The Efficacy of Ritual

Ritual and attendance to process maintain and perpetuate aspects of Gansu society, as well as serving as a starting point from which to make observations about cultural ideologies. Each ritual previously discussed serves a purpose in the sense of maintenance, or maintaining the nature of a society in differing ways. For example, religious rituals simply maintain a daily schedule and indicate daily activities; in the morning, afternoon, and evening, tributes to our Gods and prayers are performed daily. As few villagers have watches, religious rituals are necessary for the everyday and furthermore to maintain a schedule that is efficient for village labor. Politics and the specific rite of passage maintain rigorous and dangerous qualifications and training for the governing elders, and they ensure worthy political leadership. The political rituals additionally serve to maintain social cohesion and notions of reciprocity and trust in Gansu society. The marriage anniversary ritual serves a purpose of psychological functionalism through mediating the monotony of everyday labor and realities and letting a couple enjoy one another’s company. This therapeutic aspect of the ritual maintains and allows for Gansu people to have faith in the institution of marriage and it prevents a complacency that could lead to a decay of Gansu ideas of family and marital structure. Finally, our economic ritual simply maintains our survival through acknowledging and the gifting of the wealth and capital as well as village labor that allow for Gansu society to thrive, and maintaining the flow of goods necessary for our current lifestyle. In a sense, the marriage and economic rituals can maintain society through literal (biological) reproduction for younger couples, and through material goods that are now shared and enjoyed in our society.

Ritual also perpetuates culture, or serves a purpose of social reproduction. Our religious rituals serve to teach the discipline required to perpetuate beliefs; this is why daily prayer is vital, because without it villagers may forget or disregard the importance and necessary protection offered so graciously by our Gods. The political governing or legislative session upon inaugurating a new political elder perpetuates faith in political decision-making and it perpetuates the idea amongst villagers that the Gansu government is valid and working in their best interests. Historically, many people dissatisfied with their government have attempted revolutions and overthrowing those in power, but Gansu rituals perpetuate the trust and notions of efficacy required for effective governing. Our marriage ritual, an example of cultural change, simply serves to perpetuate culture by placing importance on the unity and partnership required for marriage, and for younger couples that have no children, culture is biologically perpetuated through offspring as they do not yet face the taboo of having too many children and they are actually expected to have unprotected sex on their anniversary. Our economic ritual involving the economic exchange of labor truthfully perpetuates village life through the wealth and outside goods that are exchanged, because they have become sought after and necessary in the village; it additionally perpetuates the nature of labor in modern China, which is characterized by many seasonal laborers such as Gansu villagers. In other words, there is a relationship of mutualism between the modern Chinese and Gansu spheres, and our economic ritual solidifies, validates, and perpetuates the exchange of labor and goods between both spheres. 

Ideological aspects of culture are additionally acknowledged through ritual. Our religious ritual indicates our polytheistic beliefs and beliefs concerning divine favor and protection from the evil demon spirit of the mountains, all stemming from our origin mythology. It shows that respect must be paid to the Gods in exchange for their protection from evil and for their protection, which was offered hundreds of years ago. Our political ritual and rite of passage can serve to show the respect shown to elders for their age and wisdom, as well as serving a purpose of ritual sacrifice when dead elders are fed to a panda, which is believed to be one of our Gods incarnate. Our ritual governing session in public also furthers ideological ideas concerning trust and honesty in our culture, as many citizens worldwide doubt the efficacy of their government and doubt it’s efficacy. Our marriage ritual gives insight to the monogamous nature of Gansu marriages and a taboo against divorce, which is prevented in the previously mentioned psychologically functional sense. Finally, our economic ritual encourages an ideology involving a hard work ethic, the ambition for specialized labor and prestigious positions in society, and a cooperation with and lack of hostility towards modern Chinese society. The crucial ideological tenants in Gansu society involve reciprocity, trust, respect, and equality. While there are structures that govern daily life in our society, they do so with these values in mind. 

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Ritual Classification

            All of the previously mentioned Gansu rituals can be categorized as a certain type of ritual; all Gansu rituals provide insight to the cultural mores and general epistemologies of any society. The prayer rituals in Gansu society function as protective (or divination) rituals because although the first two prayers said every day are simply just a symbol of respect to the deities of our polytheistic culture, the last prayer of the day or tribute that is performed has the purpose of gaining protection against evil spirits that reside in our local mountains. Protective rituals often be a preventive measure against dangerous endeavors, and while there is often a sacrifice offered for a God, in Gansu culture people honor the God of the stream through spending fifteen minutes of silence in the water.

