A Study On Ecological Cultural Revival Of The Akha People In Mengsong,Jinghong City

As mountainous agriculturalists,the Hani ethnic group has formed a rich body of traditional ecological knowledge(TEK)in the process of interaction with their environment.Their TEK is reflected in their belief system and values,and is manifested in the traditional ecological culture.But because of social change and cultural influence of the mainstream society,these belief systems,values,and ecological culture have been gradually disappearing since the middle of the 20 th century.However,along with the promotion of Ecological Civilization Construction in China,Mengsong Village,Menglong Township,Jinghong City has started an ecological cultural revival process.From perspectives of the ecological material culture and the ecological institutional culture,this thesis studies the activities of ecological cultural revival process by the Akha people,a branch of Hani ethnic group,in Mengsong Village.The study of ecological material culture mainly discusses the construction of two scenes of Akha cultural landscape,the red plum flower sparrow(Amandava amandava)habitat reserve and bird ponds,which are innovative practices based on local people’s traditions of resource management and ecological maintenance,emphasizing the interaction between people and landscape,human and nature.The study of ecological institutional culture mainly discusses the local people’s revival effort of the sacrificial ceremony of Mirsanrlawr,sacrificing to Holy Forest of Earth Goddess.Forests are fundamental of the Hani’s cultural landscape of the forest-water-agriculture-village human ecosystem.Traditionally,Mirsanrlawr was an institutional measure of protecting Holy Forest of Earth Goddess,Mirsanr Sanqcu,reflecting the value of the Akha’s cultural spirit of respecting to and living harmoniously with nature.However,the ritual was abandoned during social movements of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.The revival efforts of the Mirsanrlawr ceremony reflect the Akha’s interests in reviving their traditional ecological cultural institution.This thesis is divided into six parts: introduction and five chapters.The introduction introduces the background,literature review,theories,methods,objects and significance of theresearch.The first chapter introduces the natural and social situations of Mengsong Village,the ecological and cultural system and belief system of the Akka people,as well as the project of the Folk Culture and Ecological Village Construction.The second and third chapters describe the activities of the construction of the two scenes of cultural landscape,including the process,problems and function analysis,from the perspective of material culture.Chapter four describes the revival efforts of the Mirsanrlawr sacrificial ceremony by the Akha,from the perspective of institutional culture,including the process and challenges.The fifth chapter analyzes the significance of the revival of ecological culture in Mengsong village,and discusses the relationship between ecological cultural revival and ecological civilization construction at the end.