A Study Of Space Of La Huxi's Folk Beliefs In Luo Village On The China-Burma Border

In this paper,the author takes people of La Huxi ethnic group living in Luo village on the China-Burma border as research object in order to study on system of folk beliefs which promote and maintain the regional orders constructed.The author takes detailed investigation on ethnographic research and describes it thoroughly from the perspective of space and time,especially from the perspective of space research and mainly focuses on space configuration of folk beliefs in the area.Based on fieldwork investigation about ten months and analysis of related literature documents of the area,the author tries to use the method of space research to explore how the social space configuration of La Huxi ethnic group forms through a system of metaphorical beliefs and beliefs of practical experience such as rituals and legends.And how the La Huxi performs and forms their own view of time,space and man and characteristic cultural traditions and habits influenced by the social space configuration.At the same time,the author analyzes the phenomenon of squeezing,superposition and juxtaposition among the social space configuration and other spaces such as political space and modernization space,etc.In addition to the first chapter "introduction" and the last chapter "conclusion and discussion",the thesis consists of five chapters.To begin with,in the first chapter,the author discusses space of the La Huxi from perspective of nature and human and how people from Luo village use folk beliefs to break new spatial uniformity and sanctify and distinguish the space.Through collective historical memory,the La Huxi reaches an agreement of their living space and forms a "sense of place",making their place a combination of folk beliefs and cultural logic.In the second chapter,the author discusses a belief space in the area composed of the core "family god".The author mainly analyzes ritual and contacts practice influenced by the "family God" in the Luo village.Thus,based on blood and kinship,the important role of family is emphasized in the La Huxi in their contact space.Besides,in the third chapter,the author discusses belief space based on "village God".The La Huxi in Luo village develops a sacred time and space system and rhythm of the village through ceremonies and festivals concerning collective interests.Meanwhile,the formation of public space within the geographical boundary of the Luo village strengthens regional identity among the La Huxi.What's more,in chapter four,the author probes into a "regional God" centered belief space.Through the formation of cross-village or cross-country communication system based on "regional God",the cognition about time and space outside the Luo village are developed and the hyper-local connection is constructed which essentially strengthen the identification towards the La Huxi ethnic group or its subgroup.The La Huxi in the practice of constructing the triple space mentioned above displays their distinctive concept system and cultural logic and expresses their identification towards different structures.Through the investigation on different levels of spatial structures of the Luo village,codes of local social structure,social life and social consciousness are deciphered.Besides,in the fifth chapter,based on the inquiry for structure of social stability of La Huxi culture and on the basis of elaboration in the above three chapters about triple belief space configuration,the author tries to summarize characteristic of La Huxi folk beliefs including triple space level,spatial heterogeneity,and the structure of binary integration logic,internal order of space sequence,etc.In addition,based on the facts of space superposition and discontinuity in modern society,the author analyzes interactive relationship among folk belief space and political space,modern medical space,tourism and culture space and network virtual space which shows multiple space power from inside and outside the village as colliding with each other.Eventually,the tension of such space system reveals the La Huxi's selectively inheritance and innovation of social structure and choices to extend,reconstruction and reform the space system.Then,the La Huxi society realizes social harmony and balance within all kinds of space.Through the analysis of these structures,the author tries to provide anthropological interpretation for cultural practice and subjective appeal of crossborder ethnic groups based on spatial research.The last part is the conclusion and discussion: firstly,folk belief space is the basis of cultural subjectivity of the La Huxi and the three-layer belief space and cultural practice builds up social system and significance system of the La Huxi society in sinomyanmar border.That is,cultural characteristics and subjectivity of the La Huxi society.Secondly,the openness of sensory structure integrates superposition of space.Through original sensory structure,the production of space combined with new experience of individual groups revises and creates new space and spatial relationships to solve problems among various space.That is an effective means to understand problems of superposition and juxtaposition among rural space.Thirdly,space research is an important method to understand problem of cross-border ethnic group.It should also become an important hot topic for understanding social culture and population in border areas.Space and time are not things as we perceive and ignore,but are produced and they are also producers.Through research and argument,the author wants to show how how La Huxi folk beliefs become the shaper of space and time for local people and how they transcend secular time(calendar,lunar calendar)and space(administrative divisions,national boundary).Such folk beliefs control the rhythm of time,space structure of different classes and forms a social structure which preserve existence of society and maintain society order.This space-time structure at the same time,also namely sense structure,is constantly changeable influenced by history of the past,current and future.Each generation of the La Huxi can develop a new sense structure through their inheritance of a set of folk religion practice,historical sense structure,or their own unique experience.Thus,the space based on the development of folk beliefs can be productive and can be reproduced.Therefore,the author tries to fully demonstrate special folk beliefs and different space-time configuration of a crossborder ethnic group located in the border of Yunnan province.