Research On The Inheritance Of Miao's Jia Li From The Perspective Of Educational Anthropology

In the early days of human culture,science,mythology,and primitive religion were blended into one.Through long-term fieldwork in the Qingshui River basin,we found that Jia Li is an "encyclopedia" and "codex" containing literature,history,philosophy,law,natural science,folklore and other local knowledge.It is at the core of the Miao cultural system.It is the node where the spiritual and material,metaphysical and metaphysical elements are transformed,showing the phenomenal characteristics of integrating all elements in the early development of human culture.The development of any ethnic group is inseparable from the inheritance of its own culture,and in the process of inheritance,culture realizes its educational function for the ethnic group.The core of this study is to explore human development in cultural transmission through Jia Li as a typical case.Historically,most ethnic minorities in Southwest China have not produced corresponding institutionalized education based on their own traditional culture.Education in its native form is a meaningful way to maintain the development of the ethnic group,and this is also true for the Miao,a typical minority group in Southwest China.Since there is no native writing,they mainly rely on oral transmission of their own culture,which has created the Miao's Jia Li with a "mixed" culture.The Jia Li has become the "official school" within the traditional Miao society by complementing Confucianism in both form and content.In particular,the formal and purposeful form of the classes run by the Jia Li teachers can be regarded as the prototype of the "private school" of the Miao people.This paper takes Danzhai County,the core area of Jia Li transmission,as a fieldwork site and applies an anthropological research paradigm.Using structural functionalism as the analytical framework,it follows 24 Jia Li related rituals and contexts throughout the two agricultural cycles of systematic and comprehensive research.It conducts an in-depth study of Jia Li heritage based on detailed fieldwork.This study aimed to investigate:What kind of natural and human ecosystem created Jia Li? Why do we still pass on Jia Li today? What is the current status and mechanism of Jia Li transmission? How does Jia Li,as a pillar of Miao culture,occur in various areas? How does it contribute to the development of people and communities when it is passed on? How do we respond to the dilemmas of transmission we encounter nowadays? Based on the above research questions,this study traces the origin of the Miao culture in the Qingshui River basin,composes the recorded history,natural environment,social environment,and spiritual environment of Danzhai,the core area of Jia Li transmission,and explains the traditional social structure of the creation of Jia Li in the context of local Miao culture: "Gushe(Miao patrilineal clan)-Yilang(Miao folk organization)-Jiashi(prestigious Jia Li teacher)".Secondly,the necessity of the contemporary transmission of Jia Li is argued.The fieldwork revealed that Jia Li is at the core of the Miao traditional cultural ecosystem and integrates Miao culture.Jia Li is a central figure in the functioning of traditional Miao society.As a representative of the oral culture of the southwestern ethnic groups,inheriting Jia Li is also an inevitable choice to protect the diversity of oral culture.In terms of the value of the times,Jia Li has passed on a rich Chinese culture of excellence to this day.Therefore,the inheritance of Jia Li has practical value for casting a firm sense of the Chinese national community.Based on clarifying the necessity of Jia Li inheritance,the third part presents the fieldwork of this study to analyze the characteristics and inheritance mechanism of Jia Li inheritance.By the end of 2020,there were 22 Miao Jia Li inheritors at all levels in Danzhai,including one national,two provincial,three state and 16 county level.The average age of the inheritors is 63 years old,and they are mainly gathered in four areas: Xingren,Longquan,Yangwu and Paidiao.According to the Miao clan,the Jia Li in the county can be divided into two schools: "Bazhai Miao" and "Short Skirt Miao ".At present,there are five ways to pass on the Jia Li through ceremonies,Jia Li classes(including learning from teachers),families,schools and tourism exhibitions.There are fixed formal requirements for opening classes and the worship of masters,which have been passed down to day.Behind the expression of Jia Li passed down from mouth to ear lies the transmission mechanism of the entire Miao cultural system.The transmission of Jia Li satisfies the cultural needs of the Miao people,driven mainly by the spiritual belief system of the Miao people.Jia Li cares for the spiritual world and secular life of the Miao people,and people acquire ethical and moral concepts and belief knowledge structures through cultural upbringing.These spiritual dimensions,in turn,influence the practical activities of people.The more complete and systematic holding of the Jia Li teacher outlines the belief schema of the Miao people with rituals and coordinates the governance of everyone's real-life through customary law.The Jiashi became the central figure in the functioning of Miao society in real life of the tradition.Jia Li forms the driving loop of the inheritance mechanism from spiritual beliefs to the material world and then to the self-realization of social management.Ultimately,the social function of Jia Li's master is the core driving Jia Li's formation of two modes of its inheritance:self-existence and self-awareness.At the same time,since Jia Li was selected as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008,it has also been infused with a non-genetic inheritance mechanism led by the local government.The