The Study On Yizu Marriage And Funeral Of Guizhou

Mainly distributed in the Southwest of China, the Yi people is a race with a long history and a rich culture, having its own characters of language and calendar. According to the document of the Yi, The Record of the Yi in the Southwest China, the people of Yi originated in Mt. Luoni, Yunnan province, and migrated outwards through a long period of the development. Coming from the same root, the Yi culture in Guizhou is consistent with that in Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangxi, sharing much in common. However, because the different branches of the Yi people migrate in all directions after making a sacrifice to their ancestors and the ceremony of dividing the ancestry, it gives rise to various cultures of marriage and funeral of the Yi people in their respective development under different circumstances.This thesis mainly focuses on the institutions and customs of marriage and funeral before the liberation of China, and the ethic, religion and philosophy they contained. Before the liberation, the marriage forms of Yi people included the marriage among the same people,the marriage of hierarchy,the marriage of different clans,the marriage of the cousinship,the forbidden marriage of maternal cousin. In order to maintain the benefits of the clan, there are the tradition of transferring houses, inheritance to the sons and a variety of customs and taboos of marriage. For these ancient Yi people who might have free courtship but arranged marriage, the marriage bore a strong political color. It was a kind of tool for different clans allying together to enlarge their own power that is the political marriage. There are four types of funerals: cremation, celestial burial, water burial and mound burial. The use of many lections, animals and plants characterizes the tedious funeral ceremony. Bimo plays an extremely important part in the process of marriage and funeral. The funeral has inherited and developed the ethic of emphasis on filial piety, during which the social relations among families, clans and neighbors are coordinated and the spirit of team work has been advanced. Meanwhile, it is also a place to honor the dead and moralize the youth. The Yi people enjoy life but don't detest death. Not only do the substantial activities of singing and dancing during the funeral ceremony comfort the families who lose a member, but also reflect the scientific attitude towards death.Through collecting documents and field investigation, the thesis comes to a fairly systematic and overall study on the culture of marriage and funeral of the Yi people in Guizhou before 1949. Under the present new environment of culture, the culture of marriage and funeral in Guizhou which carries abundant culture information, is changing or disappearing beyond the imagination. The writer hopes that this study will provide some reference for the future readers to enable them to know some more about the Yi culture.