1. Background of Study
Purpose: To look for the origin of agricultural culture
Place: A town in which Yunman people live
1 Period: Feb 2. 1991- Feb. 22, 1991
2 Period: Aug. 3, 1993- Aug. 14, 1993
2. Origin of Agricultural Culture
1) Kinds of Rice: Indica (Asam in the Nothern India), Japonica (Yunnam-Hwanam-Korea, Japan)
It is Myo People who did farming first
2) Development of Foods Made of Rice' Steamed rice cooked in the steamer. Rice in the rice cooker. Rice cakes, Rice noodles, Rice cookies, Development of brewing
3) Incantation and Play
Firecrackers: Firecrackers in the New Year's Day- They burn sesame stems. bamboo canes. chilly stems, and hair on the last day of December by the lunar calendar.
Dragon play: It was modified from the enchantment for a fruitful year to play.
A-tug-of-war is one of characteristics of agricultural culture in which a string is a symbol of a dragon and a dragon symbolizes a god of rain and water
3. Farming Calendar and Harvest
1) Asian cultures use a lunar calendar because of the influence of Chinese culture- The New Year's day of Chinese people is the first day of January by the lunar calendar (i.e.. Chun-jul 春節)
2) Hani people (who live on the boderline of Vietnam and Loas) use a farmig calendar. For them. a day begins as the sun sets and a new year begins as the harvest is over. 치신절 of Myo people is June to October by the lunar calendar. Unlike Bai people(白族). West chang people(西藏族), Miyao people(苗族). Hani people were not influenced by Buddism or Chinese culture.
There are two holidays such as June Year (Yu-wol-nyun) and October Year (Si-wol-nyun). There is Kujaja event m which people create a festival mood by killing oxen and making rice cakes and rice wine. Around this time rice plants grow about 45 centimeters and are ready for the harvest. They pray for the rice plants to grow well
There is a new rice festival (Sin-mi-jul) in September. They put three pieces of rice paddy on the steamed rice, put them on the alter for their ancestors and eat them raw. After 신미절, it is the season for the harvest (i.e. 秋夕).
Ancestors‘ jar' They put new crops in the ancestors' jar, make rice cakes with old crops and eat them with their family October year is the biggest holiday and the new Year's Day.
They make rice cakes, prepare for lots of food. hold a memorial service for ancestors. and perform a new year's bow after the harvest They play swings and hoops
4 Religion and Folk Beliefs
1) Hwapa Holiday of DaeliBai people (大理白族) (June) Firecrackers, Dragon dance, and Visiting Temples
Hwapa Holiday is similar to our Dalziptaeugi(달집태우기) and Bagchungnori(백중놀이) Hwapa put straws around the long bamboo cane and ornament with mirrors and bags This is similar to Nongsindai(농신대) of Bagchungnori(백중놀이) In other words, this is the same as enchantment for a fruitful year in which they pray for a bumper harvest. What they make a fire on hwapa is similar to that of Dalziptaeugi(달집태우기). What they burn the border of a rice paddy is similar to Chuibulnori(쥐불놀이) in which they try to burn worms.
2) Folk Beliefs
a. Religion: There are four major religions among Paek people:
Buddisim (70%), Islam, Catholic, and Protestant.
b Folk Beliefs
Beliefs in the god of a town is unique. The god of a town exists to protect the town. Every town has its own god for the town and a temple in the entrance of the town. The god of a town has been originated from the animism. They believe that rocks, trees, monkeys, water buffalos, mountain gods, dragon kings and heroes protect the town Such beliefs are similar to our 서낭당, dangsan trees, dragon kings, mountain gods, and the creator of the town. Concerning the rituals, they perform a sacrificial rite on the fixed day. They also have folk festivals
c. Worship for gods
Gods The god of the heaven (It is in the process of gradual disappearance-Every three years they perform a rite in January. Those who are pregnant, sick or in mourning are not able to attend the rite. They offer an ox, a pig, a lamb, a chicken, and a duck as a sacrifice for the god. They prepare for the alter before the sun sets on the last day of December and make it clean and neat with pine twigs so that the god can come down)
a mountain god (when they cut down the trees on the mountains or In the funeral ceremonies), a dragon god, a hunter god, an ancestor god
a blood god (wicked demons-the god of disaster and disease;
they perform a sacrificial rite with a shaman)
5 Matrilineal Society and Marriage
(1) Uxorilocal
Mosso of Nassi people opt for random marriage Male and female sing a song together, and if they like each other, the male visits the female's house at night and goes out of her house at the dawn after spending a night with her. Women are supposed to take care of children Even if the man has a child, it does not matter. A woman is allowed to make love with any man and a man is, too.
(2) Prohibition of Consanguineous Marriage
Myo people prohibit to marry related people by blood and look for spouses from outside the town. Men woo women by singing in the forest during the festival or demonstrate their talents to attract women They are divided into a male and a female group, play games, and sing for wooing If the woman who has listened to the wooing song unfastens a belt and ties it to the man's loosaeng, it means that the woman allows him to marry her A woman woos a man by throwing a towel in front of a man Such procedures make their secret relation public. They rather encourage a premarital sex and rarely get divorced.
6, Folklore
(1) Folk songs are well developed-people who enjoy folk songs
(2) Paek people (白族)-There are songs for holidays, farming, wooing or rituals When they meet the god of a town, they play traditional drama in front of a temple, and a young man and a woman sing a field song together They sing and perform rituals every month from January to the time for plowing From March 3rd to 15th men and women sing till late night in Seokbo Mountain(石寶山). On the first day when they transplant a rice-seedling in April. a man of virtue who gets well dressed and holds the red silk flag transplants a rice-seedling while praying for a fruitful year. (Wish for a bumper harvest-dano (端午), sawing rituals in Kangwon Province)
In Japan young women appear wearing beautiful costumes in a rice-seedling transplanting. The songs sung during a rice-seedling transplanting is also a song for wooing. The meeting of a young man and woman and praying for a fruitful year might have a spelled meaning of producing.
(3) Songs for Wooing
Sani people(哈尼族) in the Seoklim area wear beautiful costumes. There is a beautiful ornament and something like a horn on the hat A man and woman confesses love while they are touching the horn on the hat. If they do not get married, the man should provide the woman with the money she can live with.
Paek people(白族) woos with songs and lights. Songs are for wooing. "You are a big mountain and I am a tree there I am sea and you are the ship on the sea" This song is a song for wooing symbolizing a predestined marriage. To confess with the light, they flashes the light three times Tae people(태族) have a similar way of wooing When there was not a flash light, there must have had a different way of wooing. Another way of wooing among Tae people is that when a woman goes to a market to sell three chickens, the man asks her their price. When the woman likes the man, she offers a chair for him to sit, which means she likes him
Hani people(哈尼族) leave their house after the celebration of their coming of age and look for their spouses in the empty room in the forest. When they come to love, they come back their home after they get married.
(4) Myths of Minorities
Myth on the creation of the world The sky and the land were just one when they were created for the first time. Bumal(부말) divided the sky and the land with the ax and Bubang(부방) were holding up the sky. They made the columns with mugworts and red trees to hold up the sky, but it did not work. Thus, they made the columns with gold and help the sky up. Twelve columns held up the sky. The sun was made of gold, the moon was made of silver, and the stars were made of fragments of silver (Myo people)
Legend of Flood Common myths In the farming area 7 Wrapping up