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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.

These four trees on the top of a mountain overlooking other trees represent Gansu government and the four elders who respect the decisions of others and will consult them albeit remaining metaphorically "on top of the hill", or in charge. Because of the Gansu familiarity with nature, this natural symbol is a fitting metaphor.

Traditional symbols for male and female are expanded upon in the Gansu representation of the economy: Again, the red represents the modern societal Chinese sphere while green represents the Gansu Panda Tribe, still living in nature. The inclusion of both colors and the multicolored infinite line represents the continuing rotation of labor between opportunities to earn wealth outside our tribe in modern China, while the green represents societal obligations at home. Males and females equally rotate these duties. The color of brown(a mix of green and red) also represents the mediation of these two spheres in the Gansu panda trube.

This symbol represents the Gansu Panda Tribe's marriage and kinship: The red represents the modern Chinese societal sphere, the green represents our tribe(based in a natural sphere), and the brown represents a mediation of both spheres in the procreation resulting in future generations.

*I represent and speak for the Gansu Panda Tribe, an indigenous group in China living in the southern part of the Gansu province with a rich cultural history. I am the only college educated member of the tribe, educated for the purpose of mitigating any conflicts with the world outside our tribe. The Gansu Panda Tribe consists currently of 150 people, about 45% of which are women. Our environment is mountainous with fair vegetation, harsh and cold winters, and warm summers that bring the majority of the year's rains. In order to survive and subsist, members of our tribe typically work as agricultural laborers seasonally, helping to harvest crops such as wheat, barley, and sweet potatoes. Our tribe at one time relied on horticulture, but now members participate in the larger agro-indusrial complex, returning to the tribe's elders (who remain behind) with material goods to distribute to the tribe. Other members often work in sweatshops seasonally or for a short duration of time, returning to the tribe and then sending another member to work-there is a rotation of seasonal and part time labor that exists to fulfill the tribe's material needs but still retain our cultural heritage. There are other strategies for gaining material necessities as well.
*Our tribe's cultural history begins with our most intriguing and widely-told origin mythology. Hundreds of years ago(the true date is unknown), our tribe was on the verge of tribal warfare with a neighboring tribe over control of our land and resources, but as the leader of the tribe came up into the mountains with a band of warriors to attack our isolated settlement, our ancestors watched as the leader and his warriors encountered a panda that viciously mauled the opposing tribe leader. Upon seeing their tribe leader mauled by this panda, the band of warriors ran away and both tribes viewed the violent intervention of the panda as a symbol of protection from the gods. Because of this symbol of divine favor, the Gansu Panda Tribe has adopted the panda as a symbol of divine protection, and many rituals involving the native(but increasingly endangered)panda bears exist.
*For our tribe, there are several important institutions that have shaped our cultural heritage and subsequent beliefs. One is the previously mentioned totemistic inclusion of the panda as a symbol to praise our Gods. We praise several deities-the Gods of the Forest, the Stream, and the Sky, but consequentially pandas also protect from the evil Demons of the Mountains, who were said to have possessed hostile neighboring tribes.
*Family is another important institution-population is controlled in the same fashion as the pandas, with some limitations. As pandas reproduce every two years, so do members of our tribe-postpartum sex taboos exist, and after age thirty women stop bearing children. Families often never have more than four children, and the number of members in our tribe often stay to around 150 because many members choose to leave and join traditional Chinese society, which is allowed and not condemned. Members of our tribe often marry and reproduce exogamously, and often with members of traditional Chinese/Gansu society who are often later integrated into our tribe through a system that accepts both matrilineal and patrilineal descent.
*Our tribe is governed by the four oldest tribe members, man or woman. Decisions are made and then discussed among the younger tribe members, whose opinions are taken into consideration. Several laws have always been in place-if any member commits rape, murder,incest, theft, or commits abuse to their spouse they will be banished from life in our tribe.
*As previously discussed, our tribe was at once horticultural, but now must participate in a rotation of labor utilizing the opportunities for any wealth available in modern China. Some members additionally sell art in close towns, and back in our village in the mountains there is an egalitarian division of labor where both men and women fish(our primary means of nourishment), plant in gardens, and childcare is performed by both parents as seasonally only one parent may be present.


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