A Study Of Power Struggle In Village

In the development of human civilization, the power struggle is everywhere and at all time. Power exists in various fields of social activities and relationships. Anthropology research mainly aims to how power is generated, how it runs,the aim of running it and the purpose and significance of the research.Village research is one of the research area that anthropology scholars have always been interested in.The study of village power is one of the main concern. In general, social scholars and politics, who do research on the village power, mainly focuses on the village’s formal political power, mainly including the villagers autonomy, rural governance, democracy and power structure, the power struggle between country and local and so on. Anthropologists doing village power research focus on how the power and authority in the village impact on village social structure and power relations by means of local traditional culture, symbols, religious beliefs and rituals.In this paper, a research was done among an ethic group, who live in a hamlet, of the Zhuang people in black in the southwest of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Using anthropological fieldwork methods, such as participant observation, in-depth interviews, to study the process of a power struggle between the village’s captain Wei and secretary Song as an example,so as to discuss the cause of the struggle in the village social power, power struggle strategy choice and the purpose and significance of power struggle in a microscopic Angle of view. In this article, the author attempts to describe in-depth the choice of strategies in battle mode of the power of struggle between captain Wei and secretary Song. The study focuses on how the village folk belief, religion and ritual, and social relationship influence the power struggle between the two.This paper is composed of preface, text and conclusion. In the introduction, the author first briefly illustrates why the topic is selected. Secondly, the author discusses the definition of the concept "power", and reorganized the relevant theories of political anthropology’s research on power, as well as anthropology’s research on Chinese rural power problems.At last, the research methods and the structure of the framework of this paper are briefly introduced.In the first part of the text, the author roughly narrates the infested geographic ecological environment, living pattern and economic conditions, cultural environment and daily life condition and the village tourism development and its change. In the second part, the author first describes the condition of village power structure, introduced several individuals of power or authority as well as organizations, and then introduced the instances of power struggle between captain Wei and secretary Song.The third part focus on the power struggle strategy and method that Wei and Song choose and use.The author analyzes how Wei and Song, in the struggle for power, draw individuals and organizations to their sides and play up to them, how select village social values, ethics and order for the guidelines and use them to "stigma" each other and to construct their self-identity, and how individuals and organizations involved in the power struggle between Wei and Song. In this part, the author mainly focuses on how the village folk belief, religious beliefs rituals, and social relations involved in the power struggles.The fourth part is an important part of this article. It discusses the purpose and meaning of a power struggle.Through research, it is concluded that the main ideas of this article is:power is just a symbol, which is practical and significant only when it is acknowledged and accepted by the community.A power struggle is usually generated, continued and developed within a social group. Contradictions caused by competition for bureaucratic position, economic benefits, religious beliefs and cultural identity differences are the main factors that generate and promote a power struggle.When religion is involved in political power struggle, secular power struggle is mixed with sacred religious authority. The power struggle of secular authority becomes legitimate or even sanctified with the help of the mysterious power of religion At this point, the power strugglers use the sacred religious power of religious beliefs to serve their own temporal power struggle.In the process of a power struggle, both the power strugglers initiative to choose a variety of strategies to a fight.In the process of a power struggle, both the power strugglers try to manipulate the group internal social norms and values. In the process of grasping and controlling the social norms and values, they obtain the right to social groups.The main purpose of the village power struggle is not to obtain economic benefits, but to make their "identity" and "face" and reputation, so as to win the respect of social groups and approval. The main and fundamental purpose of power struggles is to maintain their own cultural identity and values so that they are not subject to any interference and destruction.