文化象征意义下藏族“天珠”物品价值形成的逻辑分析

The Logical Analysis of the Value Formation of Tianzhu of the Tibetan People from the Perspective of Cultural Symbolism

在藏族民族社会文化中天珠成为其民族文化象征的一个载体,承载着社会关系、习俗和文化,“天珠”的文化象征性创造了它的文化意义,弱化了其作为物品的使用功能。而在现代市场中“天珠”作为价格高昂的奢侈商品,其本身对消费者有很大的信息困境,市场大众概念中的“天珠”其实是民族文化“瑟珠”中的“珍品”,并不是一般的瑟珠。对于本身瑟珠而言是有多种分类标准的,“天珠”只是其众多瑟珠中最为至纯的珍品,但是当地民族对于“纯”或“珍”的理解并不在于材质的好坏,而是依据图案和颜色来界定,所以对于市场上热切的买主来说,“天珠”的市场价格,并不一定是其“珍”的体现,消费者自己认知的程度与物品本身的“地方知识”出现了偏差,形成了价格与价值的断裂。

Tianzhu(called“dZi”in Tibetan)is closely related to Tibetan culture.Influenced by ancient history and culture,it is endowed with social and cultural connotations such as“protection,exorcism,healing,decoration,exchange,and symbolism.”Due to their historical and cultural value,the price of Tianzhu in the jewelry market has been continuously rising over the last two decades,and collectors indeed pay special attention to them.This renders them a kind of mysterious and precious ethnic object,in fact a sort of luxury consumer good.This research paper is about the object Tianzhu and its history,and studies the evolving perceptions of people during the process of value construction of Tianzhu.The article looks at different social forms and cultural categories since immemorial times from the standpoint of anthropology and ethnology.We find that Tianzhu is endowed with cultural mystery because of its lost craft.As there is no written record of how to construct a Tianzhu,researchers can only attempt to restore the production process by reverse engineering.Until the Qing Dynasty,Tianzhu was an exclusive item provided only to elites or temples.In Tibetan social circles,Tianzhu became a carrier of its ethnic cultural symbolism,expressing social relations,customs,and culture.The cultural symbolism of Tianzhu creates cultural significance and corrects its reduction as a mere object.Ancient Tianzhu had four basic functions:aesthetics,wealth,prestige,and belief.However,in the modern times,Tianzhu has become an expensive and luxury commodity and as a result no longer can transmit ethnic culture to common consumers.In fact,Tianzhu generally is viewed as the“treasure”among Tibetan culture“dZi”artifacts.There are many kinds of classification standards for dZi;Tianzhu ranks among the purest of them.However,the local people s determinant of“purity”or“preciousness”isn t about the quality of the material but the excellence of pattern and color.Therefore,for eager buyers in the trade,the market price of Tianzhu does not necessarily reflect its“exquisiteness.”There is a difference between the consumers level of understanding and the“local knowledge”of the objects themselves,which leads to a divergence between market price and actual value.The paper expounds in three ways on the social background and cultural symbolic significance of Tianzhu:first,by focusing on the logic of the interactions between cultural worship,folk behavior,symbolic power,market demand,criteria confusion,and other factors that determine market valuation of Tianzhu in each specific stage.Second,from being objects and perceived treasures to commodities and authentic products,where should the original idea of“preciousness”go under the symbol standard of keeping“authenticity”in our contemporary consumer society;how does the Tianzhu trade evolve as these objects become more readily available,and how do monetary and cultural value change with commercialization?These topics are all discussed in this paper,and at the end the writing analyzes the phenomenon of price and value divergence in the consumer market.