文化变迁的个例分析——清代“改土归流”对黔中苗族文化的影响

A Case Study of Cultural Change—— The Influence of “Abolishing the System of Appointing Ethnic Minority Hereditary Headmen and Bringing the Ethnic Minority Areas under Unified Provincial Administration" in the Qing Dynasty upon the Cultur

清代“改土归流”对西南各民族文化产生了深远的影响。本文仅以“改土归流”对黔中苗族文化影响为例 ,从生产工具、生产技术操作、生产组织、生产资料结构、生活习俗等的变迁进行分析 ,认为文化变迁是一个逐渐的过程 ,在变迁中 ,不断吸收、消化外来文化 ,丰富发展本民族文化。而本民族固有的文化因子 ,有的因功能的丧失而被淘汰 ,有的功能发生了转向。因此 ,要认识了解一个民族文化的变迁历程 ,要从多层次、多视角加以分析。

The Qing Dynasty's policy of “abolishing the system of appointing ethnic minority hereditary headmen and bringing ethnic minority areas under the unified provincial administration' exerted far-reaching influence upon the cultures of the various ethnic groups living in the southwestern part of China. This article, taking the influence of “abolishing the system of appointing ethnic minority hereditary headmen and bringing the ethnic minority areas under unified provincial administration' upon the culture of the Miao ethnic group in Qianzhong area (the central and southern parts of the Guizhou province) as an example, analyses the changes in aspects of implements of production, manipulation of productive techniques, organizations for production, the structure of means of production, customs in daily life, etc. and holds that cultural change is a course of gradual progress, in which an ethnic group continuously absorbs and digests some factors of external cultures so as to enrich its own culture. Some of the intrinsic cultural elements of the ethnic group were eliminated through selection because they had lost their functions while some ethnic cultural elements changed their functions. Therefore, in order to understand the historical course of an ethnic group's cultural changes, it is necessary to analyse relevant phenomena at different levels and angles of view.