On The Structure And Function Of Shaman Dance Of Minorities In North China

As a constituent of Shamanism's ceremony in primitive religion, Shaman dances emerge as an important cultural phenomenon. This dissertation focuses on the dance activities on minority's Shamanism ceremony in north China, inspects its existence and the developing situation in the local minority regions. By researching the structure of Shaman dance, it carries on the explanation to its cultural connotation and discusses Shaman dance's functions in the social development of minorities in northern part of China, revealing the status and significance of Shaman dance in minorities'survival in north part of China, as well as the corresponding relationship between cultural structure and function.This dissertation mainly uses the semiotics research method to analyze the structure of Shaman dances, use the "structure-function" method to research the function of Shaman dances and it's realization, simultaneously, profits field study method from the anthropology to analyze the basic modality, typical characteristics and the configuration of Shaman dances in north China, and attempts to solve the problem of the relationship between Shaman dance and human survival.This thesis is divided into four parts to launch:the analysis of structure and function of Hunting and fishing nationality's Shaman dances, structure and the function of nomads'Shaman dances, structure and the function of agriculture nationalities' Shaman dances, the corresponding relationship between Shaman dances'structure and function, which have carried on a systematic inspection on Shaman dance. This research starts from the modality of Shaman dance, steps into its deep structure thoroughly, summarizes its configuration, and uses this as the basis to discuss Shaman dance's function in the social development process. Based on this it is proposed that Shaman dance's structure be constructed in the rhetoric expression of survival mode. The essence of its structure is the survival mode which has formed in the process of people adapting environment and transforming environment. Correspondingly, Shaman dance displays narration to express the survival mode. Through establishing survival ideas in people's mind, Shaman dance impetuses the society's development and progress. Therefore, it is a corresponding dialectical relationship between Shaman dance's structure and function. During the development of several thousand years, primitive Shaman dance has mutated into three different types, which is the result of corresponding between structure and function.Therefore, the research of the Shaman dance's structure, function and their relationship is not only meaningful to the study of ethnic minorities'Shaman dance in north China, but helpful to the protection of traditional Shaman dance as cultural heritage. At the same time, in the dance culture study field, this research helps the study of traditional dance to get close to the truth. Meanwhile, there is a certain practical significance in this research to solve the problem that the contemporary function of dance is weakening. Moreover, this research draws our attention to construct dance culture from the "structure following function" view, and helps us to shoulder the responsibility of contemporary Chinese dance, establishing healthy ethnic core values and providing effective approaches.