The Pottery Cat Of Beibanbang Village--A Study Of Material Culture

Material culture is content of anthropology study, which relevant research theories and methods develop with the pace of anthropology. The emphasis of material culture study is that how people use the "objects" to represent the culture, To study the people's the behavior, values, beliefs and world views shared by members of a society and hided by the behavior. Through the matter study we can discussed social life, the mind and emotions of human and also find the human's creation and how possible the cultural traditions could be recreated as basis. Studying material culture form the material and human of epistemology of Chinese tradition is a contribution to the anthropology study in western that is based on the epistemology of the separation of material and human. The cat pottery of Beibanbang village of Jin Dun country of Yunnan province is a hand-molded artifact which contains the base of tile and a tiger-type object on the base, and it is made by local clay. It is often placed in the middle of roof ridge, the door, the wall and other buildings for keeping houses safe and expelling evil influences. Though fieldwork, author investigate the contents referring to pottery cat making, industry of brick and tile, raw materials for tile clay, sites of firing, process of firing, the use of cat pottery, the custom of covering"Longkou"and the pottery cat as produce of crafts. The cat pottery of Beibanbang village is a kind of "artificial" cultural logic of construction, while the core of this cultural logic is world view of the Han Nationality traditional. It contains the formation of universe of yin–yang, five elements and the operation of the system of the concept of the unity of man and nature. The part of culture in BeiBbanbang village, such as"livelihood, the customs, housing and other religious, the rituals of placing cat pottery, which are related to the life", connect with each other as a systemic way. Summarily, the cultural schema behind the pottery cat of Beibanbang village is a culture system, which contains four aspects, actors, action / practices, symbols, and ideas. As the core of the system, the cosmology highlight the value of other three aspects, and is used to understand and interpret the nature, behaviors and materials by villagers. The appearance of pottery cat artists and pottery cat as a craft is a representation. Concepts dominate the action. The actions based on the livelihoods and living also reinforces and innovate the ideas, and this is why the pottery cat could keep vitality.