Community Collective Rituals From The Perspective Of Risk

The significance of ritual for maintaining community order has been a topic of enduring anthropological interest. This thesis attempts to explore the multiple meanings of Nonglong, a traditional ritual in the context of the profound social and economic transformations of Diaocao, a fishing community in Southeastern Zhejiang. By way of adopting participatory research methods, this thesis offers an in-depth ethnographic account of the ritual process embedded in a local community confronting unprecedented risks.Through examining the communal construction of a belief system as well as shared collective memory and norms pertaining to the routine practice of the ritual, the author of this thesis finds that Nonglong was a communal ritual deeply embedded in the local cultural contexts. It was created as a direct response to risks and adapted itself constantly to various situations. The gradual demise of fishing as a dominant means of subsistence has resulted in an increasingly weak and individualized community and consequently the ritual was modified in terms of its performance procedure, functions and props under the new circumstances.A rather dramatic exaggeration of the risks during the ritual served the function of minimizing if not reducing the chances of encountering risks. In the particular local context within which the ritual was performed, the group boundaries were redrawn, new identities were built while old identities were reasserted and hence the community order was maintained.Drawing upon insights from risk culture theories, this thesis seeks to contribute a fresh perspective on ritual transformations in communities undergoing tremendous change through ethnographically-grounded research.