| In the study of folklore and anthropology, ritual has ever been considered as a"culture container", that means it congregates many culture factors of local knowledge and embodies a culture system in micro. This paper takes"Incense Burning"rite in XiuYan area as an object."Incense Burning"is a kind of popular rite of redeem vow in folk. The reasons of the rite are mainly that somebody plea to god or his ancestors to help him make his wishes come true when he has encounter life crisis (such as illness, poverty, setbacks) or he wants more (such as promotion, wealth, children) in life .If these wishes really come true, he would hold"Incense Burning"rite to redeem vows and invite god and his ancestors to join a feat so that he and his families can express their appropriations. So"Incense Burning"rite is essentially a product of god– ancestor belief of the local people.The folklore's study in contemporary is experiencing a shift from studying what folklore and its'subjects are to studying why they are being and how they are being. According to this idea, this paper suspends the qualitative judge that whether"Incense Burning"rite is a kind of superstition or not, and don't discuss such questions as whether god and ghosts are being or"Incense Burning"is effective either . The paper I focuses on the passage of the rite ,what's the symbolic means of the rite's tools, actions and language and how the rite influents the people's experience and constructs the reality of a world of transcendental experience .The paper writes down the phenomenon in reduction, transmits the local people's meaning after listening and make interpretations based on what people interpret so that it can allow readers to understand the functions and significance of"Incense Burning"rite in local people's daily life profoundly.The preface is about aims and significance of the paper, what accomplishments have made by other people, what methods the paper uses and what creations and shortcomings its has.In Chapter Two the paper does some introduction on the nature environment, the situation of folk belief in XiuYan area and why people hold"Incense Burning"rite. It also introduces the tools of the rite and the costume of its hosts.Under the conduction of the studies of folklife, the Chapter Three introduces the usual passage of the rite at first, and then writes down a live"Incense Burning"rite with literary style. The aim is to find the situation and the subjects of the incident back.In Chapter Fore the paper clarifies"Incense Burning"rite's secularity/sacred from three aspects: the formation of the rite's form and contents, the manipulators and the"sacred song"of the rite, concluding that"Incense Burning"rite is a kind of"sacred"rite wrapped by secularity.Chapter Five analysis the symbolic meanings of the rite's tools, costume, actions and language with semiotics method .And inspired by the ideas of structuralism, the chapter also elaborates god/human/soul structure of three-poles in local people's cosmetic view and discuss the relationship between the three poles.Chapter Six is the key part of the paper. First, with the help of Schutz's multiple realities theory, it clarifies that the belief world of god– ancestor is another kind of reality different from world of daily life. In"Incense Burning"rite , the belief world of god– ancestor—a transcendental reality is constructed by the symbolic meanings of the tools, actions and language. Then the believers feel a sense of reality in this field, which in turn strengthens the wizardry atmosphere in this area.In the effect of ideology, people tend to judge rites which embody folk belief, such as"Incense Burning"rite, as"superstition". But in the atmosphere of postmodern knowledge, this stereotypical thinking of materialism and rationalism should been transcended so that common people can live in a free, taken-for-granted life world. This point of views is clarified in the conclusion part. |
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