If there are any grad students out there looking for a dissertation topic, or an article to write, I'll throw this one out there (though i only promise it will be good for another five years, after that I might try to do it myself)…
Firstly, let's look at a couple of situations: 1) I was speaking with a relative recently about tradition and the policing of public behavior in two very different areas of the plateau: Yushu and Rebgong. Focusing more specifically on Rebgong (with Yushu sort of being seen as the unspoken opposite of everything mentioned for Rebgong) The relative mentioned having watched the klu rol festival in Rebgong a year or so ago and seen a woman push her son into the middle of the dancing space (where the trance medium was already in full trance). The trance medium then beat the boy. When asked, villagers said that the trance medium had beaten the boy for dying his hair. 2) I spoke with someone else who is (sort of) from a nomadic part of Rebgong. He mentioned riding home from school in Xining one time, and in his full car, they decided to make a pact: no speaking Chinese loan words (a hot button topic on the plateau these days). Anyone who did make such a slip had to put one RMB in a communal jar. When asked where these ideas came from, this friend immediately stated that it was a combination of the messages in comedic dialogues and the teachings of important clergy members. In this case, the policing and enforcing of such ideas are, however, down to common folk. 3) Sub-village also remain very strong in the Rebgong area, and there is a great deal that could be said on this. There are 'tsho ba, frequently labelled 'tribes' or 'clans,' but also others (I'm still hazy myself). Each of these comes with its own obligations (often in the form of aid to other members of your group at certain times or in thinking about what other members of that group will say or do if you perform a certain action). These three are just a few examples. I could go on, but I don't want to over-burden you, dear reader. I also should point out that I have not, myself engaged in serious fieldwork on the topic. But through extensive observations, I feel like these three examples are instructive and indicative of wider ideas. When combined with a more general experience of also recognizing the important role of teachers, cultural producers (in media work, particularly) and other religious figures, the above-mentioned examples give a good starting point for inquiries into the nature of tradition, culture, and the preservation of those two in A mdo (at the very least Reb gong, but I think it goes further than that). If one were to dust-off Benno Weiner's (2012) discussion of a "syncretic nexus of authority" in pre-Liberation Amdo, and give it a fancy new paint job a notion of a "syncretic nexus of cultural authority" might be useful in understanding the machinations of local, regional, and ethnic views on culture. One sees in the examples above village-level and sub-village level groupings, Buddhist and folk religious clergy, cultural producers, and uneducated individuals all working together, but in different capacities and with different kinds of cultural authority to preserve certain kinds of traditions and cultural knowledge. As the great "Pooh" (nickname, not Winnie) used to say: I'm not saying'; I'm just saying'.
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |