Essentially,the author is interested in thevarious expression of fear of Miao people in the past and at present inShanjiang.The deion and analysis of the text develop in two aspects:
(1)the history and memory,the current ordinary life,social structure and theworld of witchcraft of the Miao people in Shanjiang;
(2)the development oftourism in Shanjiang community.Then,the author explores a discussion oncultural reproduction,cultural rejuvenation and cultural commercialization.In the recent three hundred years before the found of P.R.C,Miaopeople in Shanjiang gradually became conservative and exclusive in orderto fight against the dangerous outside environment:
(1)the living conditionfull of risks.People inhabit in mountainous area with poor communicationnetwork;
(2)The conflict with the central government of the Ming and Qingdynasties.To suppress the rebellion of Miao people in La’ershan tableland(Shanjiang situates on the edge of La’ershan tableland ),the imperialcourt build a stone wall(“Frontier Wall”)with pillbox and strategic sentrypost on it to block the movement of Miao people thus to separate themfrom the outside world;
(3)the turbulence during the Republic of China(1912—1949)since the banditry was rife there.To survive and protectthemselves from harm,Miao people managed to produce a set of culturalmechanism of fear,which expressed mainly in the following aspects:
(1)Miao People’s belief in witchcraft and Ming;
(2)The building style of thevillage gate,the arch over the gateway and the barricades in the village;
(3)Psychologically,people feels great horror to the outside world thus toformulate a speculiar kind of action mode.Especially,the suspicion ofwoman with “Gu”who is said to have the power to discomfort others oreven kill her neighbors and the various ceremonies of driving ghosts in thecommunity expressed concretely the fear of Miao people in Shanjiang area.This society puts emphasis on keeping itself apart from the outsiders andthe outside world.In the procedure of modernization of China,the situation ofShanjiang’s isolation from the big outside society changed,the Miaopeople there began to have more knowledge about the outsiders because ofthree factors:
(1)the spread use of mass media in their ordinary life;
(2)many young people swarm out to earn a life in big cities nearby and citiesin the eastern part of China;
(3)the development of tourism in Fenghuangcounty which exerts a tremendous influence on all of them in thecommunity.After a short time of hesitation,people of Shanjiang began todevelop tourism themselves and made achievements in the field.We maydraw a conclusion from above that the course of openness to outside ofShanjiang is experiencing “going out and inviting others in ”,and the massmedia,the works of the writer Shen Congwen of Miao ethnic group and thetourism context produce a great impact only through the Miao people’scognition to themselves.During the course of Miao people in Shanjiang setting up the MiaoMuseum and exploring the small village of Banku to be tourism sights,they made use of the mass media effectively to raise their fame asinteresting places to the tourists.Miao people there describe themselves asmysterious and hospitable.Cultural resources as drum-dance,traditionalcostume and the fear culture are all displayed.Here the author points outthat in this kind of cultural reproduction,one part of the witchcraft is beingdrawn out,and also great changes took place in its meaning and function.Originally,witchcraft such as Gu aimed at separating the inner andoutsider through creating the feeling of fear,explaining something unusualand the health trouble in short time,yet in the context of tourism,itchanged to be part of entertainment culture.Performances of magic rites indriving-ghost ceremonies now turn out to be attractive matters showing theuniqueness of Miao ethnic group.The people in the community themselvesbecome cultural agents and create a new kind of culture—expressedculture (or we may say,tourism culture),which reflects the changes ofsocial relationship and social structure in different contexts.The author points out in conclusion that:
(1)with the change of socialand cultural environment,especially after the entrance of tourism to theMiao community of Shanjiang,people there begin to have different voicesand behaviors.The fear and its expressions,once being the typicalpsychological and cultural characteristic of people there,have split up totwo parts—one part still exists as it was before,another part becomes anexpressed culture in the stage;
(2)The establishment of Miao museum andexploration of Banku village express the community’s openness to theoutside world,which facilitates from the mass media,a good knowledge ofinformation about the outside and the tourism development of the nearbyFenghuang city;
(3)In the procedure of exploring tourism and displayingculture,the mentality of Miao people in Shanjiang is in an open moodinstead of a closed mood.This transformation of mentality is somewhatsimilar to that of the whole Chinese in the recent hundreds of yearsconfronting with the outside world,thus in a certain degree,we may regardthis ethnography as a case study to this course of China.
发展旅游的少数民族地区人们的日常生活实践与舞台展演及心态变化是作者想通过这一民族志文本来了解的。湘西凤凰山江苗族地区被笔者选为田野调查点既出于偶然也属必然。笔者通过山江博物馆的馆长玉伯了解博物馆并进驻苗寨,完成了10个月的田野调查。在民族志文本写作时,作者使用的概念工具有文化再生产、布迪厄的实践理论,并对旅游的“社会文化影响研究”的现状进行讨论,提出“旅游文化”这一概念。