Rural Belief Field: Theoretic Basis And Empirical Research

The main task of this thesis is to put forward a theoretic concept and research topic for discussion, namely the rural belief field, and then apply it to an empirical research.The author distinguishes two approaches for folk religion study of sociology. The first is that focuses on the belief and ritual itself which as cultural entity with the exercise of state-society relation model. Following this path, the research's core concern is always the belief and ritual which as cultural entity, and social processes related are seldom paid attention. The second approach turns to the concern for social processes which are brought by belief problem. This approach attaches great importance to the study of power relationships, action practice and structure mechanism, which is produced by the belief problem under the perspective of field, and gets its theoretical origin from sociology's classical theme of action-structure relation--from the visual angle of social theory, this thesis shows that how does common people's action change and transfer structure under the structure-confining background. Following this path, the rural belief field is a theoretical frame and research topic that differs from state-society relation model, trying to explain state power, local government and the agent in process, relation and concrete scene, establishing genuine dynamic association of up-down path and down-up path, and leading to broader vision for the study of folk religion. Research for the rural belief field is especially and particularly important with the background that China society is now in great transition. Sociology's transcendence to the present study of folk religion rests with turning its vision from statics that focuses on cultural entity to dynamics that concerns social process.Following the first path, this thesis depicts the legend and true-life conditions of the three-numen cult of a rural village in middle Hu nan province, especially the rituals, believers and its social functions. And it analyzes the logic of the numen's formation, viz., how do the three-numen transfer from heroes to numens and from the sign of social revolt to the symbol of collective identity.The re-making of belief space as new social fact is an important research topic in the domain of the rural belief field. Former studies have discussed such kind of case that belief space' re-making benefits the nation-state, local government & common people and Chinese abroad. Two three-numen temples' building story from middle Hunan province makes up the condition that without outer impetus, which lacks study. The thesis analyzes the power relationship, action tactics and the functioning mechanism of institution/power, and opens out the anfractuous relationships between the nation-state, local governments and common people. By discussion of belief space re-making, this thesis penetrates into the state-society relation, folk religion & nation-state relation, peasant-state relation, the actual encounter of law/institution and state power, etc., which are brought by the core problem.The empirical research is trying to shows that kinds of power relation and tactics are permeated in the belief space and re-making process, and the space and order are outcomes of a dynamics situation under which mutual disputing, negotiating and compromise between different agents are at staging. The nation-state, local government and common people all have some kind of confined power and different power relations could be switched into each other. The local common people and elites mainly exert five kinds of action tactics to acquire and buildup their belief space's legitimization. The local government in the rural belief field keeps to the priority of stable-logic. Its control power turns into conspiracy power when it is running in the rural society. This is a fundamental precondition for the re-making of belief space. The local government empowers the society authorized by the state, and meanwhile achieves efficient supervision to the folk religion. This avoids potential social conflicts and brings triangle-win, i.e., the state realizes its administration and some kind of control over folk religion, the local governments maintains the local order, and the local common people and elites achieve legitimization of their belief space.However, the generated structure and re-made space as co-accomplished social construction by several social forces is not steady-going and rigid. That means it may be remodeled when one agent's will and standpoint change, but either could solely control the space order in the field. What would the rural belief field' prospect be in the future? That depends on the state's standpoint and the strength of social transition at the macro level.