            The Gansu political ritual involving the inauguration of a new elder can be classified as an ideological ritual, or more specifically as a rite of intensification. The public inauguration and a public governing session enhance social unity through attempting to gain the trust of the whole society, and when the new elder speaks to the people, the ultimate goal must be that the society trusts him as a political leader and the fabric of society will not rip apart due to political disagreements. The prior rite of passage of feeding the preceding elder’s corpse to a panda additionally shows a sense of continuity with the past that is often evident in rites of intensification.

            The marriage anniversary ritual in Gansu culture is difficult to assess, however it can be classified as a therapy ritual, although the participants are not always necessarily in a severe state of illness. While couple may not in fact be physically ill, labor and child-rearing are stressful activities and the marriage anniversary ritual serves to let the couple relax, therefore bettering their mental health and most-likely alleviating any stresses or anxieties. The ritual also serves to allow the breaking of the Gansu post-partum sex taboo (or a taboo of sex for other purposes aside from procreation), for one day as much stress and anxiety stems from a lack of sex and unfulfilled desires. But because of the recent addition of prophylactics as anniversary gifts, Gansu couples can spend a day “tasting forbidden fruit”, so to speak.

            The Gansu economic ritual is an ideological ritual that seeks to reinforce social order and values. By accepting gifts from modern China and conversely planting trees wherever Gansu people may work, it reminds the Gansu people not only of their heritage and connections with nature but when Gansu people are away working as a part of China’s modern workforce, they are remembered through the many gifts received, lent out and borrowed back in the Gansu village. The planting of trees also seeks to ideally remind Gansu workers of their status within society so they may seek and aspire to a different specialization within society one day. Younger men and women will seasonally work in modern China, but often skills learned will translate to and be necessary for the operation of daily life in the Gansu village, and eventually many people do not leave after mid-life.

Ritual Process

            There are many rituals associated with the institutions of Gansu culture, to include the aforementioned religious, political, marital, and economic institutions that contribute to the uniqueness of our society.

            For example, there are multiple religious rituals just performed over the span of a single day. Because of our polytheistic beliefs in the Gods of the sun, sky, and stream, there are three prayers or tributes a day performed for each deity. In the morning, the village religious leader (a position reserved for elders who don’t wish to enter politics) rings a bell three times, indicating that it is time for the day’s first prayer. All present in the village bow down and spend a period of five minutes of silence as a symbol of respect to the sun God. In the middle of the day, the religious elder rings the bell six times as a sign for the prayer or tribute to the sky God, and this time villagers bow in silence for ten minutes. Finally, at nighttime or around dusk, when villagers tend to wash in nearby streams, the bell is rang nine times and if villagers are near the river, they must enter the water and spend fifteen minutes of silence in the waters (or fifteen minutes bowing in silence in the village) to praise the stream God. The reason for the nature of this ritual is that as night nears, the demons of the mountains are more likely to wreak havoc on our villagers and the longest tribute occurs at night to appease the stream God and have protection against the demons. The rituals also follow along with a typical day in the village: working outside in the morning and day, and cleaning and washing at night.

            A ritual associated with Gansu politics is the ceremony associated with an elder becoming a political leader after another elder has died. The new elder is awarded a sacred piece of bamboo that has been blessed by the village’s religious elder, and the village assembles to watch this ceremony. The ceremony is held in the middle of the forest, and the elder is called in front of all the villagers to accept the sacred bamboo (symbolizing his transition from that of villager to that of village leader), and once he does this, a public session of governing is held for all the villagers to trust that this new elder will be a just leader. Typically, the four village elders make decisions independent from the rest of the villagers, and later discuss their decisions with the rest of the village, but this ceremony is a noteworthy event because it not only inaugurates a political leader, it is opportunity to build trust within our society.

            The most intriguing marriage ritual in Gansu culture is the marriage anniversary. Although Gansu weddings are unique, marriage anniversaries of interest due to their changing nature. In the morning of the couple’s anniversary, the couple’s friends or family will have a small party with gifts and to accept the responsibilities of all their duties for that particular day, whether these duties include any type of labor or most definitely childcare. The couple’s friends and family then give them gifts and send them off into the forest for a day so they can enjoy the day in each other’s company, but for years there has been a typical place in the forest that all couples venture to during their anniversary; a peaceful part of the river with a natural island in the middle. A hut was build there a long time ago, and the couples usually spend the day in this hut. However, a recent change to this ritual has been the common gifting of prophylactics to the male, and despite the postpartum sex taboo enacted to control our population, if such a gift is received many couples spend their anniversary breaking this taboo of postpartum sex, or sex for purposes other than procreation.