customary law part of Jia Li has weakened with the development of our legal system.The contemporary Jia Li is mainly presented through the chanting of Jia Li's masters in the rituals.This paper takes four rituals,namely,Saozhai,Funeral,Baojia,Jiyou as representatives,and presents a deep description of the ritual process,organization and the relationship between people and people,people and gods in the ritual.At the same time,this paper translates the full text of the Jia Li recitation in the field into Miao-Chinese to directly reveal the essential connotation of Jia Li.On this basis,the structural-functional theory is applied to analyze in depth the three-dimensional and multi-dimensional educational functions of Jia Li in the process of transmission.It promotes individual development at the personal level.Jia Li plays an important role in the formation of gender roles,the enhancement of learning ability,and the socialization of individuals.From the perspective of the group or society,the transmission of Jia Li is also a ethical and moral education.It teaches the principles of being a human being and guides people to properly deal with the relationship between human beings and human beings,and between human beings and nature,with many ethical and moral norms that have similarities with Confucianism.When the governmental school system at the grassroots level was not yet complete,Jia Li could serve as an important foundation to supplement the education of the Miao society.Jia Li also passed down local knowledge,such as the origin of all things,astronomy and calendars,ethnic migration,knowledge of agricultural production,customary law.On the macro-level of cultural inheritance,the Southwest and the Central Plains belong to one cultural community.Jia Li,as the "masterpiece" of traditional Miao culture,has transformed Confucianism.It is the crystallization of the cultural exchange between the Central Plains and Southwest China.Therefore,the contemporary Jia Li heritage is of great practical significance for the education of Chinese cultural identity in the new era and forging a sense of Chinese national community.The fieldwork proves that as the core of Miao culture,the educational function played by Jia Li in transmission complements some deficiencies of school education.However,in a social context where tradition and modernity are intertwined,Jia Li also faces inheritance problems regarding the status of Jia Li teachers and Jiali-making rituals.The fundamental reason is that the social changes of the Miao people have weakened the status of the Jia Li teachers.Compared with other artistic and handicraft,Jia Li lacks stage performance and commodity exchange value and cannot bring direct economic income to local people.At the same time,the inappropriate positioning of Jia Li in the "ethnic culture in schools" has made it challenging to enter schools.At the social level,people lack a dialectical view of the relationship between traditional Miao culture and modernization and regard it as a backward and negative thing,which affects the transmission of Jia Li in contemporary society.Based on this analysis,the article proposes corresponding optimization strategies.The most urgent thing is to establish a database of Jia Li and use various technical means to protect and inherit Jia Li.From the perspective of the customary law of Jia Li can re-energize the rural governance function of Jia Li and improve the status of Jia Li teachers.At the same time,diversified forms of Jia Li presentation can be developed to promote the creative transformation of Jia Li.In general,we need to deal with the relationship between tradition and modernity and understand traditional culture correctly.This study has accomplished the expected research objectives,has theoretical and practical significance,and reflects the following innovations.First,it innovates the research perspective.Most of the existing studies have been conducted from the perspective of their respective disciplines,especially jurisprudence,which has fragmented the original form of Jia Li's existence.This study examines Jia Li's inheritance from an anthropological perspective and restores the original face of Jia Li as a whole.It presents the impact of the Jia Li transmission process on human and social development,provides a new perspective for understanding the entire Miao culture and reflecting on the original form of minority education,and enriches ethnic education theory.Second,there is a breakthrough in the content of the study.Using structural-functional theory to conduct an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the educational value embedded in the Jia Li transmission process,the paper enriches the real-life case of cultural transmission as an educational process.At the same time,based on the new era context,this paper discusses the practical significance of inheriting Jia Li for casting a firm sense of Chinese national community,which enhances the positioning of Jia Li's inheritance.Third,the research materials are innovative.In the past,the research literature on Jia Li was mainly a "secondary processing" of the content compiled and published by others.This paper focuses on the author's personal experience of the entire ceremony and the first-hand information collected,translated,and compiled in the field.The pace of modernization continues.Studying ethnic-cultural inheritance and its educational values and tapping into the wisdom of survival that exists widely in ethnic societies can promote traditional cultural inheritance and enhance understanding the essence of education.The process can also draw on the energy of transmitting excellent Chinese traditional culture in ethnic areas to enhance cultural self-awareness,strengthen cultural identity,and cast a firm sense of the Chinese national community with cultural transmission practices.