scholarly journals Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors as Reflected in Death Rituals in a Chinese Village

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Feng Shui ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
Ethnographic Data

AbstractDeath rituals have played an important role in Chinese society for thousands of years. This article, based on ethnographic data collected in a village in Chongqing in southwestern China, reconstructs the sequence of preburial, funeral, and postburial rituals performed by the villagers. Then it discusses the belief system associated with these rituals, which includes traditional Chinese cosmology, the nature of ancestors, and the roles of feng shui. It concludes that the death ritual in this village helps people adjust to life in fast-changing, modern rural China.

scholarly journals Prevalence of Overconsumption of Salt and its Determinants – The Case of Southwestern Rural China

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42
Author(s):  
Tony Ka chun YUNG ◽  
Rainbow Hiu yan MOK
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Salt Intake ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Salt Consumption ◽  
Belief Model

Aim Overconsumption of salt contributes to hypertension and increases the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Most studies that investigated salt intake by applying the Health belief model (HBM) have focused on urban settings. This study aims to identify the prevalence of salt overconsumption (>6 g per day) in a rural village in Southwestern China and to determine the association between knowledge regarding salt consumption/HBM constructs and salt overconsumption behavior among village residents. Methods Inthis cross-sectional study, 79 adults aged 18 years and above were interviewed using household-based and face-to-face questionnaires. Salt intake was measured using an electronic balance in accordance with a previous protocol. Results Our finding showed that the average daily salt intake is 11.19±11.14 (mean±SD) g. Moreover, 64.6% of the participants overconsumed salt. None of the participants was aware of the national recommendation for salt intake. Univariate logistic regression showed that i) knowledge about hypertension causing cardiovascular diseases (odds ratio [ORu]=3.02), ii) perceived severity of hypertension as a serious disease (ORu=4.92), and iii) perceived benefit of reducing salt intake to prevent hypertension (ORu=3.52) were unexpectedly positively associated with salt overconsumption behavior. All the studied sociodemographic factors were not associated with salt overconsumption behavior. Conclusions A high prevalence of salt overconsumption was found among residents of rural villages in Southwestern China. HBM was unable to explain the causal relationship between its constructs and salt overconsumption behavior. The extremely low awareness of the national salt recommendation highlighted the urgent need to provide relevant health education in rural China.

scholarly journals The Hungarian-Jewish Social Contract, its Rupture, and Jewish Death Rituals

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Remz
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Hungarian State ◽  
The Way

This article explores the supposedly reciprocal social contract between “Greater Hungary” and its Jewish population from the “Golden Age” of the Dual Monarchy to its rupture in the Holocaust. The afterlife of this broken contract will be addressed through the upkeep and neglect of cemeteries in Subcarpathia and Hungary proper. Along the way, I present memoiristic vignettes that illustrate the challenge of loyalty to state / military authority and death rituals in the time of the 1918-1919 Hungarian-Romanian War, Jewish mourning in the context of Czechoslovakia’s loss of Subcarpathia, and the disjuncture between the normal praxis of death ritual and the spectre of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as the ritual contrast to Hungarian Jews who were deported, but not to Auschwitz. I also turn to the historical research of Tim Cole and Daniel Rosenthal, in conjunction with Hungarian (especially North-Transylvanian) Holocaust memoirs, to reflect on Holocaust-era suicide as a mode of victims’ resistance to their brutalization by Hungarian gendarmes -- the pinnacle of the betrayal of the erstwhile contract between Hungarian state authority and its Jewish population. 

How the hungry ghost mythology reconciles materialism and spirituality in Thai death rituals

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rungpaka Amy Hackley ◽  
Chris Hackley
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
Visual Semiotics ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Cultural Contradictions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Asian consumer culture by exploring how hungry ghost death ritual in the Buddhist world reconciles spiritual asceticism and materialism. Design/methodology/approach – This is an interpretive study that incorporates elements of visual semiotics, ethnography and qualitative data analysis. The native-speaking first author interviewed local ritual leaders of the Pee Ta Khon festival in Dansai, Thailand, while both authors witnessed examples of other Buddhist death rituals in Thailand and visited temples and markets selling death ritual paraphernalia. Data include translated semi-structured interview transcripts, field notes, photographs and videos, the personal introspection of the first author and also news articles and website information. Findings – The paper reveals how hungry ghost death ritual resolves cultural contradictions by connecting materialism and spirituality through consumption practices of carnival celebration with feasting, music, drinking, costumes and spirit offerings of symbols of material wealth, such as paper money and branded goods. Research limitations/implications – Further research in the form of full ethnographic studies of the same and other rituals would add additional detail and depth to the understanding of the ritual in Asian consumer culture. Originality/value – The paper extends existing qualitative consumer research into death ritual into a new area and sheds light on the way managers must locate Asian marketing initiatives within distinctively local contexts.

