Clan Place Identity:a Place Identity Linked By Blood Relationship And Culture

Clan refers to the actual geographical space of a culture.There are plenty of studies related to clan,most of which are based on anthropology,sociology and religion.Only a few of studies are carried out from the perspective geography by cultural geographers and historical geographers.In light of previous research on clan and place identity,most researchers studied the place identity of clan by specific groups and did not analyze the structure and concept of place identity of clan by exploring the Space of places,Symbol mark and Collective memory on place identity in practices.Clan migration is common in the development of each family clan.Multiple nodes in the migration network points to a collective one,which generates place identity of clan.However,research in this field is never done.Under such background,this paper,guided by cultural geography,takes the clan of Family Dai in migration nodes of Dating,Moxi and Puban as an example to analyze the construction mode of place identity of clan in detail.Qualitative approaches such as participation and observation,in-depth interview and text analysis were employed in this paper.The results indicate that place identity of clan is based on blood and culture.Family clan of the same blood relationship share the same place identity with cultural characteristics.Place identity of clan with historical heritage characteristics,is commonly built,inherited and sustained by the group of the same blood relationship generations after generations.In addition,exploration on the different construction modes of place identity of clan in three places suggests that the structure of place identity of clan is composed of Symbol mark,Collective memory and Space of places.Symbol marks can be found in the Space of places of each clan;collective memory is sustained based on symbol marks;and collective activities and practices of groups with blood relationship is carried out in the Space of places based on collective memory.Futhermore,the construction of place identity of each migration node of the clan enjoys unique features.For instance,all factors contribute equally to the clan of Family Dai in Dating,the structure of which is therefore stable.The clan of Family Dai in Moxi is with generalized geographically.The clan of Family Dai in Puban is connected by blood relationship and local religious activities instead of sacrificial activities in ancestral temples.Lastly,this paper summarizes the influence of different structures on the place identity of clan so as to interprete how clan identity impacts all migration nodes and to directly reveal the roots and expression of place identity of clan among clan members.