| A lot of research achievements about the traditions of Tujia ethnic group (TEG for short) have been seen in the modern cultural anthropological field, such as the collections of Chinese Folk Songs. Specifically speaking, studies, which have been done by scholars in cultural anthropology, social anthropology and folk musicians, center about TEG customs, rituals and etiquettes, religions, manners as well as music. In spite of all these achievements, very little research has been conducted on one important element of TEG traditional culture, namely "Geshi"culture."Geshi", in TEG term, means somebody who is good at singing, dancing and talking regardless of their gender and social status. The field research shows that Geshi not only takes up the responsibility of carrying on TEG culture from generation to generation, but also developing its traditional culture; they are the organizers and also the leaders and participants of the TEG culture. Meanwhile, Geshi works as a bridge between the heaven, the earth and human beings, and as a spokesman of God, human beings and ghost as well. They communicate with each other by means of singing and dancing that they create and they show their traditions and cultures to the world through songs, musical instruments like drums, dances, witching, rituals and so on. Based on the functional viewpoints of cultural anthropologists, TEG Geshi culture can be divided into four kinds: religious worship, rituals, labor and daily customs, therefore, we can say that all kinds of cultural activities participated by Geshi form a major part of TEG Geshi culture.According to the field research in the past 20 years, the author thinks that "the carnivalized soul songs" is the essence of TEG Geshi culture. Three issues need to be discussed in order to further study TEG Geshi culture and work out its aesthetic meaning:(1) how to analyze the poetic element of the TEG Geshi culture; (2) how to classify and describe the "carnivalized" element of TEG Geshi culture; (3) how to find out the aesthetic value of the GEG Geshi culture. And these three issues will shape the essential part of this dissertation.I. Introduction and the analysis of the poetic feature of Carnivalized TEG culture"Soul songs" are originally the religious songs sung by African American black people in the colonized period who aimed to use the songs to talk about their ill-treatment by the white and wished to lead a happy life after death. In this chapter, the author first of all briefly compares the black’s soul songs and TEG Geshi culture and finds out the similarities of the two, which forms a poetic foundation for the "soul songs" given to TEG Geshi culture. Based on this, the author proceeds to make a brief analysis of the cultural soil for its growth, finding that TEG Geshi culture combines many folk elements, such as songs, instruments such as drums, dances, rituals, etiquettes, witching and so on, all this tracing back to the very beginning of the primitive worship in the human history. At the birth of mankind, Tujia ethnic group began to find many kinds of irresistible magic power while fighting with the nature for survival, therefore, they gradually built up the concept that everything in the universe could be unified and transferrable. Based on these findings, they created their unique ways of communications to express their feelings, emotions and ideas through their voices and body languages, which became the base of their soul songs.In the final chapter, the author discusses the link between Taoism, Confucianism and TEG Geshi culture, and concludes that TEG Geshi culture is a civilized form which combines Yi School, Xia School and also other ethnic cultures. TEG Geshi culture critically absorbs the essence of other cultures and forms its own uniqueness.Ⅱ. Description of the "carnival" element of TEG Geshi cultureTEG Geshi culture, in essence, is the carnivalized soul songs, so it is necessary to describe its cultural events. The author, based on the four kinds of TEG Geshi culture, namely, religious worship, rituals, labor and daily customs, talks about the system of Geshi culture and gives a detailed account of its carnivalized feature which is talked about in five parts, namely, "Tima holy songs", "Sayeho funeral", "Cursing match-makers", "crying weddings" and "farming encouraging drums".Ⅲ. Study of the aesthetic value in TEG Geshi carnivalized cultureBased on the description of TEG Geshi carnivalized culture, the author starts to study it from the aesthetic point of view, which can be divided into six parts.Part One analyses the three myths created by TEG:creating the heaven and the earth, flooding up to the sky and giving birth.Part Two studies in details the combination of God and human beings in TEG witching culture.Part Three studies the carnivalized atmosphere of "Sayeho funeral" and its aesthetic value.Part Four discusses the unique thinking of "cursing match-makers" in TEG culture.Part Five has a close look at the unusual" crying weddings" in TEG culturePart Six talks about the drums used to encourage farmers to work more enthusiastically and efficiently.Based on what has been talked about above, the author holds that Geshi is not only the important creator of TEG culture, but also the leader of the ethnic group spirit. Geshi can be used to explain the unique history and culture that TEG possesses; it can also have the entertaining and aesthetic functions. Geshi culture, like many other things, has been carried on, developed and improved by TEG all the time, which now takes a very important role in Chinese civilization. |