Moralising Ancestors as Socio-moral Capital: A Study of a Transnational Chinese Lineage

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-263
Author(s):  
Kuah-Pearce Khun Eng
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Guanxi Networks ◽  
Chinese State

AbstractWithin the Chinese Diaspora, ancestor worship is an important cultural element that binds a group of people together and provides them with a sense of comfort, kinship and communal identity as they sink their cultural roots in a new country, luodi shenggen. Thus, ancestor worship is widely reproduced and practised by the Chinese in the Diaspora, as it is central to the Chinese understanding of the continuation of family and lineage. However, in Mainland Chinese villages, the practice of ancestor worship, which is still considered important by the villagers, was not allowed until the Open Door Policy in 1978. With this policy, emigrant villages, (qiaoxiang) embarked on an aggressive campaign to woo the Chinese in overseas communities to return to their native villages to help with economic development through various strategies. One of the strategies is to allow for the revival and practice of ancestor worship in the rural villages. This paper explores how ancestors continued to be regarded as important members of a transnational lineage in the Fujian Province in South China, and also in Singapore. Because of the central focus on ancestors and ancestor worship in the Chinese society, ancestors are moralised as a significant social capital by the Chinese State, local government and rural villagers, in an attempt to establish transnational guanxi linkages between the ancestral villages in rural China and their Diaspora members in Singapore. The Chinese State, with instrumental consideration, sees this transnational guanxi networks and the revival of ancestor worship as a strategy to encourage the Chinese Diaspora to visit their ancestral home and help with village development.

Rank-dependent preferences, social network and crop insurance uptake: field experimental evidence from rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruojin Zhang ◽  
Dan Fan ◽  
Gene Lai ◽  
Junqian Wu ◽  
Jungong Li
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Likelihood Function ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rice Farmers

PurposeAgricultural insurance has become increasingly important to farmers' livelihood and production in rural China. Yet despite the enormous governmental subsidizing efforts, the insurance participation rate remains below expectations. This study revisits the linkage between farmers' risk attitudes and crop insurance utilization by providing a cross-cutting perspective such that the role of risk aversion is re-scrutinized in Chinese “kindred” village economies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors administrated a lottery-based multiple price list (MPL) experiment by recruiting rice farmers from 12 villages in Sichuan province in southwestern China. Using the experimental data, farmers' risk attitudes are assessed and coefficients of risk aversion are estimated within the rank-dependent expected utility (RDEU) framework by maximizing a structured likelihood function.FindingsThis study provides substantiating evidence that rice farmers in southwestern China exhibit relatively high risk aversion. The authors also provide suggestive evidence of the positive relationship between farmers' risk aversion and crop insurance utilization. In addition, findings reveal that kinship network has a negative effect on crop insurance utilization, such that farmers who are connected in higher degree of kinship network have lower likelihood of crop insurance utilization, which suggests that kinship network may be substitute for formal crop insurance. Result also demonstrates that the incentive effect of risk aversion on farmers' crop insurance participation manifests differently depending on the degree of kinship network in rural China.Originality/valueThis study provides a cross-cutting perspective by scrutinizing the effects of farmers' risk attitudes and kinship network on crop insurance participation in rural China, which has received relatively little attention in the literature. Conclusions on the effects of risk aversion on crop insurance participation have been mixed in previous studies. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, little has been done to explicitly examine the influence of social proximity and networks on farmers' insurance uptake. This study attempts to fill both gaps. This study provides new insights which might shed lights on the understanding of farmers' crop insurance participation in rural China.

Mourning Deaths, Lamenting Lives: Grief and Transformation in Inner Maniot Laments

Paragrana ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-154
Author(s):  
Christos Varvantakis
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Alternative Reading ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe funeral laments (moiroloya) of Inner Mani, a region in southern Peloponnese, are the focus of this article, in particular the gestural and transformative aspects of their liminal character. A specific case of a wake (klama) is discussed and analyzed in order to provide insight into the particular process of lamenting. Some general characteristics of lamenting in the region are reviewed and some of the basic assumptions of anthropologists concerning the role of emotional expression in death rituals are considered. Lastly, by focusing on an excerpt from a lament that was sung in the wake session under question, the article points to the gestural, mimetic and transformative qualities of the emotional performance of lamenting, suggesting thus an alternative reading of the expression of grief within the course of death ritual.

