rices;3 ) offer-ing wine;4 ) cleaning impurities;5 ) offering un-cooked food; 6 ) offering cooked food; 7 ) atoning for the sins and praying for blessings; 8 ) feeding crows and eagles;9) sharing the food. According to the analysis of the author, the revitalization of the Ritual of Sacrifice to Heaven in Lezhu village is related to the following reasons:1 ) the formation of united-groups for sacrifice to heave;2 ) the power of the people’s belief in a small community; 3 ) the effort of folk “enthusi-asts” ;and 4 ) the geographical location of the vil-lage. Concerning the inheritance and change in the Ritual of Sacrifice to Heaven at Lezhu village, we should notice that some traditions have been inheri-ted while some have been changed. In the case of Lijiang , economic factor ( especially tourism indus-try) has played an important role in the ethnic cul-tural change. On one hand, it can accelerate the spreading of the Naxi traditional culture, enhance the Naxi’s ethnic confidence and identity, and cre-ate chances for local economic development, on the other hand, the traditional culture might lose its foundations during the process of spreading and exchanging. Social change can result in the lose of tradi-tional culture, and the Naxi’s Dongba culture in Lijiang plain is facing this problem. A slightly im-proper behavior can lead to the discontinuity, or e-ven disappearance of ethnic traditional culture. There is always a paradox of “center-margin”concerning the economic development and ethnic traditional culture inheritance. Ethnic traditional cultures normally have no enough survival space in the economically developed areas while they are preserved much better in the economically back-ward mountainous areas. To a certain degree, the revitalization of the Naxi’s Ritual of Sacrifice to Heaven at Lezhu village is due to the relatively backward of economics. Following the development of transportation, communication and internet, people’s concept of space and time has changed;modern civilization has strongly impacted the Naxi of Lijiang. The Naxi of Lijiang, like other ethnic minority people in southwest China,are also facing a problem of cultural discontinuity or reshaping of the tradition. We should aware that the society is develo-ping, and cultural change has its inevitability. As a social member, we should ,on one hand, inherit the culture, and on the other hand, understand its change and development.  相似文献   

13.
范冬敏 《民族学刊》2016,7(3):73-79,121-124
The Chukchee in northeastern Si-beria have a longstanding historical tradition of shamanism which was closely integrated into their traditional society and way of life. In accordance with their different modes of subsistence, the Chuckchee are divided into two basic groups, the maritime Chukchee and the reindeer-breeding Chukchee. The maritime Chukchee lived a rela-tively settled life, and hunting sea mammals played an important role in their economy. The sea mam-mal meat was their main food, its skins and the i-vory from walrus were made into different tools, and the bones of whale were the main material used for building houses. A “unit” of maritime Chukchee was composed of people whose lives cen-tered around skin boats, and this group , included both Chukchee and non-Chukchee people. they all lived together, hunted together and organized their hunting according to a special rules. The reindeer-breeding Chukchee mainly lived a nomadic life. They ate reindeer meat, dressed in reindeer fur and lived in tents made of reindeer skins. The reindeer-breeding Chukchee formed social units composed of four to five families. They lived in scattered tents and grazed reindeer together. The unit also included some non-Chukchee people. I. Shamanism among the Chukchee The Chukchee believed that we live in a world with spirits. The world was filled with various spir-its, who could not be seenor touched, were always changing and lived a life similar with that of hu-mans. In other words, the spirits also raised rein-deer, hunted, married and bore children. Wicked spirits harmed humans by preying upon their souls or bodies. Sickness and disaster were caused by this. In order to cope with this kind of sickness and disaster, it was essential to invite a shaman to combat the wicked spirits, and in some cases, the shaman made sacrifices to please such wicked spir-its. In addition to these different kinds of spirits, there were also powerful deities, such as mountain deities, forest deities, and river deities. Such dei-ties were responsible not only for the small spirits who lived in the mountains, forests and rivers, but they also were responsible for the animals and plants that were there. People who lived in or nearby these places had to communicate with the spirits and supernatural beings living in the area before they used the area’s resources. Moreover, they had to communicate with the more powerful elements which controlled the universe. According to Vladimir Bogoraz ( Waldemar Borgorose) , shamanism among the Chukchee man-ifested itself as “Family Shamanism”, and “was still in its primary stage of development”. As such, it provided “the most characteristic, pure and primitive” features of shamanism. It was com-mon in the 1800 s and early 1900 s for males to play a leading role in most Siberian groups. Yet, in spite of male dominance in shamanism, female shamans were always considered to be“leading fig-ures in the shamanic field”. Among Chukchee and Koryak there is another kind of shaman where the male shaman takes the form of a female. This hap-pened when the shaman is possessed by the identi-ty of a female spirit. They received“the call of de-ity” to change their sex through visions. In general, Chukchee shaman experienced the call to become a shaman during their adolescence. The call usually came from shaman’s inner voice, based on which the “candidate shaman” estab-lished their relationship with deities. This sudden calling often confused the initiate, and they were not always so sure about their situation. They felt“shyness” and fear; lost interest in regular life, and were unwilling to work and communicate with others. They had no appetite, and slept a lot. They often stayed in their tentall of the time, or ran away when they went out for hunting or grazing their reindeer. Generally, young people