Social Customs Reflected By Mongolian Folk Songs In Khorchin Area

Social Customs Reflected by Mongolian Folk Songs in Khorchin AreaThis study focused on the folk songs in terms of folklore. However, the author also has the researches on the folk literatures and folklore crossed in this paper. The folk customs discussed here included marriage customs, home customs, and village customs. This paper consists of three chapters.The first chapter is on the marriage customs rendered by the Khorchin Mongolian folk songs. There are two different types of marriage: liberal marriage and the marriage decided by the parents. And through the folk songs, we can see customs of matchmaker between the two homes, the customs of divorce. The customs of betrothal feast and betrothal gifts, sending bride and sacrifice, entrusting girl to bridegroom's home and visiting girl after wedding, and after wedding bride's calling on her own parents and stay with them for days, etc. completely reflected by the Khorchin Mongolian folk songs.The second chapter discussed the customs and rules for the wife among the family members of husband's home. The author studied the folk songs describing the relations between the wife and father-in-law, mother-in-law, bothers-in-law, the wives of brothers-in-law. These folk songs called forth hardworking, harmony and good terms between the newly married wife and other members of husband's home.In the third chapter, the author dealt with another aspect of Khorchin Mongolian folk songs that reflected the customs of the Mongols' love for motherland, nature, and unity. Mongolian taboos about camality are also one of the things that we can see from folk songs in Khorchin Area. Author paid also attentions to the village and place names that named after natural resources, topography of the place, personal name, title of historical figures, or the characteristics of settlement.This thesis is to discover the connection between folk songs and local customs of Mongols in Khorchin region, and to summarize the general characteristics, through studying the local customs imbued in the lyrics of folk songs in Khorchin area. The author intended to do in-depth research on the local customs and traditional culture from folk songs of Khorchin Mongols, in order to come in for this part of precious heritage of Mongolian culture.