The Anthropology Of Art Research On Li Brocade

The Li brocade carries abundant historical information and cultural meaning.Seen as “living fossil” of Li culture, it is closely associated with Li society’s naturalenvironment, living style, social framwork, folk beliefs and life values. Based on theseresearches and field work, this paper aims to interpret the cultural meaning of MeifuLi’s traditional brocade in Chonghe Basin.One of the subject goals of ethnology and anthropology is to study on thediversity and the localization of culture. Therefore, to carry out cultural interpretation,we have to analyze cultural phenomenon under specific historical and social culturalcontext. Based on literature and field work interviews, this paper briefly introduced thehistory of Chonghe Basin and the Meifu Li’s brocade. On this basis, the paper thenanalyzes the color and the pattern of Li brocade with artistic symbol theory. The authorfound that the commonly used colors in Li brocade illustrate multiple information,including people’s physical characteristics, social characteristics and belief, andexpress the conventional concepts, thinking and feelings. In this paper, the functionalsymbol of Li brocade has been separated into expressive symbol, narrative symbol,instructive symbol and integrative symbol.The color and pattern of Li brocade haven been regarding as evident culturaltokens. As for Li brocade, it contains much broader and more complexed cultural andsocial meaning as a cultural system. With the symbol analysis method in anthropologyof art, this paper makes cultural narrating analysis on the component parts of Librocade respectively, including baldric, tight skirt and apparel and accessories. Inconsideration of the various categories of Li brocade’s baldric, this thesis choosescoverchief of Meifu Li nationality as the main study object. Analysis shows that theselection and conformation of Li brocade is an abstract simulation of everyday scenesand discloses the complex relationship between the selection of pattern and culturalidea. While conducting the cultural narrating analysis on the tight skirt consist of fivepictures of Li brocade, the author discovers that all the color, line and pattern of it contain essential cultural connation of heriting history, educating posterity andcognizing life. Li brocade composes an important part of clothing. Brocade that madeup clothing carries conventional cultural meaning. In addition, different collocation ofclothing denotes different social situation.The cultural system of Li brocade has its specific cultural features, but thesecultural features are embedded in social cultural network and cannot be separated fromother social items. This paper regards the creators of Li brocade as practitioners and thefirsthand ones who experience the Li culture and investigates their higher social statusfrom the perspective of division of labor in Li traditional society and then attempts todiscuss the phenomenon of cultural inheritance in Li brocade and the issue of itscreators’ physical practice.