缺失主位观点的《野鬼时代》——云南直苴彝村再研究

The Age of Wild Ghosts and Its Lack of Emic Perspective:A Restudy of Zhiju Yi Village in Yunnan Province

美国人类学家埃里克·缪格勒的《野鬼时代》以云南永仁县直苴彝族倮倮颇人的“ȵi21”信仰为核心的各类鬼故事和相关祭祀仪式为研究对象,对当地民众有关20世纪50年代至90年代诸多历史事件的记忆进行了形象生动的解读,产生了较大的学术影响。“ȵi21”是该论著的核心概念,对“ȵi21”的理解是否正确成为阐释当地社会文化的关键。“ȵi21”在彝族语言中是“鬼”“神”“精”“怪”等的统称。然而,缪格勒对“ȵi21”的解读(客位)与当地倮倮颇人的解读(主位)存在较大偏差,既缺乏对主位理解的充分尊重,也缺失多元主体发声。缪格勒未能克服语言阻碍,导致其对“ȵi21”的理解产生诸多错误。

The Age of Wild Ghosts(Erik Mueggler)focuses on the various ghost stories and related sacrificial rites centered on the belief of“ȵi21”of Luoluopo people,a branch of YI ethnic minority in Yongren County,Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture,Yunnan Province.It vividly interprets the local people’s historical memories of many historical events from 1950s to 1990s,and also has a great academic impact.Since“ȵi21”is the core concept in Mueggler’s book,the understanding of“ȵi21”becomes crucial for interpretation of local social culture.In YI language,“ȵi21”is an umbrella name of“ghost”,“God”,“essence”and“monster”.However,differences between interpretations of“ȵi21”from Mugler(Etic)and from local people(Emic)are obvious.The Age of Wild Ghosts not only lacks full respect for emic understanding,but also lacks voice from multiple subjects.The language barrier triggers Mugler’s misunderstanding of“ȵi21”.The thesis tries to point out all mistakes of The Age of Wild Ghosts and fulill a restudy of Zhiju village from perspectives of emic and etic.