Social Memory And Group Construction:A Study Of The Miao Ethnic "Bridge" Belief In Wujiaojiao Village,Taijiang County

As an artifact,"bridge" has both instrumental and socio-cultural attributes.As a tool,bridge can connect two places and two sides,providing convenience for human life.As a social and cultural phenomenon,people in different regions have created a rich and colorful bridge culture according to their needs.The "bridge" belief is a bridge culture phenomenon reflected in religious belief.The belief in "bridge" is widespread in southwest China,and has obvious regional and cultural differences.The belief in bridge in different regions has their own operational logic and plays an important social function.This paper takes the "bridge" faith of the Miao people in Wujiaojiao Village,Taijiang County as the research object.Through exploring the social function and operational logic of the "bridge" faith,we can deeply understand the cultural connotation of the "bridge" faith of the Miao people in Wujiaojiao.The "bridge" belief of the Wujiaojiao Miao ethnic group not only meets people’s religious psychological needs,but also plays an important social clustering function.In terms of religious psychology,building a bridge is a kind of witchcraft for seeking children.People believe in bridges,and sacrificial bridges aim to ask their ancestors for offspring through the bridge and thank them for blessing the family or its prosperity.At the level of social clustering,the "bridge" is both a "sacred" object built by different ancestors and continued to be worshipped by future generations;It is also the "property" shared by geographical groups based on practical needs,and thus bridges participate in the construction of local group relationships,playing an important role in the integration of village order.Memory is the subjective image of individual members.The memory of individual members is usually formed in the process of social practice and is affected by social environment.In a society without words,memory is the basis of people’s actions.People deal with the relationship between people and nature,people and society,and people and people under the "social framework of memory"."Bridge" is something that remains in people’s memory.People believe in "bridge" and use "bridge",which is the experience memory from ancestors;At the same time,"bridge" is also the carrier of memory,bearing people’s ancestral memory,family memory and village memory.People respect(sacrifice)"bridge" and remember "bridge",which is also the inheritance and continuation of relevant memories.The continuation of memory not only ensures "land right","bridge right",but also agglomerates the group.