On The Ethnicity Sustainment And Changes Of The Miao People In The Living Area Of The Miao And Other Ethnic Groups

Born from social interaction and contained in the ethnic culture, ethnicity regardsitself as or is regarded as one of characters of a certain ethnic group. Though ethnicitybeing primitive and innate, ethnic identification shall be molded with history andexperience, so it shows the characteristics of subjectivity, objectivity, stability as wellas changeability. This present research is an ethnographic exploration of the ethnicitysustainment and flux from the perspectives of social memory, geography and kinship,intergroup and intragroup marriages, the Miao language usage, the Miao traditionalculture and symbols, ethnic psychology and national policy influences with the case ofthe Miao ethnic village—the Chongqing Xiushan Bangou Village. Through fieldresearch on the Miao village, this author finds that the ethnicity sustainment and fluxwaxes and wanes separately and is influenced by geographic and social environmentsin different culture and society. Yet both of the sustainment and the flux cannot beseparated from each other and the geographic and social environments hold importantimplications for the sustaining and fluxing ways.To the Miao people, their memory is rooted in their ethnic origin including ethnicmythologies, ancestor’s habitat stories and migrating experiences, in historicalexperiences including heroes’ epics, ethnic prejudices and discriminations and inmisery hardships including class oppressions and exploitations, and inequality betweenethnic groups. They aspire for their ancestors’ habitats and highly praise their heroes,which greatly delight the Miao people and inspire their ethnic pride. However, not theiraspiration and praise but the humiliation and tragedy history is the main part in theirminds. Their past is in the abyss of bitterness and heart-wrenching. Their hiddenconsciousness of collective sufferers from their heart and soul is the source of theirethnicity and spiritual hardener that ensures the sustainment of the Banpo MiaoVillage.On the social structure, the Banpo Miao group is knitted with intragroup andintergroup marriage. Usually, men solidify the whole family while women, like theknots on the chains of horizontal intergroup and vertical intragroup, connect the Miaoworld dominated by men to a huge social network. Thus, those who had migrated intothe Miao living area, on the one hand, more intensified the inner social structure and onthe other hand, increasingly expanded and strengthened the outer social structure of theMiao people on the basis of intergroup marriage. The Miao people’s marriage areadjusted to their production mode and life style, so their intragroup marriage often rely on festival and fair gatherings, and kinship, intensifying their social structure. This isalso the strategy by which the Miao people survived and sustained. By the end of20thcentury, when the Chinese society were dramatically changing, the Miao people’svalues, social structure and life style are influenced by the social factors of nationalpolicies, economic development and population mobility. Thus their ideas on marriagealso are changing to some degree. Yet, the traditional marriage, adjusted to some extentafter social changes, more or less governs the Miao people’s behaviors.As far as language, the Miao people communicated with their social members bythe Miao language in the history. Generally, the Miao female could not speak Chineseat all except the Miao male who often went out to work. After the Liberation of China,the misunderstanding between ethnic groups is removed and more and more Miaopeople prefer bilingual communication, which unavoidably change the Miao societyand language. Intergroup marriage is becoming popular and the Chinese transliterationwords appear more often in the Miao language. Although the Miao language functionof communication has been changed, but its symbolic function still remains and it linksand sustains its group.From the traditional culture and symbol, the housing of the Bangou Miaogroup’s looks like that of the Han group’s from its outer appearance. The shrine of theirancestral tablets is placed in the central room just like the Han people do, but theancestral worship is partitioned from gods sacrifice in the central room. The traditionalbeliefs and sacrifice is not only hidden in the housing structure but also embodied infestivals, such as the traditional April8th, related with farming. With their settling andagriculture developing, the Bangou Miao people naturally melt into the Han people’sworship of land gods. This worship steps over ethnic groups and family names andharmonizes interpersonal and intergroup relationships. Once the Miao songs embodiedthe Miao ethnicity most and permeated in people’s life, and aroused the ethnic pride toget people together. Nowadays, it gradually slips away from the Miao people’s life withthe disappearance of the Miao festivals and traditional weddings. At present, manyvillagers collect the Miao song discs, which shows people cherish it although havingbeing changed its existing way.On the relationship between a nation and ethnic groups, both national and ethnicconsciousnesses are not mutually exclusive, but sometimes as one falls, another rises.After the Liberation, the central government was intended to cultivate the Miaopeople’s consciousnesses of gratitude, loyalty, collectiveness, political participation,patriotism and civilian and so on. In this case, the Miao consciousness was led by the national consciousness and it was also a kind of interest maximization as a rationalchoice. In the eighties of20thcentury, the Xiushan Autonomy County of the TujiaPeople and the Miao People was founded and the Bangou Ethnic group villages werenamed. These events greatly inspired their national pride, after which their ethnicitybegan to become conscious. The Miao people realized to preserve their ethnic culturalinterest. The ethnic culture preservation and inheritance is thought to be as important aseconomic development. The cultural value of the Bangou Miao group gradually revealsitself and the ethnicity of the Miao people is displayed. From the above fiveperspectives and multi-level, this research expounds the trace and regulation of theBanguo Miao people’s sustainment and changes.