The Cultural Study Of Funeral Ceremony Of Hui Minority In Hefei Rural Areas

Death is an eternal human cultural theme. Funeral culture is an important component of human culture.As a particular phenomenon in human social life, the funeral ceremony plays an important part in funeral culture and the whole culture system in which people live. The funeral ceremony of Hui Minority is a kind of funeral ceremony for China's minorities. Therefore, it could be more comprehensive in-depth understanding of the funeral culture for China's minorities through researching funeral ceremony of Hui Minority. However, the study of funeral ceremony of Hui Minority for the former scholars focus on using the method of sociology and folklore to study the meaning, culture, customs, and other aspects of the systems of the Hui ethnic minority in the Northwest region. But the related research of the central region to use the method of anthropology is relative less. Therefore, this thesis selects the funeral ceremony of Hui Minority in the rural areas of Hefei in the central region as the perspective of the study, a case of the funeral ceremony of Hui Minority in Wawu Village, then use the method of "deep description" to have a ethnographic description of the funeral ceremony of Hui Minority in Wawu Village, and explain and analyze the cultural connotation and function of the funeral ceremony of Hui Minority in Hefei rural areas in detail..In order to carry out in-depth analysis better, in the method of the research, this thesis mainly takes the anthropological fieldwork and the literature research combing as the research methods. This thesis takes the Wawu Village of Nangang Town as the object of the field survey, and then to study of it. The specific method of field research includes participant observation, depth interviews, etc. In the perspective of the research, this thesis mainly uses the research methods of etic and emic combined, and then have a ethnographic deep description of funeral ceremony of Hui Minority in Hefei rural areas. In the specific structure, this paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter I:Introduction. The main contents of the thesis is to introduce the present situation, method and the significance of the research, then to have a brief description of the study subjects.Chapter II:The introduction of Wawu village about the background of humanity and geography. The Minority customs, habits and living environment are produced and formed in a certain "field". This chapter mainly introduced overview of the natural environment, social environment and the people's spiritual environment. And describe in detail the geography, population, marital status, family structure, religious beliefs, moral values etc.ChapterⅢ:The ethnographic description of the funeral ceremony of Hui minority in Wawu village. This chapter mainly borrowed from the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz "Thick Description" approach to have an ethnographic deep description of the funeral ceremony of Hui minority. In accordance with the canons of Islam and the requirement of the《Koran》, and the time of the death and the the number of the death's family, the time of the funeral ceremony of Hui minority is different. This ethnographic case study of the funeral ceremony is divided into three days, therefore, the ethnographic depth description of this thesis is constituted by three-day.ChapterⅣ:The cultural connotation of funeral ceremony of Hui minority in Hefei rural areas. On the basis of a thick description of ethnographic case of the funeral ceremony of Hui minority in Wawu village, this thesis referenced and absorbed the theory of Symbolic anthropology, Interpretive Anthropology, and then have a In-depth study about it in order to reveal the cultural connotation of family ethics, religion, taboos and so on. Simultaneously, it pointed out that the features which possessed in the funeral ceremony are burial, speed burial,funerals and equality.Chapter V:The analysis of function for Hui minority in Hefei rural areas. This thesis in order to have a functional analysis for the funeral ceremony of Hui minority through the aspect of cultural transmission and communication, the enhance function of the nation's internal cohesion, adjustment function of social relations, function of social enlightenment, function of religious belief and so on.