Shamans Cultural Connotation And Function Of Miao Nationality.

"Shamans Culture", which is called"JiangGa"in Miao Nationality, is called"GaXiong"in Miao Medicine. In ancient times, owing to the little knowledge about the occurrence and development of lots of diseases, some witch doctors (or patients themselves) advocated treating the diseases by combining medicine and God. Except for the medicinal treatment, the patients prayed to the ancestors as well, turning to the help of the ghost and divinity. The two methods of treating the diseases coexisted and balanced, as a result, forming the situation:"witch and medicine are the one family; divinity and medicine are two kinds of cures".Based on Liangtouyang village of Shamans Culture, using the scientific research methods of participant observation, interview, questionnaire and literature study, the paper interprets the Witch Medicine from the points of symbol and culture. Except the introduction, the paper has three chapters. Chapter one introduces the Shamans of Miao Ethnic from the perspective of anthropology, which lays a foundation for the following parts. Chapter two analyses the cultural connotation of Shamans of Miao Ethnic from systematic culture, behavior culture and psychological culture, and then interprets the deep concept of the Shamans of Miao Ethnic, that is, the ethics of respecting masters and ancestors, the life outlook of expelling ghost and receive luckiness, disproportionate world outlook. Chapter three interprets the function of the Shamans of Miao Ethnic, including the practical function of curing disease, the function of integrating society, the function of heighten one's confidence, amusing function, cultural heritage function and the function of regulating ethics.As a phenomenon that is closely related to the social life and a conventionally and commonly existed situation in the countryside, the"Shamans Culture"of Miao Nationality has negative effect on the society, because it inevitably has lots of blind and absurd things during the process of hand down. However, if this medicine is studied as a cultural phenomenon and the researchers recognize all possibilities of its social influences, it will facilitate the update and social development of the Miao Nationality.