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Abstract
By ways of analyzing the ritual of “peace-worship”, this thesis aims at explaining power of the institutions of identity and the concept of “division” and “share” in Han-Chinese society.
“Peace-worship” is a kind of “chiao”. The purpose of holding such ritual ceremony is to seek for peace by worshipping the deities related to the house and land. In Kinmen Island, ceremony of “peace-worship” is not only a representation of a religious custom, but also be used to identity the “shares” of people who has- and has-not, the boundary of forming the relationship among the human groups. Because the house represents the land, so it can also use the concept of “public and private” to define the concept of settlement of human groups. The native people regard the beam of a house is the place to grab the magic power of the “dragon pulse”. However, this magic power belongs to all the households in its boundary. Therefore on the one hand, the magic power of “dragon pulse” belongs to the public, however, on the other hand, only these households join in this “peace-worship” ceremony have a share of it. Therefore those who has- and has-not have to hold different ceremony at the same time either to catch the magic power of“dragon pulse”or to prevent the loss of it.
To have share or not to have is to be explained by the relationship of “public” and “private”, and these two relationships have to be illustrated by the concept of land. The concept of land will be understood by the religious concepts which have to be unbuttoned by the concept of the boundary. Boundary, therefore, represents the symbolic relations and interests of the households and settlement. We can also operate the concept of “share” to detect the symbolic relations between the human groups, to construct the human relations based on the symbolic relations.
Donations make shares work is the formation of religious sphere and defining the boundary of the settlement. Human relationships equal to the right and obligation, ritual behavior equals to the conditions of forming a village temple. The interactions of all the social entities equals to the mechanism of social identity. Therefore the human relationships equal to the substantial relations. By ways of this “peace-worship” ceremony, the author can distinguish the differences between the symbolic and substantial relationships and define the concept of “division” and “share”.
Key words: share, religious sphere, boundary, settlement, mechanisms of social identity.
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