Ancestral Force in Iconic Imagery: Death and Continuance in a South China Village

This essay discusses idioms of continuance in a village in southeast China, based on what was recorded some one hundred years ago by an American sociologist, Daniel Harrison Kulp II, and his research team. This discussion is focused on the cult of the dead with a bearing on the construction of a pow...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aijmer, Göran 1936- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Johns Hopkins University Press [2017]
In: Journal of Chinese religions
Year: 2017, Volume: 45, Issue: 2, Pages: 151-171
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B China (Südost) / Ancestor cult / Iconography / Cult of the dead
Further subjects:B Ancestor worship
B Southeast China
B iconic imagery
B ritual transformations
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This essay discusses idioms of continuance in a village in southeast China, based on what was recorded some one hundred years ago by an American sociologist, Daniel Harrison Kulp II, and his research team. This discussion is focused on the cult of the dead with a bearing on the construction of a powerful past influencing the building of a future, in terms of both agricultural production and the creation of new children. The discussion suggests that the iconic imagery of ancestral force as propelling the vegetative power of the earth was transformed here along with certain changes in the productive order, while the social aspect of the dead as constructors of the future lineage community remained conservatively intact, despite some dramatic innovations in the operational order. It also suggests that the strong canopy of agnatic ideology expressed in the cult of the dead found a counterpoint in a local temple.
ISSN:2050-8999
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Chinese religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0737769X.2017.1363960