Pro-productivity And Neo-productivity Of Folk Cultural Heritage

The critique of essentialism static study has led a new focus embodied with conceptions like practice, phenomenon, creation, and reproduction of culture in current social sciences. In this context, the attention in study of folk cultural heritage should be paid more to the ongoing change of folk culture, which is experiencing tremendous impact from the state policy and system of Intangible Cultural Heritage protection, rather than merely to talking about the system and strategies of protection. Based on my observing of the paradox emerging in the practice of ICH protection in China, in this dissertation, I develop two conceptions related to the transmission of folk cultural heritage--"the pro-productivity" and "the neo-productivity," with which, I hope to contribute not only to current debates and arguments of binary opposition in concerning domain, but also to the making of a more elaborate policy of ICH protection.Centered upon the religious life in a village of Ruka people, a branch of Naxi Ethnic Group, in Sanba Township at Diqing Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, this dissertation tries to probe into the transformation of folk culture in current context, and especially, to scrutinize in which way the ongoing "invention of tradition" in the village transmit and continue the pro-productivity of tradition. The methodology of multi-sited investigation within a community is used, in order to interpret the mobility and interaction of folk culture in transmission on the base of local knowledge, and to explore the transformation of cultural transmission in both historic and current context of the village. As an ethnography, the dissertation is composed in a way of polyphonic oral history, in order to highlight the practice agency of cultural subject and there using the pro-productivity and neo-productivity of folk culture in the interweaving of various powers.The paper consists of seven chapters. The introduction discusses the concepts of "folk culture,""folk cultural heritage,""intangible cultural heritage," and mainly develops the conception of pro-productivity and neo-productivity. It also introduces a brief academic history of concerning studies, and the main perspective and methods applied in the whole paper. The first chapter is a general description of the production in the village of Ruka people, the transformation and reconstruction of social and cultural history of Naxi ethnic group, from both synchronic and diachronic dimensions. The second chapter explores the nature of neo-productivity of cultural transmission in village and its origin, centered upon Naxi people’s primordial cosmology and religious system and cultural logic inherited by various subjects. The third chapter analyzes people’s agency in transmitting religious life, from the aspects of calendar (time), festival (cultural space), and oracles (practice). The fourth chapter discusses the growing and knowledge transmission of Dongba as ritual specialist. The fifth chapter analyzes the reconstruction mode, the transformation, and the primordial and neo-productivity in organization of the ritual, through describing the ritual of offering sacrifice to the heaven, and that of worshiping the religious creator.In conclusion, the transmission of folk cultural heritage has actually provided an arena for different powers to express their various purposes. The so-called transmission not only meets scholar’s imagination and constructing of an authenticity, but also satisfies people’s desire of spiritual home and inherent value of tradition, and it coincides with the claim of protecting cultural diversity from the state policy as well. And in substance, the transmission of folk cultural heritage is a dynamic interaction between pro-productivity and neo-productivity. Seen through the practice, no matter in a relatively self-sufficient transmission or a transmission maintained by state policy, the presence and participation of transmission subject or the tradition bearer is a determining factor that results in whether pro-productivity or neo-productivity will take a leading position in cultural transmission. This is one of the main causes of folk cultural diversity in current situation.