Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T09:48:56.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethnicity, Local Interests, and the State: Yi Communities in Southwest China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Stevan Harrell
Stevan Harrell
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

People who are not members of the Han Chinese majority and who are officially classified as members of the Yi minzu (“ethnic group”) inhabit many villages within fifty kilometers of the industrial city of Panzhihua (formerly Dukou) at the southernmost point of Sichuan province. These people differ widely from each other in language and other cultural traits and in the nature of their relationship to their non-Yi neighbors. Of three Yi communities studied in the winter of 1988, one is isolated from and culturally distinct from the Han society of its neighbors, and its separate ethnic identity is taken by Yi and Han as a given. given. In another community, Yi and Han live totally intermixed and are culturally identical, and again the separate ethnic identity of the Yi and Han is accepted by all concerned. In the third community, the people classified as Yi are also culturally identical with the Han, though they live separately. Although they are classified as Yi, they do not admit that they belong to the Yi minzu; they insist instead that they are a separate group altogether—the shuitian zu or “rice-field people.” This paper attempts to explain why the nature of ethnic identity is so different in the three Yi communities.

Type
Ethnic Identity
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 515 - 548
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barth, Frederik. 1956. “Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan.” American Anthropologist, 58: 4, 1079–1089.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, G. Carter. 1987. “Ethnicity and Practice.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 29: 1, 24–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, David. 1979. Proto-Loloish. Scandanavian Institute of Asian Studies in Society and History, Monograph No. 39. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, David. 1987.“Language PlanningforChina'sMinorities:The Yi Branch,” in A WorldofLanguage:PapersPresentedtoProfessorS.A.Wurmonhis 65th Birth day,Laycock, Donald C. and Winter, Werner, eds.,81–89. Pacifc Linguistics C-100.Google Scholar
Shilin, Chen. 1985. Yiyu Yuyanxue Jianghua(LinguisticTalksonYiLanguage).Chengdu:Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Shilin, ChenShiming, Bian, and Xiuging, Li. 1985. Yiyu Jianzhi (A Brief Account of the Yi Language).Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zongxiang, Chen(Ch'en Tsung-hsiang).1947.“The Dual System and the Clans of the Li-su and Shui-t'ien Tribes.” Monumenta Serica, no.12, 252–9.Google Scholar
Dayao, . 1904. Dayao Xianzhi (Local Gazetteer of Dayao County).Google Scholar
Yuting, Du. 1985. Jinuozu Jianshi (A Brief History of the Jinuo Minzu). Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Shi, Dukou. 1985. Dukou Shi Diming Lu (Record of Place-Names of Dukou [Panzhihua] City). Dukou: Dukou Diming Lingdao Xiaozu.Google Scholar
Freedman, Maurice. 1958. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Freedman, Maurice. 1966. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Gladney, Dru C. 1987. “Qingzhen: A Study of Ethnoreligious Identity among Hui Muslim Communities in China.” Ph.D. Disser., Department of Anthropology, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Gladney, Dru C. 1989. “Ethnic Identity and Adaptation in a Southeastern Hui Lineage,” in Minority Nationalities of China: Language and Culture, Li, Charles and Gladney, Dru C., eds. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Minwei, Guojia (State Nationalities Commission). 1982, Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu (Minority Nationalities of China). Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. 1989. “Ethnicity and Kin Terms among Two Kinds of Yi,” in Ethnicity and Ethnic Groups in China, Chao, Chien and Tapp, Nicholas, eds. (Hong Kong: New Asia College), 179–98.Google Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. n.d. “The History of the History of the Yi.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies,Washington D.C.,April 1989.Google Scholar
Shih-chung, Hsieh (Xie Shizhong). 1982. “Luoluo Zu de Chubu Yanjiu (Preliminary Research on the Luoluo People).” M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University.Google Scholar
Shih-chung, Hsieh. 1987. Rentong de Wuming: Taiwan Yuanzhumin de Zuqun Bianqian (Stigmatized Identity: Change in the Ethnicity of Taiwan's Aborigines). Taipei: Zili Wanbao.Google Scholar
Shih-chung, Hsieh. 1989. “The Ethnohistory of the Sipsong Panna Dai.” Ph.D. Disser., Department of Anthropology, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Yongxing, Jiang. 1985. “Cong Guizhou Minzu Shibie Gongzuo Tanqi” (Discussion on the Basis of Guizhou's Ethnic Identification Work). Minzu Yanjiu Jikan (Guangxi), no. 2, 303–16.Google Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1976. “Toward a New Formulation of the Concept of Ethnic Group.” Ethnicity, 3:3, 202–13.Google Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1981. “The Dialectics of Ethnic Change,” in Ethnic Change, Keyes, Charles F., ed. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Leach, Edmund. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Min, Li and Ming, Ma. 1981. Nisha Nuohxo Doma Fuha Go: Liangshan Yiyu HuihuaLiubai Ju (Six Hundred Sentences of Liangshan Nuosu [Yi] Conversation). Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chuban She.Google Scholar
Shaoming, Li. 1986. Minzuxue (Ethnology). Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yaohua, Lin. 1987. “Zhongguo Xinan Diqu de Minzu Shibie” [Ethnic Identification in the Southwest China Area], Yunnan Shaoshu Minzu Shehui Lishi Ziliao Huibian [Collection of Materials from Historical and Sociological Investigations of Minority Affairs in Yunnan]. Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Litzinger, Ralph, n.d. “Living History, Writing History: Ways of Belonging among the Yao.” Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Changshou, Ma. 1987. Yizu Gudai Shi (Ancient History of the Yi). Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar
McKhann, Charles, n.d. “Ethnicity and the Nationality Status of the Naxi.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies,Washington D.C.,April 1989.Google Scholar
Negata, Judith. 1981. “In Defense of Ethnic Boundaries: The Changing Myths and Charters of Malay Identity,” in Ethnic Change, Charles Keyes, F., ed. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Questions, and Answers, . 1985. Questions and Answers about China's Minority Nationalities. Beijing: New World Press.Google Scholar
Zu, Sichuan Sheng Bianji. 1985. Sichuan Sheng Liangshan Yizu Shehui Lishi Diaocha: Zonghe Baogao (Report on Investigations of the Society and History of the Yi of Liangshan, Sichuan Province: General Report). Chengdu: Sichuan Sheng Shehui Kexue Chuban She.Google Scholar
Trottier, Richard W. 1981. “Charters of Panethnic Identity: Indigenous American Indians and Immigrant Asian Americans,” in Ethnic Change, Keyes, Charles F., ed. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Watson, Rubie S. 1985. Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahuai, Ye and Erha, Mao. 1984. Yanbian Minzu Zhi (Account of the Minzu of Yanbian). Yanbian.Google Scholar
Dahuai, Ye and Yaozong, Deng. 1985. “Yanbian Xian Yizu Tanyuan” (Looking for the Origins of the Yi of Yanbian), in Dukou Shi Kaogu, Lishi, Minzu Yanjiu Ziliao Xuanji (Selected Materials on the Archaeology, History, and Ethlology of Dukou [Panzhihua] City). Dukou: Dukou Shi Wenwu Guanli Chu.Google Scholar
Zhong, You. 1987. “Yuan, Ming, Qing Shiqi Yizu Shehui de Fazhan Yanbian” (Change and Development in Yi Society during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Periods), in Xinan Minzu Yanjiu, Yizu Zhuanji, 186–200. Kunming: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe.Google Scholar