Ethnography Of Ritual Communication In Confucius’ Hometown

Language is an indispensible medium of message exchange among human beings. Linguists pay attention to the description and analysis of language codes, while ethnographers put more emphasis on the cultural norms of communicative language and the interrelationship between language and culture. Since the initiation of the ethnography of communication by American sociolinguist Hymes in the 1960s, ethnography of communication has been widely adopted by many disciplines such as communication and mass medium. They follow ethnographers’tradition of not being limited to analysis of language rules but start further exploration of cultural norms of language. This thesis adopts this methodology and uses Chinese visiting ritual perspective to analyze the meeting between the two local elders in Zoucheng city, known as the hometown of ancient Chinese sages, Confucius and Mencius, in the hope of providing an alternative perspective for interpersonal communication study.This thesis consists of six chapters:the first one is a brief introduction of research background and thesis structure. The second one is literature review from three aspects that is interpersonal communication studies, Confucian ritual as an indigenous way of thinking and intangible cultural heritage studies, providing a theoretical guidance for further study. The third one is ethnographic methodology, including how to enter the field, how to collect and analyze data. The fourth one is biographic sketch of the two local virtues from family background, classical education, daily life based on previous in-depth interview and participant observation to represent how their life experiences influence their personality, thinking and daily life, realizing a dialogue between the past themselves and the present themselves. The fifth chapter is a thick description and narrative of their meeting details, including gift, greetings, seat arrangement and speaking mode, which are centered on the reverence spirit. And gives a picture of how meeting ritual as a kind of cultural heritage exists in people’s speaking and behaviors in daily life. The last chapter is about the significance and limitations of this study.This thesis points out that meeting ritual is still practiced nowadays through changes of discourse. By revealing local traditional cultural resources, this thesis hopes to achieve equal dialogue with western scholars about Chinese interpersonal interaction study, to reduce misunderstandings in intercultural communication and to raise attention to Chinese traditional ritual culture.