Between The Mountains And Rivers: The Ancestral Memory And Ethnic Identity Of The Miao People In The Qingshui River Basin

Miao people is migratory.Their memories of ancestors and sense of ethnic identity are formed and consolidated in the process of migration.The reason why Miao people can always sustain their ethnic identity is that they a set of concept system whose core is ancestry memories to know themselves and to explore the living surroundings.With the change of space,they strengthen their own understanding of themselves in the geographical space emphasizing affinity and consanguinity.This research uses geographical space as a research cut-in point,and we explain self-identity of Miao people in the view of social and individual respectively.Realistic physical space is the natural environment for people to live,and is the material carrier of ancestral identification.In the process of the migration of Miao ancestors,the changing physical space is the carrier of the memory of ancestors in the Miao people's cognitive space.When the Hmong moved to a new place,they would place the names of the ancestors who lived there,their ancestors,and what was happening there,as a symbol of ancestral memory,into the new area.Although the physical space is constantly changing,the ancestral memory behind the geographical identity in the physical space is stable.The regional identity formed by the common ancestor's memory can guarantee people to live together in a regional space,but the stability of the spatial order needs to be maintained by the relationship of marriage.Miao women is the center of the marriage exchange system formed by the marriage between cousins.For most Miao women,the most ideal marriage is to exchange back to their mothers' maiden.Under this marriage rule,the space of marriage in-out Zhai is the game of their marriage and living space.Marriage rules ensure the stability of the geographical space,and create a stable spatial order.The market circle based on the marriage circle and the social behavior of the people must comply with the space order established by the marriage circle.Space is the space of ethnic groups,which is embodied in the regional space and spatial order of ethnic identity in the social level.In the individual level the space is the base of the formation of self-concept of Miao people.The Miao people's understanding of the self is embodied in their soul.In the village wells,bridge,and the grave house shrine etc.these substances also serve as a carrier of their concept of soul space.The concept ofsoul reflects their understanding of the self is based on the geographical space and the identity of their ancestors.The social and personal identity are reflected in the festivals which are the combination of time and space.The Miao festivals contained the regional identity,space order,ancestral memory,self-soul value,also reveals the the relationship among man,gods and ancestors.Through the analysis of festival legends and symbolic meanings,the common ancestor memory of the Miao people and their identity to the ethnic groups are explored.Year after year,festivals and ceremonies reinforce the memory of their ancestors,which is the condensation of these cultural elements.In the last part of the article,the author makes a comparative study of the ethnic groups,and discusses the other minority to investigate the relationship between Miao and Ge,Han,Han to Miao around Qingshui River.Through this comparison with groups bias factors,we find that Miao people deliberately to accent their ethnic characters in the historical memory,ethnic cultural exchanges and comparison of ethnic cultures,in order to distinguish between "self" and "other".In this paper,through retrospect of history,deconstruction of the ceremony and comparative study of ethnic groups in the process of communication,from the space time perspective,we explore the inner relationship between Qingshui River and Miao people's ancestry memory and ethnic identity combined with the interaction research of historical,spiritual culture and ethnic groups.We expect to answer the question” what is Miao people”.