were un-willing to accept the call of the deity. No matter if they were novice shaman or ex-pert shaman, both communicated with the “deity”through drumming and singing. Novice shaman practiced drumming, as well as singing, for long periods of time in order to master the skills–this required great patience on the part of the perform-ers. Ventriloquism was the Chukchee shaman’s specific “sorcery skill” in which they were ex-tremely skillful. Stabbing a knife into their belly was also one of the sorcery skills frequently prac-ticed by Chukchee shaman. II. The changes in Chukchee shamanism dur-ing the Soviet Period During the late 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union government established many schools in mi-nority regions. These newly built schools laid a firm foundation for their anti-shamanism campaign. Scholars during the Soviet period no longer regar-ded shamanism as an essential element embedded within a group’s economic life, social organization, religious life and festivals, but sought to destroy it through messages which spoke of “ideology” and“class”. As a result, Chukchee shamanism expe-rienced enormous, passive, cultural change which created a cultural breakdown. At the same time, shamanic culture also exhibited a state of conflict, resistance and avoidance to survival. After World War II, the Soviet Union govern-ment tried to advance the process of collectivization in the Chukchee tundraregion. Up to the early 1950s, almost all the pastoral reindeer were con-sidered state-owned. The Soviet Union government merged reindeer-breeding collective units and coastal hunting collective units, and established mixed “farms” in the Arctic Circle and along the Bering Strait’s coast. The residences of so many coastal Chukchee were demolished, and they were relocated to alternative settlements. In these new and larger settlements, they did not need tradition-al skills, so, they could only do manual labor. Since the 1960s, the ethnic consciousness in the Northeast Siberia region has undergone tremendous changes. Most young Chukchee people do not know whether their parents were from coastal-hun-ting or inland reindeer-breeding groups, which, as we know, were the basic distinctions among the Chukchee people. More young people rejected tra-ditional occupations, and were more willing to par-ticipate in “modern” work, and they increasingly identified themselves with the social-cultural norms of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, their economic life and social organization experienced big changes under the influence of the Soviet Union. The social support of shamanism was destroyed, although it still existed privately and underground. III. Shamanic cultural revival after the col-lapse of the Soviet Union After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a large number of Russians “escaped”;they “killed reindeer, took away all the things that could be taken away”;the young indigenous people also left in order to find jobs outside. In order to rebuild the local economy, the autonomous communities began to try to establish an “obshchina” ( com-mune or society) . In that moment, when the locals were trying to understand the world around them and were looking for ethnic identity, they, once a-gain, needed their traditional worldview and spirit-ual support. In the areas where the shamanic tradi-tion had broken down, one could only rely on reading early European travelers’ records related to shamanism, or talking with old people to get infor-mation about shamanism, and by doing so, revive the once ruptured local beliefs and culture by hold-ing religious and cultural performances regularly. Generally speaking, shamanic culture today has lost its close links with the “special spaces”, as well as its close relationship with the communi-ty. As such, it is difficult for the tradition to repre-sent the strength of the whole society, control or rescue its people and provide prosperity, fertility and guarantee military success for its people. In other words, the essential structure of shamanism, whether it was the internal cultural significance or its integration with society and environment, has been broken and shattered. Fragmented shamanic heritage is the vivid portrait of its fragmented de-velopment stage. IV. Summary Traditional Chukchee economic life, social or-ganization, religious festivals and customswere linked with each other. As a whole, they worked together and created a social order for the Chukchee, and constituted the cultural cohesion of the Chukchee. Shamanism among the Chukchee was integrated into the history of the nation and its social context. Each Chukchee could participate in religious life. Therefore, this “family shamanism”and its “shamanism features” distinguished it from other forms of shamanism among the Siberian tribes. Chukchee people reacted very passively to Christianity when it reached there. Until the early 20th century, almost all Chukchee still adhered to their own shamanistic practices. During the Soviet period, Northeast Siberia experienced the anti-religious movement, collectiv-ization movement, compulsory residence resettle-ment movement, “scientific” reindeer-breeding and other foreign “progress” and “civilization”movements. Such “progress” and “civilization”were not familiar nor were they sympathetic to the indigenous people’s traditional life. The old way of life of the Chukchee was broken, the original so-cial relations were shattered. Therefore, the Chukchee and their entire culture were “re-formed”. Remains and practices of shamanism a-mong the Chukchee went underground, retreated from mainstream social life, and became an inti-mate way of healing. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russians“ran away”, and the young Chukchee al-so left their traditional homeland. The economic depression, population decline, and social erosion brought big challenges to the movement to “re-build” Chukchee society. As an attempt to bind local Chukchee people, the “obshchina” provided a possibility for reorganizing. Now, shamanism in Chukchee, just like other social organizations, is in a fragmented, theater-like state. The revival of shamanism in Chukchee in the future will not be u-nilateral, but rather rooted in its social and cultural revival system.  相似文献   

14.
