Empirical Study On Women’s Participation In The Northern Shaanxi Rural Temple Fair

This paper discusses the region of Northern Shaanxi rural temple fairs on thebasis of the case study of Baiyun Mount. By using the perspective of sociologyespecially sociology of religion view and women social theory, the thesis focuses onrural women’s participation in the temple fair, such as their participation content,characteristics, and attempts to explain local women’s self cognition in theparticipation of temple fair event.The article consists of the following four parts of contents:Part Ⅰ：introduction. Over viewing of the cause of the research; observing theacademic studies in recent years in the northern Shaanxi temple fair, such as itsachievements and shortcomings; discussing research methods of data collection andanalysis, finally pointing out the innovation, significance and shortcomings of thispaper.Part Ⅱ: Overview of North Shaanxi temple. Firstly the paper demonstrates theNorthern Shaanxi’s religious belief, the history of temple fair, the regions culturalbackground and development of regional characteristic, and then it analyzes NorthernShaanxi native religious beliefs and man-made religion, for example, telling the typecharacteristics, main contents and development process of Northern Shaanxi’s templefair.Part Ⅲ: the empirical study of Baiyun Mount temple fair. Firstly the paperdescribes the selected spot of Baiyun Mount in the northern Shaanxi, vividlyrevealing the time, content and features of temple fair, then the paper stresses on thediscussion of women participation in the temple fair. From the single aspect to thediversity of the historical process of transformation, the paper focuses on the periodof social transformation——North Shaanxi women participates the temple fair in newsituations and brand new changes. Finally, from the social gender perspective, thepaper tries to explore the relationships between the event of women’s temple fairparticipation and their self cognition about the temple fair and themselves.PartⅣ: conclusion. According to the qualitative investigation of Baiyun Mounttemple fair with field survey, the paper effectively proved that women now is an important group in this public event of local temple fair participation.