A Study Of The Popular Religion In Rural Areas Based On Sociology Of Knowledge

Popular religion is a kind of unique religious culture. The dissertation is based on literature research and field study which takes Miancheng Town in Xiantao City, Hubei Province as a case. This dissertation which uses the paradigm of sociology of knowledge as a tool discusses the culture phenomenon of popular religion in rural areas, aiming on revealing the status of popular religion under the background of current social transformation and the relationship between popular religion and society. The major idea of this dissertation includes:paying attention to the daily knowledge of farmers, probing into the interaction relationship between popular religion and society, highlighting the rationality that popular religion considered as a kind of local knowledge. The full text is divided into six parts.The introduction part describes the significance of the topic, the definition of key concepts, the research train of thoughts and the possible innovation. The significance of the topic includes practical significance and theoretical significance; the definition of key concepts includes:popular religion, society, society transformation, knowledge, paradigm of sociology of knowledge; the research train includes the theoretical bases for research and the research methods; the possible innovation is divided into two aspects which include theoretical vision and research methods.In the first chapter the theories of sociology of knowledge are reviewed and the results of previous studies for popular religion are systematically sorted and commented. The sorting and comment for previous research of popular religion includes five aspects:the concept of popular religion, the nature of popular religion, the relationship between popular religion and diverse elements of society, the functions of popular religion, as well as the subject of popular religion. The dissertation points out that the past researches have great theoretical value and methodological significance, but there are some limitations which the dissertation tries to overcome.Using Weber’s "idea type method", the second chapter divides the popular religion into six parts from the perspective of religious ceremony, including gods warship, ancestor worship, festivals, life ritual, augury and fengshui, spells and magic, furthermore their origins, main contents and manifestations will be discussed in this part. The dissertation points out that Chinese popular religion has been existed for thousands of years, and it is a kind of cultural deposits and shows a natural historical process.The third chapter firstly discusses the process and influences of society transformation in Chinese rural areas since the reform and opening-up on a macro level; then the social development status of the survey areas is introduced; thirdly the status of popular religion, the farmers’characteristics and the relationship between them is measured and analyzed; at last the whole chapter is summarized. The dissertation points out that the popular religion is a kind of impersonal existence which is restricted by society; the popular religion of farmers is strongly utilitarian; farmers usually hold a natural attitude to the popular religion which is seen as accomplished facts; the status of farmers’popular religion is influenced by the feeling of uncertainty to their life.The fourth chapter firstly gives a general theoretical discussion about popular religion. Then the functions of popular religion in the survey areas are analyzed from the empirical level, and at last the chapter is summarized. The dissertation brings up seven aspects of popular religion’s positive functions, and behind the positive functions there are still negative functions; popular religion’s positive functions are stronger than the negative functions, and farmers generally hold a practical attitude to popular religion.In the part of conclusion and discussion the whole study is summarized, and the deficiencies are pointed out. This dissertation brings up four conclusions which include:the popular religion is an important kind of knowledge form in farmers’daily life; the origin and development of popular religion is a natural historical process; the status of popular religion is restricted by social field; popular religion has its special social functions.