On The Function Of Moral Education In The Maternal Culture Of The Bai Nationality

A very serious social phenomenon that we have to face is the imbalance of the sex ratio of population in our country.In rural area of Han nationality, the sex ratio of birth is 122.85, which is higher than the national average of 119.58, while the normal sex ratio of birth of the Bai nationality in Dali is 107.24. The imbalance does exist but lower than the normal average, even than that of in rural area the Han nationality. The construction and development of a harmonious society in China has been seriously threatened by the imbalance of sex ratio and its hidden dangers and hazards have aroused great concern of all the society.The reason why the sex ratio in the Bai region is obviously lower than the level in Han region is the cognition, which influences the social behavior and the procreation. Then, we are obligated to ask the following questions: Is the reality of sex ratio related to the ethic value of esteeming men above women in the fatherhood culture? Does there exist the maternal culture in the Bai nationality? Is it implementing and regulating the fatherhood culture and forming duality ethic structure? Why does the maternal culture last for so long? Is there any reference value in dealing with the imbalance phenomenon of population in the Han region? In order to answer the questions mentioned above, the author starts the research.The existent literature has expatiated upon lots of the phallic phenomena in the folk-custom through the literature research and revealed the religious significance and belief value of the symbol of the maternal culture in the local region. Nevertheless, their discussion is not enough on the culture spread and inherit mechanism and historical influences. Considering the maternal culture still has the very important function in moral education in the form of folk organization, this study adopts both literature research and field work. Both of the methods can also be applied to the comparable analysis on the function of moral education of local organizations in the Bai region upon the construction of ethic morality and the development of a harmonious society.After profound field work, the author chooses the Lian chihui, a belief-based folk organization in the country women of the Bai nationality, as the research object not only because of the implement and the ethic function it bears, but also because of its active part in the live culture of phallism among the Bai people in the modern society. The author carries out a profound research on the important activities of Lian chihui, such as the birthday of Benzhu , Kwan-yin Festival and "Rao sanling" and folk song festival of pilgrimage. The interviews focus on the attitude of different groups in the Bai region on the activities of Lian chihui. The discussions of this study on the "paternity-maternity" dualistic ethic structure and its functional mechanism are based on the social sex construction theory from structuralism and feminism of anthropology. Finally, on the basis of the analysis of its inherit function of maternal culture and the reason for lasting for a long time, the study reflects the influence on the deconstruction of value judgment of esteeming men above women and the educational value for the harmonious society construction.Through the research, the author draws the conclusions as following:First, the maternal culture is a kind of "esteeming mother" custom, which coexists with traditional fatherhood culture. The custom represents in the daily life as esteeming mother in piety activities, living in the wife's family, vulvae worship and so on in the Bai region.Second, the maternal culture implements and regulates the fatherhood culture and forms a dualistic ethic structure. The Bai nationality has been deeply influenced by Confucianism in the history. The moral education of Confucianism in the form of regulated family, clan, and county and the value of esteeming men above women has widely spread in the Bai region. While, due to the special reasons, the status of women in the family is still respectively high, and the women would not be excluded in the family ethic, social morality and religious rituals. The custom has converted into a kind of moral tradition and been implementing for the fatherhood ethic culture. That is the reason why the phenomenon of the esteeming men above women in the Bai region is not as serious as that of in Han rural area.Third, due to the geographical, humanity, and various historic reasons, the maternal culture has lasted for a long time in the Bai region. The location of the Bai nationality is far from the center of Han culture and the development of the Bai society has its own characteristics, which leads to a long history of goddess belief. The Bai people live in an agricultural area. The characteristics of the location are relatively enclosed, flat and narrow, where is good for conservation of phallicism. The family size is not big in the Bai region that is not favorable for the expanding of father's power. At the same time, the female view of Buddhism and Taoism strengthened the maternal culture in the Bai region to some extent. The historical tradition, governing the country by Buddhism, also restrained the spread of fatherhood ethic culture of Han.Forth, the Lian chihui has inherited the maternal culture of the Bai nationality? In the Bai's culture of procreation worship, one of the most important contents of Lian chihui's fete is the pilgrimage to the vulvae called "A-yang-bai". The member of Lian chihui also plays an important part in the whole activities of "Rao sanling". Kwan-yin is the main god of Lian chihui which educates the villagers to get along with others, respect parents and follow the moral regulations. These activities exert a subtle influence on the moral culture and represent the subjective value of women in the process of moral education. Fifth, the function of moral education in the maternal culture of the Bai nationality bears reference value for the conversion of "esteeming men above women" in Han region? The Han's paternal culture under the family regulating system has dual functions: ethnic educating and law regulating, which has played important historical part in the traditional ethic moral system in China. However, the modem society values the equal right between men and women, and the patriarchal clan system was eliminated at the first day of New China. With the reform and opening policy, family has become the basic unit of the society again, and the ethic moral system in the rural area lost its supporting organizational form. The value of esteeming men above women in the family ethnic culture is reactivated with national "one-child" policy. So, it is important to support the women organization in the county and guide their beliefs to form a harmonious moral culture.The development hardship of non-government organization is largely due to members' literacy, which leads to the lower moral judgment, and with the negative influence of belief activities, the function of women organization did not work well. So, it is urgent to develop the literacy and competency in moral judgment of country women so as to enhance their rational thinking and abilities of moral judgment.The folk belief of country women is a fact lasting for a long time. Under the background of traditional paternal culture of China and revival of family culture system, how to cultivate the folk belief organization belonging to the country women themselves, and how to activate the organizational function of maternal culture, and at same time leads their activities to the direction of fostering equality of men and women are the main subjects that education is going to face and deal with.How to eliminate the value of esteeming men above women is a big problem in the development of civilized society, while the tradition of esteeming mother still exists in some uncivilized minority regions. The profound research on both theory and practice will provide huge reference value to the practice of elimination of the view in Han region. Education is a main tool to improve the value cognition and social behaviors. The cultural spread and inherit function in the duality ethnic structure of the Bai's moral education will be widely used for reference on harmonious country construction, sex ethnic value and procreation behaviors. The further study will focus on the profound field work and theoretically strengthen basis in the field of anthropology, sociology, and ethnology.