Wells And The Social Culture Of The Village

Water is the source of life.As a living body in nature,human beings cannot survive and develop without stable and sufficient drinking water.The Miao is a mountain dweller widely distributed in southern China.The ethnic group involved in this paper is called "Gaopo Miao",because she lives on a hillside far from the river valley.For Gaopo Miao,who are far away from rivers and lakes,wells are the main source of their living water.They play an important role in all aspects of production and life.With the continuous and complex production and life practices of Miao,they are deeply branded with the traces of Miao's culture,forming a well culture with rich connotations and various levels.Based on the reference and dialogue of anthropologists' research on material,this paper presents the well of culture in Gaopo Miao village represented by Liangshui Chong in the form of ethnography,which is embodied in the material level,institutional level,spiritual level and in the process of modernization,and takes this as the starting point to explore and understand the social culture of Miao village,and on the motive force of cultural production and reproduction.The thesis is divided into three parts:introduction,main body,conclusion and discussion.The introduction part explains the reason for choosing the topic of the thesis,the research questions and their significance,combing and reviewing the previous research on material and the research results of the culture of well of various people in the anthropological field,and briefly explaining the main theoretical perspectives and research methods of the paper,and makes the necessary explanation for the choice of the field work place.The main body of the paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter gives a general introduction to the living environment,village layout,livelihood methods,micro water facilities and social culture of Liangshui Chong in the Miao village of Gaopo.The second chapter,taking the Liangshui Chong's well as an example,shows the material culture(or technical culture)of Gaopo Miao around the use of water wells from the types,styles,practical functions,layout and ecological wisdom of water wells,and summarizes the multiple significance of well for Gaopo Miao.The third chapter mainly discusses the community culture(or ethical culture)around wells,including the customary law of protecting wells,gender division of labor,well as a public space,and the impact of fighting for water resources on the relationship between one village and another village.The fourth chapter analyzes the well as one of the cultural symbols,and deeply integrates it into the spiritual culture(or symbolic culture)of Gaopo Miao in ritual festivals,custom taboos,and life symbols.The fifth chapter examines the impact of the entry of tap water on the village well culture in the context of modernization,and summarizes the characteristics of the cultural change of the Liangshui Chong's well.The conclusion is that well is the key element and important prerequisite for the Miao to be able to work and live normally,so it is deeply embedded in the local Miao's social and cultural system,and gradually produces a well cultural subsystem with the production and living needs of the Miao as the core and background,water as the support and carrier.It is related to the systematic and complex relationship between human and nature,human and human,human and their own spiritual situation.The rich connotation of the local well culture is generated and developed by the Miao who live there continuously in the practice of life.It will also gradually evolve as the local Miao production and living conditions and methods change Variety.Through specific investigations of the local well culture,we can not only deepen and enrich the experience and understanding of the Miao culture,but also understand the driving force of human cultural production and reproduction.