同美 《民族学刊》2016,7(5):21-27,103-104
This article is the fourth article re-lated to the research of “Zhangzhung·rGyalron· Sanxingdui and Jinsha”—Tibetan cultural interpre-tations of relics unearthed in Sanxingdui and Jin-sha. The main focus of the article is Tibetan cul-tural interpretations of the vertical-eyed bronze mask and the copper statue of a man with an ani-mal head crown in Sanxingdui Museum. 1 . Vertical-eyed bronze mask and Miwo Lon-glong The bronze cultural relics unearthed in Sanx-ingdui or even Jinsha have broad and deep links to ancient Tibetan culture. The vertical-eyed bronze mask is the most typical of the numerous bronze objects depicting human heads. In the following discussion, we would like to give an interpretation of the symbolic meaning of the bronze objects de-picting human heads. In order to draw inferences about other cases from one instance, we would like to choose two typical cases: choosing the vertical-eyed bronze mask as our model of cultural relic, and choosing langshi jiazu ( the Lang family clan) as our model of Tibetan ancient literature. It is generally stated that the eyes of the verti-cal-eyed bronze mask kept in Sanxingdui museum roughly meets the appearance of the Shu people ’ s ancestors, the Cancong, who are recorded as hav-ing “vertical eyes” in the historical books. Some people also believe that “vertical eyes” means“upright eyes”, just like the eye in the forehead of the God Erlang in Chinese ancient myth, so the image might be a statue of an ancestor god. Addi-tionally, some connect it with the frontlet of kuilong ( a sacred dragon in Chinese myth ) , and believe that it is related to zhulong( another sacred dragon in Chinese myth) who has a human head, a dragon ( snake) body, and “upright eyes”. Langshi Jiazu is an important document for studying the political and religious unification sys-tem in Tibetan areas during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, meanwhile, it is also an essential material for the study of the Gesar Epic. Langshi Jiazu was published by Xizang renmin chubanshe ( Tibet People ’ s Publishing House ) for the first time in May, 1986, and the whole book is com-posed of three parts. From the perspective of the ancient Indian centralism and Tibetan centralism, Langshi Jiazu has many unique parts, and its con-tent has an unusual connection with rGyarong in the southeastern part of Tibetan areas. For in-stance , the content of the fist part is very similar to shengniao xiongqiongwang zhuang ( Biography of the Sacred Bird Garuda) recently discovered in the rGyarong area. There is a myth in Langshi Jiazu, and the sto-ry is very common in Bon literature. The academic circle calls it the Bon religion’ s view on the crea-tion of world—the universe is oviparous. Most scholars believe that the view of oviparous creation of the world in Bon religion might be Tibetan peo-ple’ s own cognition. We provide translations to some content included in the Langshi Jiazu, and compare them with the vertical-eyed bronze mask, and notice some information which has been ig-
nored by the current academic circle. For in-stance, the vertical-eyed bronze mask symbolizes“”, Chinese phonetic translation Miwo Longlong, which means “may all your wishes be-come truth”. 2 . Copper statue of a man with an animal head crown in the Bon Religion The copper statue of a man with an animal head crown kept in Sanxingdui Museum is not com-plete, with only the upper part of the body remai-ning. The statue wears an animal head crown. On the two sides of the top crown, there stands two an-imal ears, in between of which there is a curly decoration which looks like an elephant ’ s nose. Apart from the previously-mentioned characteris-tics of the sacred bird Gaguda, the copper statue of a man with an animal head crown also has several other outstanding features, for instance, its crown and posture. The crown is not only high, but also has a rectangular hole, on the top of which there are three long strips. The statue is posed in a grasping gesture. This paper gives firstly an overall interpreta-tion of the copper statue of a man with an animal head crown according to the shengniao xiongqiong-wang zhuang, then gives a Tibetan cultural inter-pretation of the details of the statue. Concerning the knowledge of the three long strips on the crown of the copper statue, this article finds some clues from the angle of philology and archaeology, and proves that the origin of this crown is the sacred hat in Bon religion of Tibet. Moreover, this article also discusses the reason why the crown has these three strips on top of it. The author mentions that it is related to the sacred bird Garuda, and the three strips respectively represent the two wings and horn of the bird. In other words, the strips on the right and left side symbolizes the bird opening its wings and viewing the world, while the strip in the mid-
dle symbolizes that the sacred bird is male, not fe-male. From one aspect, the head dress of adult women in the rGyarong area symbolizes the sacred bird Garuda, and from another aspect, in Tibetan culture, including rGyarong culture, only the sa-cred male bird Garuda has the horn. That means the sacred bird Garuda with a horn must be a male one. Concerning the vertical-eyed bronze mask and the copper statue of a man with an animal head crown unearthed in Sanxingdui, there are still many details that need to be explored, and also we feel that it could be differently interpreted. Howev-er, due to the limitations of space, we will not do a long discussion here, but we do hope that from the examples provided in this article, one can draw inferences about other cases from this one in-stance.  相似文献   

15.
