Anthropology and Historiography: A Deconstructive Analysis of K. C. Chang’s Shamanic Approach in Chinese Archaeology
The hypothesis of ancient Chinese shamanism popularized by K. C. Chang in the 1980s has long been one of the central problems in the study of Chinese archaeology. By examining the structures that constitute Chang’s shamanic framework, this article argues that the problem centers around two major iss...
Auteur principal: | |
---|---|
Type de support: | Électronique Article |
Langue: | Anglais |
Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Publié: |
Brill
2017
|
Dans: |
Numen
Année: 2017, Volume: 64, Numéro: 5/6, Pages: 497-544 |
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Chang, Kwang-chih 1931-2001
/ China
/ Chamanisme
/ Historiographie
/ Archéologie
/ Anthropologie culturelle
|
RelBib Classification: | AA Sciences des religions BB Religions traditionnelles ou tribales KBM Asie |
Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Shamanism
Chinese archaeology
K. C. Chang
historiography
|
Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Résumé: | The hypothesis of ancient Chinese shamanism popularized by K. C. Chang in the 1980s has long been one of the central problems in the study of Chinese archaeology. By examining the structures that constitute Chang’s shamanic framework, this article argues that the problem centers around two major issues. The first is that Chang follows a tradition in Chinese academic historiography of using late historical texts to interpret Neolithic and Bronze Age materials. The second is that, in order to explore the dynamics of the formation of Chinese civilization, he employs Western theories in his construction of the history of shamanism. This article discusses the problems associated with using textual materials for interpretations of archaeological finds. It also discusses “substratum theory,” the way in which it influenced Chang’s understanding of shamanic civilization, and the manner in which Western anthropological theory was incorporated into Chang’s historiographical model. Accordingly, the author concludes that this shamanism problem in Chinese archaeology actually stems from a mixture of the Chinese historiographical tradition and Western anthropological theories, which together make Chang’s writing develop a meta-narrative that leads directly to two characteristics: generalization and polymorphism. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1568-5276 |
Contient: | In: Numen
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341478 |