Cultural Consciousness And Local Social Integration

This paper takes Shazhen as a fieldwork,the junction of Shanxi,Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia,as the field location,and according to the ethnology research methods such as participation observation and interview,focuses on the analysis of the historical field,the real social structure field,the social governance field,the social relationship field and the most important cultural exchange field of Shazhen’s cultural consciousness.Thus,the social differentiation and social integration of Shazhen are connected in series.Then,derives the theoretical theme of cultural consciousness from cultural interaction between Mongolian and Han,local reciprocity,and the life practices shaped by community consciousness.Through the narrative method of economic shock and cultural response,the paper summarizes the means,methods and operation mechanism of Shazhen’s social integration that promoted by the local culture based on the cultural reciprocity between Mongolian and Han,in order to prove that cultural consciousness is the first driving force of social integration of Shazhen.The starting point of the article is that the cultural consciousness comes from the local culture of Shazhen.First,culture is the accumulation and continuation of a habit that adapts to social development.If there is continuity,there is a source.The origin of Shazhen’s local culture has been sorted out from four aspects.They are historical evolution,historical communication,historical figures and historical memory.This paper expounds the long history and culture of Shazhen from the combing of historical evolution,so as to analyze how the nomadic culture and farming culture meet in Shazhen.From the historical exchanges,it focuses on the cultural interaction between farming and nomadism,in which there are both conflicts and negotiations.Historical characters and memory also follow the main line of interaction to explain that the cultural reciprocity between Mongolian and Han is the basic social character of Shazhen.Secondly,the social differentiation of Shazhen includes not only the macro industrial structure and production methods,but also the residents’ income and social identity.The development of resources and the resulting industrial enter into the town have created a large number of affluent classes in Shazhen who are rich in coal.However,the social differentiation of Shazhen has not caused the polarization between the rich and the poor,and it is more a branch of social culture.Whether it is the transformation of coal enterprise ownership from collective to individual and then to collective,or the entanglement between local government and coal enterprise,they also are the responses of local culture in the process of economic development.The neglect of industries enter the town in local culture brings to Shazhen are factories that start only briefly then stop production,some factories have even been in a state of being built,and few skilled workers who from other places settle in Shazhen.The metaphor of environmental pollution brought by the industry entering the town and the social trust crisis of coal enterprises have made Shazhen’s original regional community consciousness that based on the cultural interaction of Mongolian and Han begin to decline under the impact of economic development.The crisis of trust and anxiety about life that permeated in the process of resource development have not disappeared because of the improvement of material life.Then,the hopeful Mongolian and Han residents of Shazhen will rely on the local government to rebuild their collective consciousness.However,with the relocation of the banner government and the establishment of the development zone,the local government of Shazhen did not think over the local culture in the operation and implementation of its power.Whether merge towns or the disappearance of ceremony in the New Year,it is not a coercive force in the sense of political science,but rather but an action logic in the relocation of the government and the establishment of development zones as well as the residents’ interaction in Shazhen.Such interaction not only leads to social disputes,but also promotes social unity.In short,in the observation of Shazhen,grass-roots rights are no longer independent of the upper influence of local cultural traditions,but the local cultural constructors involved in them.Specific to the daily life of residents of Shazhen.The private lending based on the local cultural reciprocity is a major social crisis in Shazhen in recent years.The social relationship of mutual help and trust among relatives,friends and neighbors is trapped in the whirlpool of private lending by the borrowers,lenders and middlemen.Stories of getting rich overnight and returning to poverty are all over the town.Some young people choose to gambling and drug,others choose to rely on education to find a way out.Different choices also imply the efforts of social integration in Shazhen.Among them,the construction and maintenance of the identity of "local people" plays a key role in coping with the crisis of private lending society.The expression of the Ponzi scheme shows that when dealing with external social crises,cultural consciousness always reflects the role of social integration in a form of social interaction and the construction of local identity.Different from the direct conflict of interest,the spontaneity of private lending determines the integration of cultural consciousness,while the status of private lending between law and social moral binding determines the possibility of cultural conscious integration.At the same time,the fault-tolerance mechanism of local culture effectively bridges internal resentment and exclusion,making private lending not only a major social crisis,but also a critical opportunity for social integration.In terms of action,the maintenance of ethnic relations and the choice of marriage strategies are both important ways of cultural consciousness to integrate the society.In addition to the above economic and political factors,the local culture of Shazhen is an important source of cultural consciousness.The integration of Mongolian and Han in the “Meng-Han folk song”,the development of the folk belief in “pine king temple” and the festival-oriented material exchanges all emphasize the source of local culture and the future development trend.The “Meng-Han folk song” provides the folk art with local reciprocity,the folk belief of the sacrifice for “pine king temple” makes the integration of belief culture between Mongolian and Han,and the “urban and rural commodity exchange” is the local reconstruction of Shazhen’s public cultural space.Originated from folk art,beliefs and public cultural space,it is actually a kind of local reciprocity based on the mutual benefit of Mongolian and Han cultures.As one of the mechanisms for cultural consciously promote social integration,local reciprocity is undoubtedly the most important mechanism of social integration.Therefore,Shazhen is more of a cultural community.From the cultural reciprocity of Mongolian and Han to the awareness of local culture,Shazhen ’s local culture has always carried the ethnical culture,group culture and individual needs in an open and inclusive state.In this way,cultural consciousness can become an important aspect of local social integration.To sum up,the conclusion of this paper is that the reason why a place,whether it is a city or a town,has noticed by the intellectual community is not only because of its unique architecture and splendid historical culture,but also because of the time brand displayed by the local culture.In addition to the macro level of the country,the meso level of ethnic and group,the micro level of the individual,the local should also be included in the scope of cultural consciousness.The cultural consciousness with region as its attribute is an angle to observe social integration.Therefore,the cultural consciousness of Shazhen provides a broader perspective for analyzing community consciousness,and at the same time provides more research materials for exploring the relationship between concepts and behaviors in social integration.The social development trend of interconnection and interleaved influence makes local culture include both ethnical culture and group culture.Local culture deconstructs ethnical culture,group culture,belief culture and even ideological culture,then realizes "local reconstruction" through local reciprocity.In this way,local culture also becomes common and shared by ethnics,groups and individuals.The process of local reconstruction is actually also the operating mechanism of cultural consciousness to promote local social integration.Of course,this study is a continuous state,such as the boundary plate of Shazhen,the rejuvenation of ethnical culture and other new social problems,which will bring new content to local culture of Shazhen,and cultural consciousness will also promote social integration by new means and ways.Integration and differentiation,freedom and competition are all the inexhaustible driving forces of social development.