The Society In Diet: An Ethnological Study On A Settlement Village Of Kazakh And The Han Nationality In The Northern Suburb Of Urumqi

Food is the most important physical resource and objective condition whic h people live on. Food has been elevated to a high level which relate to cultu re, and has become the representative of culture and the continuation of human spirit after food simply provide energy for human beings. For human beings,there is a abstract thing hidden behind the physical form of food which relate to spiritual culture, such as tradition, means of livelihood, social order and divi sion of labor which depend on gender and role. Thus, eating is not only the s um of material and consciousness of mankind, but also the important physical form of spirit. Therefore, we describe food culture as the retro reflector of soc ial culture and social dynamics. In order to specifically explain the spiritual cu lture and social dynamics, this paper selects the villagers of new village of Ka zakh of Liushihu village, in the high-tech zone of Urumqi as the research obj ect, and describes and analyzes the dietetic in their daily life and festivals in t he form of interview and individual cases. From the small things which relate to diet, the author found some social problems like the features of villagers’ li fe, dietary habit, the regulation in the ethnic group, the change and maintenanc e of diet custom, ethnic interaction, division of labor in family which depend on gender and role, and the issue between diet and social classes and order, a nd the author analyze these things with the consideration of actual life of villa gers. Then the author get the conclusion that with the transformation of the liv ing environment and the promotion of the modernization, villagers changed a l ot in some aspects, for instance, the change of diet after migration, the chang e of cognitive attitude towards traditional division of labor according to gender and role, the acceptance of food outside the village, the interaction between Kazakh and the Han nationality, and the introduction of modern cooking utensi ls. Meanwhile, they maintained many things like the celebrate way of tradition al festivals, the primary diet, the current situation of woman’s cooking mode, t he features of selecting food outside of village, the relationship between diet a nd the rank and order system of ethnic groups. Change is the distinctive beaco n of food, and maintenance is the core embodiment of ethnic spirit and culture in the village. Thus a situation about diet and society of a settlement village of Kazakh and the Han nationality has been created under the dual function of change and maintenance.