王文澜  张亚辉 《民族学刊》2016,7(3):17-24,98-102
In his famous book The Golden Bough,James Frazer mentioned one special custom found along the shores of Lake Nemi in Italy. The forest king who lived beside Lake Nemi, was not only once a prisoner, but also the murderer of his predecessor. Why did the King have to be killed? How could he be killed? This was the very starting point of James Frazer’s divine kingship study. This was in contrast to the common idea held in many cultures, that kings, or even gods, would die. However, in the most primitive societies, kings and gods also had a symbolic duty. People be-lieved that their king took the responsibility to maintain the order of society and the natural world. In that case, it was obvious that if the king became old and weak, the society and order would be in danger. The way used by primitive people to solve this problem was to kill the king when he became weak, and to rebuild this symbol of order through the accession of a new king. This worry about the loss of order and fertility, Frazer explained, was the reason why they choose to kill their king, who was also a god to them. To prove his theory, Fra-zer used many examples. Among them, the exam-ple of the Shilluk of Nilotic Sudan was the only real case of a people killing their king. All the kings were possessed by the spirit of Nyikang, who was not only a hero and king in their history, but also the god who created the universe of the Shilluk people. In Shilluk, it was not the king who ruled the country, but the spirit who possessed him. For that reason, once the king showed his weakness and age, he had to be killed or commit a suicide so as to keep Nyikang in a healthy body. This case was mentioned by James Frazer, re-examined by Evans-Pritchard, and discussed by Henri Frank-fort and David Graeber. The Shilluk people lived in Sudan, in the Ni-lotic area alongside the Nile River. Their kingdom consisted of y many hamlets and occupied by linea-ges. But all these hamlets and lineages shared the same king, who was believed to be the descendant of their semi-divine hero and first king, Nyikang. Nyikang was believed to bring the fertility of men, of cattle, and of the crops. He lived among his people and blessed them. He was a mythological figure who represented a changeless moral order and the stable structure of the state. The Shilluk people believed that the king was the embodiment of Nyikang, and, thus, shared his divinity. All the Kings were believed to be descended from Nyi-kang. The king could be killed for two reasons:when he could no longer satisfy his wives, it was time for him to die and make room for a more vig-orous successor; or he would be killed by one of the prince who coveted the shrine at night. There were many graves of kings and of Nyikang all a-round the kingdom, but all the Shilluk people knew that Nyikang was not buried in any of them, he would never die. The king, however, was the container of the Nyikang’s spirit. Thus, after his death, he was no longer divine, so his funeral would be a clan affair rather than a national affair. In Frazer’s opinion, Shilluk kings confirmed their rule and power by maintaining their connec-tion with the god, Nyikang. And, he gained divin-ity from this connection. However, this divinity was not permanent. In the same way, the stability of the Shilluk social order was also not permanent, so the complete failure of that power would cause the danger to the entire society. When the new king ascended the throne, the social order would be re-established. So, to kill the old king when he could no longer take responsibility for the whole of society was the way for the Shilluk to release the tension and handle the danger which resulted from their king’s death and to keep the social order. Several decades after the publication of The Golden Bough, Evans - Pritchard gave a talk at The Frazer Lecture ( 1948 ) . He looked at the Shilluk custom of killing their king together with the social structure of the Shilluk kingdom, and pointed out some of the unreasonable explanations made by James Frazer. He believed that this cus-tom, which Frazer explained as the way the Shilluk maintained the divinity of kingship, had political reasons and social functions. Based on his field-work, Evans - Pritchard described the political structure of Shilluk as follows: Shilluk hamlets consisted of one to fifty different families. Each hamlet was occupied by members of an extended family or a small lineage. The headman of a hamlet was also the head of a lineage in the settlement. All the Shilluk settlements composed a common polity, i. e. the land belonging to the Kingdom of Shillukland. There were two chiefs in the hierarchy between the king and the settlements. These were the Ger, who represented northern Shillukland, and the Luak, who represented the southern shil-lukland. Those two chiefs each ritually represented half of the kingdom, and they played a very impor-tant role in the election of the new king. Evans-Prichard discovered that there were very close con-nections between the kings, the princes and their villages where they were born. The pregnant wives of the kings would be sent back to their natal villa-ges to bear their children, and the princes were brought up by the headmen of their natal villages. Except them, all of the princes had their royal cli-ents ( Ororo) in the villages. These were the