A Study On The Cultural Change Of Dongxiang Nationality In XinJiang

The DongXiang nationality, who have been living in the mountainous DongXiang Autonomous County and the area around it, began to migrate to XinJiang in a large scale during the 20 years after the establishment of the PRC., due to the influence of factors such as politics, economy, and made their compact communities in north area of XinJiang. During these years that they lived together with other ethnic groups in the area, they have been experiencing cultural changes in their pattern of economy, their language, religion, marriage, menage, education and so on.This dissertation aims to analyze the cultural change of the DongXiang nationality in XinJiang by taking the DongXiang nationality in the village of LaoCheng of HuoCheng county in XinJiang as a classical case to illustrate the process of their cultural change. And other three villages, XinHu from YiNing county, BaiTan from ShaWan county and DaYan from DongXiang Autonomous County, which can be found in the dissertation frequently, will be used to compare with LaoCheng to display the general aspects of the cultural change of the DongXiang nationality in XinJiang.This dissertation consists of nine chapters.The first chapter, which is the prolegomenon of the dissertation, is mainly about the background and value of the study and the reasons for the choosing of the topic, the domestic and international current research conditions, and some other basic information about the dissertation is also provided here.The second chapter is about the DongXiang nationality: the origin, the history of their coming into being, the reasons for migrating to XinJiang, also the characteristic and influence of their migrating. What's more, it declares that the DongXiang communities here have been shifted from an immigrants composed society to a localized one.The third chapter is mainly a description to the natural, cultural, and social environment of LaoCheng and other three villages. The chapters from fourth to eighth are the main body of the dissertation and also the part for analyzing the field-work-abtained statistics.The fourth chapter explains the cultural change of the DongXiang nationality of LaoCheng in the three important segments of economy: production, exchange and consumption.The fifth chapter tells us the current situation of the native language of DongXiang nationality in LaoCheng, and their using of the language of other ethnic groups. And points out that the DongXiang language has become a decaying language and is facing an imminent danger now.The sixth chapter is about the change of the religious culture of the DongXiang nationality in LaoCheng, the main contents are the history and current situation of the change, the stimulant and the influence of the change.The seventh chapter focuses on the change of the traditional marriage custom and rites and the intermarriage with other ethnic groups, and also brings up some viewpoints on the intermarriage ring theory. Furthermore, the inhabitation style, family pattern and the net of their relationship are also discussed.The eighth chapter is about the educational situation, it points out that the DongXiang nationality in LaoCheng have run into a double bottleneck.The above five chapters have all made a deepgoing comparision between the village of LaoCheng and other three villages.The last chapter is a further analysis and peroration to the topic. In this part the author brings up a hypothesis about the internal realizing pattern of the cultural change, and also leads some new concepts into the study of cultural change, such as the saturation of the cultural change, precipitate of the elements of cultural change. In the end the author looks into the future trends of the cultural change DongXiang nationality in Xinjiang.