Social Boundary Research On The Long God Sacrificial Ritual Held By The Huayao Dai People

The Huayao Dai is a branch of the Dai living in the hinterland of Ailao Mountain.In terms of religious belief,the Huayao Dai people are not Theravada Buddhists.Instead,they have kept their own traditional religion of “all things and spirits” in a relatively complete manner.This is one of the significant cultural features to the Huayao Dai people.The Long God Sacrificial Ritual” is the most solemn ethnic and religious ritual to Huayao Dai people.Under the guidance of village doctrines,with the functional prerequisite of praying for disaster relief and bannered by “all decedents of the Long God are equal”;such rituals are performed repeatedly in Xinping area annually.Through the investigation to the ritual,this research finds out that various multi-boundaries can be observed inside and outside the Huayao Dai villages.With differentiated but also inclusive characters,either with forms of firm or soft;concealed or now;such multi-boundaries can not only be expressed in the unconventional religious life but also can be traced in the conventional mundane life as well.From a sociological perspective,the essence behind this phenomenon is that social boundaries are sanctified through ceremonies and then radiates to the sanctified relationships among different communities divided by social boundaries.Based on this,the “old rules” are formed.It represents the social norms of the village and has been repeatedly strengthened in the sacrificial rituals year after year,providing a balanced support for the harmonious operation of the community.The sacrifice festival is a regional cultural event results from multiple factors.The natural conditions of hot weather and abundant rain falls have prompted people to choose a way of livelihood based on rice growing.The original ethnic culture of the Dai people can be preserved by the natural barrier of the vast forest in the Ailao Mountain.The characteristics of agricultural production and the relatively backward level of productivity create interdependence Delete “on” cooperation between individuals.Multiple factors such as the positive psychological suggestion of blessing and the needs of eschewing calamities as well as relative backward productivity making the ceremony everlasting and it has been passed down until the present day.According to Turner’s academic perspective on the “anti-structure” of ritual research,the sacrificial ritual temporarily removes all the secular factors such as money,power,and status in the “structure” society from all members of the village community,and makes the community come into an “anti-structural state” of human equality temporarily.However,the ritual has always been a stage which comprises multi-forces.Through the “anti-structure” appearance,this research tends to attains that all sorts of divisions,boundaries and demarcations in the ritual can still be observed.Some of them comprise “only consciousness but not utterance” covert demarcations,while some are divided overtly by ones exemplified as ritual standards and taboos.This research examines a Long sacrificial ritual observed by residents of a village and finds that participants are grouped by means of participation such as sex,ethnicity,religion,marriage and ritual norm which influenced by different boundary awareness such as time and space,material and culture.Furthermore,the multi-boundaries among individuals,villages and regions are manifested by the means of the organization,operation and performance of the Long sacrificial rituals.The division of social boundaries does not mean the immutability of boundaries and the blocking of exchanges and cooperation between border groups.Since social boundaries are artificially constructed,They cannot exist constantly,rather,various forms of changes such as separation,integration,extension,opening and reproduction will take place.The determinants behind the deformation of the border are the wrestle between border-crossing and border-defending groups within the two sides of the border and the operation of all sorts of social adaptive mechanisms.Various social boundaries in human society are intertwined and intertwined.Comprehensive considerations are given by people based on their all kinds of needs.Some of them tend to have the impulse to cross the border,some of them insist to keep the border,and some others keep a positive stance to soften the border.Social borders are like this,regardless of vicissitude,they will always accompany social life.At the same time,in the complicated process,they will also exploit and stimulate the vitality of the society.Why are people so attached to the Boundary? Because demarcation means hierarchical order,the reason why hierarchical order can be operated in society is,in the first place,people’s psychological identification with a set of cultural systems that match it.On this basis,the common values of Huayao Dai local society are raised.Individual’s cultural identity manifested in The Long God Sacrificial Ritual observed by the Huayao Dai people is the psychological foundation of the social boundary construction.In the course of the ceremony,the mysterious colour of the Long God is emphasized and amplified intentionally,meanwhile,the sacredness of relationship in the Huayao Dai community is entailed based on that.Consequently,such sacredrelationships bear the cultural significance of the village society.