com-panions of the prince, so they would live in the capital with the prince if he was chosen to be the king, and would return to their village to guard the king’s tomb. This information will help us to see and understand the social structure of Shilluk soci-ety. The dual balanced structure of Shilluk society was represented by the southern-northern opposi-tion. We find that the Shilluk kingdom had a double configuration—one that was politically re-flected in its territorial division, which was divided into northern and southern parts, and the other one was ritually reflected in the rituals related to the cult of Nyikang. The king and the capital specific-ally stayed in the center. As Evans - Pritchard said, Northern Shillukland and Southern Shil-lukland were the arches of the kingdom of Shilluk, and kingship was the keystone. This duality was clearly represented in the election system and in-vestiture. The investiture of the new king would take place about a year after his election. Since this ceremony was meant to rebuild the social or-der, all the hamlets would participate in it. After the old king’s death, the spirit of Nyikang would no longer stay in his body. Instead, it would move to an effigy of a hamlet which was in a far north dis-trict of Shillukland. The effigy would be sent by the army of north to the outskirts of the capital, where there would be a ceremonial war with the king’s army. Since Nyikang was in the northern army, it was obvious that the king would fail. Then, the ef-figy of Nyikang would be put on the king’s chair. Then, the king would sit on the chair, and, as a result, the spirit of Nyikang entered into the body of the new king. Now, there would be another war— because Nyikang had entered into the body of the new king, the northern army failed, and, they would then take the effigy back to the shrine. This ceremony not only illustrated the tension be-tween the north and the south of Shillukland, but also the tension between the god Nyikang and the human king. And all these tensions were resolved through a unified kingship. We find that Shilluk society, no matter whether within the vertical and horizontal structure of the southern -northern op-position, or among the different hamlets, they all had different objects to show their loyalty. Howev-er, all these differences would be reduced when they faced a unified national symbol— Nyikang or divine kingship. The king did not belong to any single tribe or hamlet after the ceremony. He be-came the symbol of the happiness and continuity of all the Shilluk people. From this ceremony, Evans -Pritchard re -explained the reason for the special custom of the Shilluk. He asserted that in Shilluk society, the king’s death would cause chaos and many dangers. The king had died in the way they described be-cause they were afraid of exposing the tensions hid-den within the social structure. So, this tradition was only a political myth hidden under the facts. The second kind of death of the king was that he was killed by a prince. Evans-Pritchard believed that all Shilluk princes received support from their natal villages. If all the tribes had their own king, the Shilluk kingdom would definitely be torn apart. So, they still needed a center from which to build the whole kingdom, i. e. the kingship. In a king-dom of this kind, if the king attached himself to one hamlet, other hamlets would fight for their own rights. So, because the kingship was permanent and ensured the unity of the whole kingdom, it should be emphasized. In contrast to Evans-Pritchard’ s structural-functionist explanation, the American archaeolo-gist, Henri Frankfort, made his analysis of the customs of the Shilluk based upon the methodology of mythology. He compared the divine kingship of Egypt and Shilluk in his book Kingship and the Gods. And, based upon the process of the combi-nation and separation of the king and the gods, he discussed the function of divine kingship. In E-gypt, the pharaoh was called “the Lord of Two Lands”. This title involved two gods who were en-emies:Horus and Seth. They were respectively the Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. Even when Seth had been defeated by Horus, it did not mean that he totally disappeared. This is because he had his own function within the existing order. Horus was not only a mythological figure, but also was one which reflected on the pharaoh. The pharaoh was always regarded as Horus or his embodiment. This idea is quite similar to the connection of Nyikang with the Shilluk king. However, in Egypt, there was another god who had a close connection with the kingship, that is, Osiris. In Egypt, the dead king was believed to change into Osiris, and the king on the throne, just as Horus, was regarded as the son of Osiris. Beside this connection, in the myths, Osiris was said to be the “Ka ” of Horus, which was something like energy, and for the king, it was somewhat like a kind of ruling power. This kind of father-son relationship also ex-isted among the Shilluk people. When Evans -Pritchard described the ceremony, he mentioned that Dak, the son of Nyikang, was also honored. However, in Shilluk, Nyikang meant all the kings, no matter whether dead or alive. What was more important is that Shilluk kings themselves were not gods, they were just processed by Nyikang, and it was Nyikang who was the real ruler. That was the reason why the