A Monastic Death Ritual from the Imperial Abbey of Farfa

Traditio ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 57-84
Author(s):  
Susan Boynton
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
Monastic Communities

Lengthy and complex rituals surrounding illness and death were an important part of the collective experience of medieval monastic communities. In manuscripts from as early as the eighth century, the texts for Christian death rituals consist of prayers, readings, and chants for the visitation of the sick, unction, communion, the funeral mass, and burial. Even though many of the early medieval formularies were copied in monastic scriptoria, the texts could be performed in secular or monastic settings. The earliest death rituals that are explicitly written for monastic communities and contain extensive prescriptions for the actions that accompanied a monk from his final hours of life to his grave are transmitted in monastic customaries of the eleventh century.

scholarly journals International Real Estate Review

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-346
Author(s):  
Chu-Chia Lin ◽  
◽  
Chien-Liang Chen ◽  
Ya-Chien Twu ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Feng Shui ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Housing Units

Feng-shui is an old and traditional body of knowledge in Chinese society. Feng-shui has a significant influence on many aspects in daily life for most Chinese, including choosing locations for dwelling units, offices, burial sites, and so on. However, there have been few studies on the impact of feng-shui on housing prices. By applying a housing hedonic equation and a data set of 77,624 observations in Taiwan, we have attempted to estimate the impact of feng-shui on housing prices. We find that all six types of bad feng-shui have a significantly negative impact on housing prices. Moreover, by applying a quantile regression, we find that most of the bad feng-shui has a stronger negative impact on expensive dwelling units. Our findings confirm that people who buy expensive housing units care about feng-shui more than those who buy less expensive housing units.

scholarly journals Feng Shui and Imperial Examinations: A Case Study on the 1849 Severe Flood in Nanjing and Discussions on Flood Discharge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengrong Xu ◽  
Yuda Yang ◽  
Tao Sun
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Feng Shui ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Severe Flood ◽  
Nanjing City ◽  
Traditional Cultures ◽  
Imperial Examinations

Abstract Social adaptations to natural hazards have been influenced by various social and economic factors including traditional cultures such as Feng Shui that is known as Chinese geomancy. This study examined not only the progressive processes and spatial distribution of the 1849 severe flood in Nanjing city but also subsequent countermeasures based on historical documents, maps, and digital elevation model (DEM) data. As an adaptation to extreme floods, a project that connects Xuanwu Lake to the Yangtze River has been deeply discussed to relieve the flood risk. As the role of the traditional concept of Feng Shui in China was not neglectable, however, local officials and elites of Nanjing city worried that the project may destroy the Feng Shui of the city, which may bring misfortune to local candidates in the Imperial Examinations, their future promotion, and the prosperity of their families. This indicates that, in the complicated traditional Chinese society, such traditional cultures may play an important role in determining social adaptations to climate change. However, these concepts may not lead to a consensus without specific institutional culture. Hence, in a complicated traditional society, the institutional culture was also fundamental to build social adaptations to climate change. This project has been eventually completed in 1931 as the concepts have kept dynamically being changed in a complicated society, which demonstrates that the relationship between the culture and the social adaptation to climate change is also evolving.

scholarly journals Intergenerational support and depression among Chinese older adults: do gender and widowhood make a difference?

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAN GUO ◽  
IRIS CHI ◽  
MERRIL SILVERSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Fixed Effects Model ◽  
Chinese Older Adults ◽  
And Gender

ABSTRACTUsing four-wave panel data of 1,327 older adults in rural China, this study examined potential gender and marital status differences in the relationships between three forms of intergenerational support (monetary, instrumental and emotional support) and the level of depression of the older adults. Results from a pooled time-series fixed-effects model showed that receiving and providing monetary support had a comparable beneficial effect on mothers and fathers, but mothers benefited more psychologically than fathers from closer relationships with their children. Exchanges in instrumental support was not related to either mothers' or fathers' level of depression. Widowhood further affected the gendered relationships between support and depression in that recently widowed fathers had a significantly higher level of depression when they received more monetary support from their children. In contrast, providing monetary support to children was associated with a significantly higher level of depression among recently widowed mothers. We explained the findings in the context of familial and gender norms in the Chinese culture and temporal needs for family support that link with bereavement coping stages among older adults. We argued that the gender and marital status patterns observed in this study are attributive to more fundamental differences in men's and women's social positions in the Chinese society.

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