Investigation And Research Of Uygur Women’s Lives In Hezrat Village, Qogan Township, Kashgar

This paper investigates women’s religious life in the southern Xinjiang village ofHezrat which is located in Qogan Township, Kashgar. A description and analysis ofthe general situation of contemporary Uyhur women including their religiousconceptions, practices, and rituals as well as the relationship between Islam andUyghur’s secular traditions is presented.From the perspective of feminist and religious anthropology, this paper attemptsto survey and analyze contemporary Uyghur women’s religious life as well as therelationship between their daily lives and religion. Based mainly on ethnographic andcultural anthropological fieldwork methods, this paper delves into Hezrat village lifefrom etic and emic perspectives; using primary sources materials collected fromparticipant observation and in depth interviews as a basis for the research, this paperoffers a relatively comprehensive and penetrating portrayal of the general situation ofUyghur women’s religious life in Hezrat. This paper will attempt to put forward atheoretical analysis and discussion of the research subject on the basis of theirprofessional occupations, educational experiences, religious practices, secular lives,and the relationship between the women, their religion, their family education, andtheir religious education.The Uyghurs of Xinjiang are the second-largest Muslim group in China, and theyhave believed in Islam for over a thousand years. The rural areas inhabited byUyghurs in Xinjiang-especially rural southern Xinjiang-have a relatively isolatednatural environment and lagging productivity which has caused this area to retainpronounced historical traditions; Islam has widespread influence and the people heredisplay strong Islamic views and religious practices, and therefrom formed theirworldviews as well as moral and ethic principles which guide their mode of thinkingand lifestyle. After liberation rural Uyghur areas experienced major social changes,but even so Islam still has a large influence on the everyday lives of Uyghurs.This paper is comprised of eight chapters:The first chapter is the preliminary section, including research goals andsignificance, origin of research question, a description of the fieldwork site, thecurrent status of relevant research within and without China, and the methodsemployed in this research.The second chapter introduces the background of Hezrat village, the origin of the the village’s name, and the Uyghur villagers’ mode of production in order toprovide an in depth description and introduction of the context for the research.Chapters three to eight comprise the core of the paper’s content, includingdescription and analysis of Hezrat village’s Uyghur women’s occupations, education,religious rituals, secular life, coming of age rituals and their relationship withreligion; this brings to light the perfect union of Islamic religion and the secular inUyghur women’s lives and the function of this union in the continuation of traditionalculture.