The Construction Of "Alternative" Folk Belief Elite In The Actor Network

Folk belief elite has long been regarded as a social construction,but there are two problems with this argument: First,it is difficult to grasp the causal relationship between social factors and social situations.It is easy to use society to explain the problem of synonym repetition,and the discussion based on the result also ignores the subjectivity and initiative of people,which is difficult to explain the complex differences in the practice of Chinese folk beliefs.Secondly,it confuses the boundary of social psychology between authority and identity.For individuals,authority cannot be simply equated with identity,and there is a difference in subjectivity presupposition between the two:authority subjectivity is in power,which is in a strong output position in the interactive relationship,while identity is based on the cognition of individual life experience,knowledge system and emotional tendency.Based on these questions,this paper tries to answer the following questions through anthropological field observation,using the Network Action Theory(ANT)and taking Mrs.Chen’s folk belief practices before and after building the Dragon King Temple as a case study: First,in the dynamic process of action--translation--identification--maintenance,the core actor Mrs.Chen’s actions show two practical directions: On the one hand,the belief practice of "doing religion" represented by temple building and temple residence;on the other hand,the narrative practice with folk belief elements centered on efficent narration and collective memory narration.Second,folk belief elites are formed in a mobile network of actors,in which all actors participate and play a role.The concrete process is the translation of other actors to the core actors,thus completing the meaning transformation and internalizing the action meaning of the core actors into their own meaning.On this basis,the heterogeneous identity of Mrs.Chen is formed.As a result,the "practical construction" replaces the "social construction" that explains the society with social factors.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is the introduction,which introduces the origin of the topic,research framework and related research overview,and also gives a brief description of the research object and research methods.The second part of the article makes a brief introduction to the village conditions and folk beliefs of L village.In the third part,Mrs.Chen,as the core actor in the network,presents the practice of faith,including the dual narrative of religion,efficency and collective memory.The fourth part is the translation of other actors to the core actors.At the end of the paper,the conclusion is that the identity of folk belief elite comes from the actor network,and the core step is the translation of other actors to the core actor.