accession ceremony of the king was so important. However, in the Egyptian view, the concept of kingship itself was more complicated than that of the Shilluk. All the Egyptian kings themselves were gods, and their orders, as god’s order, must be obeyed. So, although there was a stable kingship in the two societies, the roles played by the king were totally different. However, we can still find some basic elements of the divine kingship from these two cases. Because the king himself was a human being, he would definitely turn old and die. In order to resolve the social stress caused by the succession of the kingship, the kingship had to be stable. So, the king must have a relationship with the gods. It was the god and the kingship that maintained the unity of this structure. In 2011 , David Graeber published his paper titled The Divine Kingship of the Shilluk in which he used theories from political science to discuss the relationship between Nyikang and the Shilluk king . He tried to use this case to understand the e-mergence of the state and power. He compared the political status of Shilluk with their myth and cos-mology. He proposed three very important con-cepts:i) divine kingship which was absolutely dic-tatorial and had god-like authority—and was one in which this divine god went beyond the morality;ii) the sacred kingship which was ritualized and exemplary—this was a kind of prophetic and legis-lative king ; iii) violence and antagonism with no reason - the subject of the violence was the sover-eign and the people. All of these three concepts, David Graeber said, could be found in the Shilluk Kingdom. That was not because they were so -called primitive ethnic groups, but because this kingdom was a “Utopian State”. In other words, this kingdom, or the construction of its main cit-ies, was an imitation to the cosmic order, and, therefore, did not need a management institution to rule it. However, because this could never exist in the real world, violence appeared. David Graeber divided the kingship into two types: the divine and the sacred. In the former, the king was believed to be the god itself. And, in the latter, the kings were those who brought and created order. However, if order was set up by a king, it was asked whether or not the king himself still stayed within the order? So, the extreme type of sacred kingship would be the denial of the limi-tation of the king’s life. David Graeber suggested that the King of Shilluk did not have real power. The responsibility the Shilluk king undetook was the order of the whole cosmos. When he became weak, he could no longer judge and rule based on the cosmology. This is the reason why he had to be killed. We can see that the king who ruled the state according to the cosmology was more like a divine king, so his fate was that he must be killed by people. However, after he was killed, the for-mer “scapegoat” became the god and was wor-shiped by the people. The social order was rebuilt because of the king’s death, and in doing so he be-came the embodiment of the strength needed to re-build the social order. So, we can note that in Shilluk society, although people expect stability and order, they cannot allow the rule to become a central control and monopoly. The king should be in the center of order, but because the king would definitely become old, people tried to reduce the disorder through killing him. Due to the limitations of the king, he was trapped in the absolute authori-ty of the divine kingship, and the infinite order of the order. Hence, he was killed again and again. The appearance of the king was to resolve the dilemma within this society. He tried to build a U-topia, but was trapped in it because of his own limitations. Just like the kings were killed con-stantly, the conflict between sovereignty and the people would never stop. David Greaber pointed out that this constant opposition was the origin of state. This opinion totally refuted existing political theories, o matter whether they were that of Max Weber or of those who believe that it was through making law and rules to solve the conflict or the so-cial tensions in Africa, for their opinions were based on the perspective of nation state. However, in Africa, at least in Nilotic Sudan, they were u-sing this conflict to build their state. Graeber’s ar-ticle indicated that in the war between the sover-eign and the people, the sovereign is limited, and can never win truly. It reveals a new possibility for the construction of a nation state and political sys-tem. To sum up the discussions above, we have found that in those societies with divine kingship, the reason for the king’s divinity was because he undertook the people’s expectation of a stable soci-ety, and the fertility of crops, and livestock. Be-cause these expectations were not stable in them-selves, people either believed that their king him-self was a god, or tried to ensure that their king was in a healthy state. The similarity between them was that people had to keep the kingship stable and reduce the tension and chaos caused by the king’s death. From their fear of disorder and the fear of powerful order, we can even find a variety of ways of thinking about a perfect and eternal order, as well as on an imperfect and limited life. Thus the King always connected with a stone, for people al-ways expect a stable and changeless eternity.  相似文献   

16.
