"between Man And Nature Are Brothers" - The Culture Of Yunnan Lijiang Naxi Environmental Protection Of Customary Law Interpretation

With the development of world's economy, human beings are facing more and more commonly-shared environmental problems such as the absence of ozonosphere above the South Pole, global warming, land desertion, acid rain and so on, especially the sudden attack by SARS and poultry flu, which bring people into deep thought of environmental deterioration. However, the peace and harmony between human and nature and well-preserved primeval ecological environment in Li jiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province where lives a minority called Nashi with a long history, are highly praised by modern people. On the basis of long-held ethics idea, i.e. "human and nature are brothers", Nashi people came to their customary law of environmental protection systematically. Not only did Dongba-the traditional religion of Nashi people inborn holly spirit to the customary law, but also much of the content of Dongba scripture directly changed into items of it. This dissertation, with the help of materials from fieldwork and Dongba classical, researches Nashi customary law embodied in their ancestors' wisdom in the way of interpretation of the culture. This paper is composed of five parts as following.In the preface, the author sums up the general situation of environmental problems today, explains the reasons of writing and presents the method of examining, which is based on anthropological investigations and cases, as to unfold the overall features of Nashi customary law of environmental protection.Chapter One examines the forming background of Nashi customary law of environmental protection describing its geographic surroundings and historic phases. Nashi customary law, as a characteristic of this ethnic group, has its unique geographic surroundings, namely, typical highland, which decides that Nashi people rely on natural environment and there is a necessity toprotect it as well. Furthermore, only with an awareness of Nashi culture, its religious connotation and the dominance of God "shu" over other natural spirits, can the customary law be well analyzed.Chapter Two discusses the content of Nashi customary law of environmental protection in three aspects, such as water, forest and animals, basically by exploring the original documents in Dongba scripture, myths, old sayings, inscriptions on tablets and folk rules.Chapter Three gives an objective description on status quo of Nashi customary law of environmental protection, for it changes with time on. On one hand, the author deepens into kinds of new problems in the latest decades. On the other hand, the author sees the hope of this long-history customary law and its access to statute law. Wi th these two combined. Nashi people wi 11 come back to harmony wi th nature again.Conclusion serves as Chapter Four, summarizing the characters of Nashi customary law of environmental protection into the nature of rel igion, morality and generality which in return bestow bel ief. sense of obedience, common people's strong sense of participation and legislative techniques on it. If a correct attitude towards Nanshi customary law of environmental protection is taken to reflect modern laws, especially in the aspect of environmental protection, we are sure to gain some enlightenment from the former one so that the latter one can be bettered.