Research On Rural Funeral Consumption

In recent years, the voice of “not afford to die” has been reported by the media frequently. But researches on funeral consumption are mainly focused on description of phenomenon, lack scientific and systematic exploration on the theory and method. Funeral consumption is a social phenomenon which has been given cultural significance. Through the study of it, cultural implications behind the appearance of funeral consumption can be excavated, which contributes to correctly understanding and solving the consumption problems during the funeral, and providing advice for optimizing the funeral consumption structure and promoting the funeral reform.Taking Z village in North China as an example, this paper studies the consumption level, consumption structure and the influence factors of its funeral consumption by using the method of quantitative and qualitative research. Results can be illustrated from two aspects. From the funeral consumption level, the phenomenon of “not afford to die” exists in Z village, villagers suffer a heavy economic burden. From the funeral consumption structure, the high consumption of funeral lies mainly in the high dinner consumption which has been converted to human consumption currently; “burning” consumption is the second highest funeral consumption, it reflects more of a kind of utilitarian purpose than the idea of “filial piety”; there is a game about emotional rationality or economic rationality in communication and labor consumption, which determines the communication and labor consumption will not exceed dinner consumption for a long period of time. In addition, residual thought of “son preference” is not reflected in the funeral consumption level and funeral consumption structure, so there is no difference between men and women’s funeral consumption. Furthermore the paper concludes that it is necessary to carry out the funeral consumption reform in rural areas and the reform can be rationally guided—only under the principle of retaining human relationship when guide the funeral consumption can the funeral high consumption problem be solved.