The Research On The Change Of Dong People’s Folk Beliefs In The Southwest Of Hubei Area

This thesis takes JiangKe village, XuanEn County, HuBei Province as a case for study. Onthe basis of cultural change theory of ethnology and the fieldwork of the folk beliefs in JiangKevillage, by making full use of ethnography, genealogy and the villagers’ oral material，the authoranalyzes the Dong People’s folk beliefs system in JiangKe village at different levels to investigatedeeply the changes of folk beliefs and the reasons, by using theories such as cultural changestheory, ethnic interaction theory and ethnic identity theory. The thesis aims at providing some newvisual angle for exploring the change of folk beliefs in immigrant area and a sample forconstructing the theory system of Dong People’s cultural change in the Southwest of HuBei Area.This thesis consists of six chapters: The first chapter is introduction, it introduces background,research significance, literature review and research method. The second chapter is an introductionof JiangKe village, including its natural environment, social environment and the migratoryhistory of the Dong People who live there. The third chapter, on the basis of the fieldwork survey,the author presents the folk beliefs system of JiangKe village from different aspects of folk beliefs,including object, rituals, groups and so on. The fourth chapter based on the third chapter, in whichthe author summed up the functions of the folk beliefs in JiangKe village, including socialfunction and cultural function. The fifth chapter elaborates on the historical changes before andafter the Dong People’s immigrant and the modern changes after their immigrant, focused on thetwo main reasons for the changes: internal reasons and external reasons. The internal reasonsinclude the development within the nation and the factor of faith groups, the external reasonsincludes the natural environmental factors and the social environmental factors. The sixth chapterattempts to discuss, summarize and reflect on the ethnic interaction theory, the ethnic identitytheory based on the research results of relevant theories of cultural change.