葬礼:面对死亡的社会安排——城市环境下葬礼仪式浅析

Funeral:The Social Arrangement to Death,An Analysis of Death Ritual in Tianjin City

通过实地观察和对殡仪馆工作人员的访谈,描绘了天津市城市内部现有的国家规范框架下葬礼仪式的具体过程以及附着在这个框架下的民间习俗的现状,试图通过对国家规范框架下的"正式"葬礼仪式及与其相对的"非正式"仪式——家庭告别仪式的程序形式的简略描述,展现在城市中普通个人的葬礼基于公共环境和家庭环境不同场景所采用的不同仪式过程。这是民间习俗对规范仪式的补充,同时也是"正式"规范对这种"非正式"实践的通融和消化。在描述现状之外,作者试图讨论蕴含在葬礼仪式中,不同死亡个体的葬礼仪式形式、规模及参与者等方面的区分所展现出的一种社会对死亡个体生前所处社会结构地位的认同,这种认同不仅反映了仪式所处社会背景的秩序和结构,也强化了这个社会的秩序和价值判断标准。

With the observations of some funerals and the interviews with the morticians, this thesis attempts to describe both the formal and folk death ritual in the modern city, Tianjin. The activities performed in the funeral home differ from those in the private circumstances. The folk death ritual seems to be a supplement to the formal ritual. In other word, the formal ritual now is likely to ignore the superstition in the folk one. Besides, the writer hopes to discuss that the distinctions between the different types, ranges and the participants of the funerals reflect the social evaluation of the death in this thesis. And this evaluation reflects the structure of the social context Of the death ritual and it also consolidates the social order and the judgment of value in the society.