A Study On The Similarities And Differences Between Silver Ornaments In The Southern And Northern Dialect Areas Of The Dong Nationalit

The silver jewelry of Dong ethnic group plays a magnificent part in traditional silver ornaments from minority groups,combining with diverse materials to present colorful overall sense,decorations of various shape and specific styles throughout the whole Dong ethnic group history of thousands of years.Furthermore,the diversity in silver jewelry of Dong ethnic group are also vigorously promoted by the degree of culture acculturation in different regions and,thus,unique geographic distribution between southern and northern dialect area.Therefore,the silver jewelry of Dong ethnic group is not merely the symbol of Chinese traditional decoration,but also the perfect production combinated between national spiritual culture and material culture.Qiendongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou province,preserving its national immense architectural heritage,is also famous for its concentrated traditional civilization spread to the whole society.The main objective in this article is to make a comparison on the differences and similarities in silver jewelry of Dong ethnic group between southern and northern dialect area in Guizhou Qiendongnan,simultaneously in order to explore the respective traditional social values,folk religion values and national aesthetic values embedded in themselves.This thesis applied the methods of the literature and field survey to collect the related positive documents after investigating experimentally Dong ethnic group village in respective southern and northern dialect area,while other extensive reference data such as collection of materials,works,papers and journals were also extensively gathered and classified,and thus elicited the historical backgrounds and human contexts associated with the national silver jewelry developments in these two area.Besides,according to the theoretical basis of cultural change and cultural comparison,five silver jewelry categories exsited in these two area including headwear,earring,nechlace,suits and bracelet were analyzed by classification and comparison in detail.At the same time,the silver jewelry’s styles,design patterns(i.e.plant pattern,animal pattern & human pattern),cultural connotation,beliefs(i.e.folk belief,religious belief & polytheism)and aesthetics in these two area were also meticulously demonstrated,contrasted and analysed,aiming to research their potential national values with particular focus on their similarities,diversities and repective origins,and in this sense silver jewelry’s inheritance,investigation,presevation and development were furthered studied.