Folk Beliefs,Ethnic Identity And Social Interpretation

In the Tumet area, Inner Mongolia since the early modern history, because of the living in the same villages together, the cultural features of both the original Mongolian inhabitants and immigrant Han Chinese have had dramatic change. Especially, so with the culture of Tumed Mongols in Hohhot region, that is apparently different from that of the Mongols in the pastoral regions in Inner Mongolia. This is mostly due to the interaction of Tumet Mongolian and Han Chinese culture. However, Mongolian and Han ethnicities have not fused into one, but still keeping their strong ethnic identities. Although Tumed Mongols settled and have been engaging in agriculture just as Han Chinese, and speaking in Chinese, there still are various factors that serve to Support Tumet Mongolian identity. Among them, psychological elements are the most fundamental factors, such as consciousness of revering their ancestors, common Mongolian historical memory and consciousness to keep national common culture. There are also external factors such as cultural exchanges, establishment of national identity and implementation of state policy for ethnicities which play promoting and reinforcing function..This thesis chooses three villages in the Tumet Left Banner of Hohhot, to investigate the folk beliefs of Mongolian and Han ethnicities and explore the ethnic identity supported by the folk religious beliefs.In doing so, observation and depth interview method are applied to analyze and discuss the role of folk beliefs in ethnic identity, mentality and other influencing factors. Through a comparative study of various forms of folk religious beliefs of the two peoples, the thesis examines the social functions of characteristics and the influencing factors on the formation of ’integrated but different’ attribute of two peoples’religious beliefs in the background of mutual influence of the two cultures.The thesis, starts with the general survey of the folk religious beliefs in Tumet by describing in the two categories of family gods and village temples. Then, it further analysis the models and characteristics of the folk religious beliefs of the two peoples. Then through the comparative analysis of two cases of folk religious beliefs:namely oboo sacrifice and the dragon king temple to see the relationship between folk religious beliefs and ethnic identity. In the end, the thesis analyzes the similarities and differences of folk religious beliefs of Mongolian and Han ethnicities in Tumet from the approach of cultural and social interpretation, and further elaborates the relationship between them; preservation of respective traditional folk religious beliefs and keeping their ethnic identity and national mentality.