Self, The Roles And Rural Society

This dissertation shows the interaction between the self and society by means of role which joins up the self and the society. But how does role express itself by symbols and actions? Which kind of specific historical and regional backgrounds form the self experience? Which part of these backgrounds is shared by all the human beings? Anthropology has its own way of researching specific cases and individuals to answer these questions which seem macroscopic and complicated.The self in this dissertation are the performing artists of Errenzhuan Performance who travel around the countryside. They live in a special regional and historical culture which is the countryside in the Heilongjiang Province in China. These performing artists, as folk artists, have a special occupation and status in society. Their roles on the stage will affect their real lives and this gives them a different experience and understanding of life. Research on the changing relationship between the self (artists) and their roles helps us to capture and understand the stable or changing relationship between Erenzhuan Performance and culture in the countryside society. The dissertation tries to capture those changes and to investigate the transition of roles of artists, and to learn their dreams and aspirations. And it also focuses on their actions and languages in different scenes and occasions so as to discover the conception system and other factors behind their art creations. The ultimate aim is to understand and express Erenzhuan artists'life styles and culture connotation, so as to carry out the academic orientation of humanities:Study the culture from man, and/or to study a man from the culture.Art reflects the relation between people; people's relation breeds the art. All kinds of ceremonies and occasions give artists a stage to express themselves and their artistic style. The ceremonies reflect the society and its culture in a certain indirect way through strong emotions as expressed by the artists. These ceremonies dramatize the ethics, morals and general behavior of society, and try to link the audiences with their real life experiences. This is the point which gives insight to the anthropologists, as to how the study should be carried out through field work and ethnography. But we should notice that, the traditional folk performances such as Erenzhuan performance spreads better in people's normal lives than only in ceremonies. Whether it's the artists or the audiences, they're all deeply influenced by the performance. Thus, to understand Erenzhuan, the study should concentrate not only on the artists'performance but also should focus on all the peoples'daily lives and social practices, including the self of artists. The entire world is a stage and everyone has his/her part.This dissertation is formed by Introduction, the body (5 chapters) and Conclusion. In Introduction, the dissertation raises its own theory and research methods based on the reference and introspection on existing researches. The 5 chapters in the body detail 1) the village,2) the home,3) the Errenzhuan society,4) the ceremony and 5) faith and beliefs. The first chapter introduces the background of artists'lives. The regional environment affects life there and the people's life gives cultural meanings to the environment. Man and environment rely on each other. The 2nd chapter investigates normal lives of artists Mr. Xiaoping and Mrs. Xiaoling. They are a couple who developed Erenzhuan, and they interlaced the art performances and real lives together forming their special life style. The 3rd chapter researches further into the field where the artists struggle with each other for life in their own world. This is a field outside home but inside society which has its own rules and order. The 4th chapter analyzes the Erenzhuan performance in weddings and funerals. Artists, by performance, linkup between traditional and modern worlds, between this world and the 'nether world', between human beings and gods. They never get tired to do so and they can make change and creations according to the changing society and people's minds. The 5th chapter inspects ancient'vision quests', and investigates how and why the Erenzhuan artist developed it. In conclusion the dissertation points out that the artists played a role to reconstruct and drive the transition of countryside society, and the role changes unobtrusively according to the performance occasions and developing society. In countryside society, these artists are the carrier, blazer and modifier.In order to understand the interacting relations between artists and history, society and art, and to learn the emotions and willing of artists, the dissertation tries to combine field research and documentary research, emphasizes importance of self awareness, and pays enough attention to artists' thinking and wiling. In the meantime, the ethnography movie recording and editing are being tried.