崇生意识——湘西苗族接龙舞意蕴的“所指”

Life Worship: The “Signified” Embodied in the Dragon-worship Dance of the Miao People in West Hunan

舞蹈艺术是承载文化基因的“能指”,文化内涵是艺术符号的“所指”。湘西苗族接龙舞缘起于接龙祭祀活动,亦缘起于对生命的维护和延续。接龙舞中的崇生意识塑造于山地与农耕文明交织的地缘环境,强化于苗民对龙神与巫傩的信仰仪式,表现出与自然万物共生的泛生命观内涵。

Dance is a signifier which carries cultural genes, while cultural implications are the signified in artistic symbols. The dragon-worship dance of the Miao people in west Hunan originated from both the sacrificial ritual of dragon reception and the needs of life maintenance and continuity. The worship of life in the dragon-worship dance has been formed in the geographical environment intertwined with mountainous and agricultural civilization, and enhanced in the Miao people's belief and worship of dragon and witch. This art demonstrates the connotations of the view of omnipresent life, that is, a symbiosis with all things in nature.