英邓彧  李兰 《民族学刊》2016,7(4):26-33,101-105
In ethnic minority literature, the translation of names plays an important role in sha-ping ethnic identity. The names of an ethnic group’s folk heroes,in this case the Naxi hero Coqsseileel’ee ( in Naxi pinyin ) , or ( in Interna-tional Phonetic Alphabet ) , are not just sound se-quences, but are also full of implicit meaning that needs to be transferred. Only when this meaning is conveyed can we protect ethnic culture in transla-tion.  相似文献   

17.
沈宁 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):8-13,93-94
Western theories on cultural herit-age have been developing continuously in ceaseless debates, and these theories have experienced dif-ferent stages of emerging, evolution and decon-struction. At the same time, a reconstruction of‘cultural heritage theories ’ is now being imple-mented and even has gained a certain achieve-ment. Indeed, at present ‘museums ’ have be-come the playgrounds for the reconstruction of new theories: museums are being transformed from a‘palatial ’ heritage protection institutes into ‘an-thropocentric’ cultural service institutes by means of ‘audience engagement’ . Museums increasingly implement the reconstruction of cultural heritage theories. From the 8 th to the 12 th of August 2016 a training project on ‘audience engagement ’ -hos-ted both by the British Council and the Chinese Museums Association-took place in the ‘National Museums Liverpool’ group. Due to its preeminent geological position, professional teams of special-ists, and audience-oriented working mechanisms, the National Museums Liverpool has become a new paradigm for the world of museums. However, be-hind these visible developments, a process of cul-tural heritage studies has been providing a strong support and guidance. Going back to European ideology from the late 18thto 19th century, the ‘past’ was seen as an ob-ject to be studied, pursued, protected, or even re-built ( designing past landscapes, old buildings, and memorials) . This ideology became the starting point of ‘Eurocentric heritage studies ’ . Due to this background, initial heritage studies have been branded with phrases as‘Eurocentrism’ ,‘author-itativeness’ , and ‘sanctification ’; this view has affected a large number of museums in the world. However, heritage studies have been adjusting and evolving. Post-modern heritage theories questioned issues like ‘centralization ’ and ‘authoritative-ness’ , and instead refocused on concepts like‘people’ , ‘democracy ’ , and ‘pluralistic socie-ty’ . The advocacy of‘cultural diversity’ and sup-port of expressions of‘intangible cultural heritage’ are practical applications of this new development in heritage theories. Taking the National Museums Liverpool as a case, the first characteristic of this museums group is the easy accessibility of the location of the muse-ums:several museums are situated just besides the sea as well as close to the city shopping center. Still, other museums are located on the opposite side of this area, yet it is only a 20-minutes walk between the two sides. A second characteristic is a special ‘managerial/administrative mechanism ’ that allows all museums to be run in a certain way;at the same time curators remain at the core of the teams that conduct the projects in the museums. A third trait is that the museum audience remains the main focus of all operations in the‘National Muse-ums Liverpool ’ . The case of National Museums Liverpool shows that ‘museums ’ have become an important place for reconstructing ‘cultural herit-age theories’. By means of ‘free admission’ and ‘audience engagement ’ , the museums’ function has changed from a ‘sacred place for collecting, researching and rescuing the past’ to an anthropo-centric service institute: museums have shifted from an organization of ‘sanctification ’ to one of‘secularization’ . With this development of cultural heritage the-ories, the traditional model of the museums has been reconstructed and renovated:it seems to have restored the voice of the general public and of cer-tain non-powerful groups to preeminence. In addi-tion, the bowuguan tiaoli ( Museum Regulations) issued by the State Council of China in 2015 says that‘education’ is the primary function of a muse-um. This redefinition of what a museum is sup-posed to be, actually reflects a guiding ideology of changing the museum’s traditional status and iden-tity. It also emphasizes the museum’s need for au-dience engagement. All of this challenges the museum’s traditional function of ‘collecting, pre-serving, researching, and displaying’ . New social functions, such as‘public education’ and‘public cultural service’ , are thus constantly emerging into a museum. Although different names have been given to these new functions, ‘audience engage-ment’ is at the core of them. Generally speaking, as international museums are slowly transforming - guided by cultural heritage theories-domestic museums will also gradually change their predomi-nant ‘sacred position ’ and shift into museums of‘decentralization’ . Anthropocentrism and‘service to the people’ will increasingly be the new identity of present-day museums.  相似文献   

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19.