            An economic ritual has recently developed in Gansu culture with the rotation of labor between our village labor and opportunities in modern China. Anytime two Gansu people rotate labor patterns, they bring a part of modern China back to the village and if a person is going out into Chinese society they always must plant a tree near their location of work. If there are random trees by sweatshops or outside of farms, they were most likely planted by someone from our village. And in our village, there is a hut that contains random goods from modern China that can be borrowed and returned by any villagers at any time. To symbolize this exchange between our village and the rest of China, when one person returns to the village and another replaces them, the village religious leader accepts any gifts from wherever in China the returning person has worked, and the leader gifts the outgoing villager with tree seedings.

A Rite of Passage

            Although there is a ceremony that officially inaugurates an elder into one of the four political positions, there is an additional rite of passage that the elder must endure to prove that he has the strength to be a political leader. The village religious elder accompanies the incoming political elder once the former elder has died, and they together must take the deceased elders’ corpse far into the forest, where they cannot leave until they successfully sacrifice the body to the Gods by feeding the body to a panda. Because pandas are becoming extinct they are sometimes hard to find, but the two elders must remain in the forest until the body has been given over to a panda. Sometimes, the two elders may not return for up to a month, but only when they return can the new elder officially become a political leader. This is an interesting ritual because it requires a rite of passage to prove the strength an elder has; there is no such rite of this sort for boys to symbolize their passage into manhood, the only rite of passage for males involve their particular functions as members of Gansu society. Whether they become a political or religious elder or any other occupation, there are rites associated with proving themselves in that particular skill. For political elders, the rite is one of the most dangerous and grisly.

Fieldwork 
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Symbol Theory
Each of my culture's symbols has various elements of a dominant symbol, as theorized by anthropologist Victor Turner. Being the only college educated member of the tribe has given me great insight as to the inner workings of Gansu society. The property of condensation, or a variety of societal phenomena and themes or cultural values being symbolically represented, can be seen in the symbol(and other symbols within) of the Gansu economy. An infinite line with a gendered exchange of labor between duties in our rural villages and wage labor in modern Chinese society is represented by red(modern Chinese) and green(Gansu/in nature) male/female symbols and lines, and the mediation of the two spheres is represented by the brown background(as ground is the mix of green and red). This gives insight to our egalitarian views on labor and gender, and our statues within the larger world, as we remain untouched by Chinese society but must be participants for our own well-being and survival. The infinite line also gives insight to the aspiration for a continuing sense of equality between males and females in Gansu society, and a continuing balance between the spheres of Gansu and Chinese culture, which denote different but co-existent values.
The property of the unification of disparate significata can be seen in the symbol for Gansu government. This is a natural symbol including four trees on top of the mountain, which watch over and govern the rest of Gansu society(who have political input but do not make overall decisions) who are represented by the smaller trees on the side of the mountain. The trees tie together concepts of the privilege of elderly status and subsequent political power, the elder's power and authority, a political process wherein all ideas are acknowledged and considered, and of course the natural and rural environment in which the Gansu tribe lives. The symbol also denotes the egalitarian status of all Gansu people; the elders just exist and are granted their political authority because of their age and perceived wise nature which helps them to make decisions beneficial to all members and to the future of Gansu society.
Finally, the polarization of meaning can be seen in the symbol for Gansu marriage and kinship, symbolized by the joining red and green spheres. The sensory pole, or physiological impact of the symbol is almost deceptively simple; the colors of green and red bring about emotions of the peaceful nature of life in our rural and lush villages, while the red sphere reminds one of the seasonal and gendered exchange of labor wherein they will often work rigorously for wage labor in modern China, in jobs such as sweatshops or general labor. Red is additionally a part of the Chinese flag, and of course commonly associated with the ideology of communism(China is a Marxist-Leninist country).The ideological pole is represented by the overlapping spheres and the idea that marriage is exogamous, and Gansu men and women frequently will find a mate working in modern China, and then will incorporate them into the tribe. It also represents the equality of men and women in Gansu society. In Gansu society, economic practices and marriage, kinship, and gender are intricately linked, and symbolically evident in multiple symbols.

This is a Gansu children's drawing meant to symbolize polytheistic Gansu beliefs: the panda, blessed by the Gods of the sun, sky, and stream(represented by blues and yellow) protects from the evil mountain demons that can possess men and cause them to do evil deeds. The panda has been believed to be a divine protector, or even our Gods incarnate. Without the panda, our tribe would be helpless to the evil demons of the mountains. These beliefs are introduced to young children, as evidenced by this crude drawing. Much Gansu art features the symbolically yellow and blue colored panda dominating a black and evil mountain backdrop.