The Relation Between Demolition And Transformation Of The Folk Beliefs In Witchcraft

The time-honored belief in witchcraft is one of the most significant segments of the folk beliefs in China.Affected by various factors,it has been changing and developing constantly.However,with the urbanization and modernization in the current society in China,land acquisition and demolition in rural areas has become a common phenomenon and a hot topic of concern.Since the land acquisition and demolition brings obvious transformations of the space environment,which is the basis of the folk beliefs,the survival and development of them will be influenced.As the essential part of the folk beliefs,the belief in witchcraft is also impacted.Based on the field research in a village called Qing Chun,the writer demonstrates the effects on the local belief in witchcraft's survival and development,summarizes the typical features of the change of the local belief in witchcraft,and attempts to discuss the relation between the space environment and folk beliefs.The dissertation includes seven chapters in total: the first part is the introduction,in which the reasons why the author chose the topic,the meanings,the literature review,the research techniques,and the definition of some correlative concepts are contained.The second part gives a brief introduction about the village from the aspects of natural geological environment,means of livelihood,the process of land acquisition and demolition,and the resident pattern,revealing a complete picture of the research spot.The third part generally describes the folk beliefs in the local area before and after the land acquisition and demolition in this village,including the prevailing Buddhism belief,the land worship,the kitchen god worship,the ancestor worship and the belief in witchcraft.The fourth part,however,gives the information about the local belief in witchcraft before and after the acquisition and demolition in detail,focusing on the changes taken place on the witches and wizards,the rituals and people who worship witchcraft.The fifth part summarizes the two main features of the change of the belief in witchcraft in the local area.The fifth part tries toexplore the reasons of the debility of the belief in witchcraft and the connection between the folk beliefs and the space environment.The author believes that the disappearance of the place for rituals,the propaganda of the modern community and the prosperity of the Buddhism belief contributes to the accelerating weakening of the belief in witchcraft,and the transformation of physical space exerts effects on people's recognition of mysterious mana,which is reflected in people's concepts and practices.The seventh part illustrates the meaning of the study and points out the existing drawbacks of this paper.Adopting approaches from Applied Ethnology,the author tries to blend in the society undergoing the acquisition and demolition,and attempts to reveal the relation between the change of space environment and the change of the belief in witchcraft,which is also the actual significance of this paper.Besides,the study also provides discipline reference for other villages in China which are now in the process of acquisition and demolition.