Depictions of difference: History, gender, ritual and state discourse among the Naxi of southwest China.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the process by which the Naxi, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group, were incorporated into the Chinese empire. It analyzes historical narratives as positioned accounts embedded in the politics of imperial expansion and the projects of local elites. By reading historical narratives against the grain, alternative interpretations of Naxi history are suggested. A central concern of this dissertation is to consider the ways in which historically specific constructions of difference constitute sedimented layers of meaning which shape contemporary constructions of ethnicity, gender and marginality. Particular attention is paid to the varied range of Qing Dynasty and Republican era marriage practice and the correlative suicides that resisted Chinese-instituted conventions of arranged marriage. These practices reveal tensions that derive from disparate forms of sociability, models of self and social order that were informed by Buddhism, Confucian discourse, and preexisting Naxi cultural schemas. Although a penumbra of the past continues to inform contemporary practice, such practices are also mediated by local arenas of power and meaning and are shaped by economic marginality, regional ethnic influences and geographic proximity to centers of state power. In examining contemporary Naxi popular practice, I focus on: the revival of ethnic difference consonant with the redefinition of national identity; the rural marriage strategies that have grown since decollectivization; and the reemergence of ritual practice in the post-Mao era. The discovery of Dongba culture, a 'modern' secularized version of Dongba religion, reveals how local projects are subject to state hegemony. However, the rampant practice of paohun ('marriage on the run'--a form of elopement), and the ritual of a 'Maoist' shaman who attempts to supersede traditional gods through the celestialization of Mao, Zhou and Deng, suggest that percolations of popular culture are characterized by considerable local mediation and are far from being simply determined by the power of the state.