肖坤冰 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):55-60,111-112
Modernization and globalization have already become the central themes of contem-porary China. As the carriers of traditional ethnic culture, ethnic minority villages and families have inevitably been involved in this development trend. After school-aged children in ethnic minority fami-lies enter schools, they are separated from their o-riginal cultural environment; meanwhile, the school curriculum is entirely based on the modern western education system. As a result, traditional culture inheritance among contemporary China’s younger generations has been facing unprecedented challenges and crises. The project of ‘Ethnic Culture Entering School Activities’ , which has been implemented in some ethnic minority regions in recent years, can be considered as a beneficial effort to realize the live transmission of ethnic intangible culture by means of school education. ‘Ethnic Culture Ente-ring School Activities ’ , was first initiated in Guizhou province, and later was gradually expand-ed to Yunnan, Guangxi, Hunan, and other prov-inces that have a number of ethnic minorities. Al-though Sichuan province is home to many Tibetan, Qiang , and Yi peoples, this project was implemen-ted in Sichuan very late, thus there is little rele-vant research. Based on the investigations on the status of ‘Qiang Culture entering School Activi-ties’ at three schools in Sichuan’s Wenchuan coun-ty, this article summarizes the characteristics and existing problems in different schools for the trans-mission of ethnic culture so as to provide a reliable reference for related projects in the future. With a survey analysis, the author discovers that ‘Qiang Culture entering School Activities’ at these three schools show differences in terms of the richness of course design, the awareness of its im-portance, and implementation effect; meanwhile, those exiting problems not only reveal the perva-siveness of this project throughout southwest Chi-na, but also show the individual particularities caused by geographical location, school level, and main tasks. Moreover, when investigating these is-sues more deeply, four ‘hidden’ features can be summarized as follows:First, there are structural differences between ordinary elementary and middle schools and voca-tional schools. Vocational schools emphasize more on the transmission of ethnic cultures. Second, the traditional culture of local ethnic minorities has been inherited more naturally in the marginal regions than those more urbanized re-gions. Third, although they are all recognized as in-tangible heritage, different types of traditional cul-ture have an unequal development. The performing type such as singing and dancing shows the most superior transmission ability in ethnic culture; the second superior type is traditional handicraft while ethnic language is obviously the most difficult one in terms of the transmission of ethnic culture. Fourth, the ‘Ethnic Culture Entering School Activities ’ project in different ethnic minority groups has the unbalanced development even in the same region. In the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Auton-omous Prefecture, the Qiang elites generally com-plain that their minority groups have received far less favorable national preferential policies and are viewed with less importance than Tibetan people. The compiling of Tibetan textbooks, Tibetan lan-guage curriculum, and bilingual examination sys-tem are more conducive to the transmission of Ti-betan culture. Concerning the above mentioned problems, this article puts forward the following suggestions:first, the relevant administration should further in-crease the capital investment, and promote the training of teaching staff and school-based text-books;second, local education departments should set up an efficient assessment and incentive mecha-nism, and promote the formation of a social envi-ronment wherein ethnic cultural study has useful applications;finally, schools in ethnic minority re-gions should strengthen cooperation and exchanges among themselves, and build connections with rel-evant education administrations and research insti-tutions. The fundamental difficulty in implementing the ‘Ethnic Culture Entering School Activities ’ project lies in the fact that traditional culture has not been included in the examination content of the modern education system. Therefore, in the ele-mentary and middle school education, the primary goal is to increase the enrollment rate of students, while the transmission of traditional culture is noth-ing more than a slogan. In order to achieve the goal of integrating traditional ethnic culture into the modern education system, we must rely on the co-operation among education administrations, schools, families, and society as a whole, and constantly improve corresponding assessment and incentive mechanisms, thus jointly creating a so-cial environment that ethnic culture has useful ap-plications. Meanwhile, intangible cultural carri-ers, intellectuals who desire to disseminate their ethnic culture, and the parents of the students should all be encouraged to participate; by doing so, we can accelerate the spread of ethnic culture into local schools step by step.  相似文献   

20.
刘俊 《民族学刊》2016,7(6):78-84,120
Affinity clans and luandishi ( or luandi clan ) constituted the backbone of the Xiongnu’s social structure, among which luandishi was in the dominant position while those affinity clans were subordinate. But affinity clans’ status in Xiongnu society started to change since Tuqitang became Chanyu( chief of Xiongnu in ancient China ) in 60 B. C. The reason for affinity clans’ change of their position was not only due to their affinity relations with Chanyu, but also due to the internal contradictions on the succession of Chanyu, and the influence of the Han Dynasty’s polices. The presence of affinity clans and the change of their position had played an important historical role in Xiongnu’s social development, thus it is worth of doing an in-depth academic study in this field.  相似文献   

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