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Zhao dissertation april 20 2017.pdf (1.61 MB)

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Space of mortality: a study of death-related practices and talks in a Chinese Muslim village

Zhao, Yuanhao
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3749-3593
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492691430932976

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
Because of the strong emotions and sudden ruptures caused by death in a community, expressive culture relating to death offers special contexts to study ethnic culture, social structures, and inequality. This dissertation analyzes death-related folklore, specifically, talks and practices about death, the deceased, funerals, and lethal supernatural powers in an ethnic Hui (Chinese Muslim) village in China. Analysis is based on my ethnographic fieldwork conducted from Summer 2014 to Summer 2015 in a Hui village located in Shandong Province. Using a folkloristic approach, I conduct qualitative study by analyzing folk narratives and beliefs in their spatiotemporal specificities. I interpret “death” as a power that produces specific social spaces shaping how different social agents interact. I argue that death related genres of expressive culture form social spaces where different social norm and hierarchies are highlighted and become susceptible to challenges. In these spaces, tensions between social groups are more open to discussion, and various social actors are mobilized to interact in order to confirm or contest, stabilize or liquidize certain social structure, be it of a family, a neighborhood, a community, a religious institute, or an ethnic group. The dissertation is divided into four chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter 1 contextualizes one man’s death in the village. Each aspect of this man’s death is used to lead a discussion of one relevant methodological or theoretical concern. Chapter 2 discusses two funerals during which conflicts arise. I focus on intensive negotiations between mosque clergies and families of the deceased, arguing that conflict helps disclose tensions between the religious and mundane and consequently unsettles religious hierarchies. Chapter 3 addresses laymen’s critiques of religious men and even of the “symbol of Islam,” the village mosque. I suggest that religious space for many laymen in the village is most clearly manifest during death rituals and thus harsh critiques of mosque clergies tend to emerge during those moments. In Chapter 4 I look at how villagers relate lethal supernatural powers to the village landscape, to come to terms with death, and negotiate with, question or challenge death and even God. I conclude the dissertation by restoring “everydayness” to death, observing that although death ruptures social life and disturbs the everyday routine, it is also a resource for people to address social problems and sustain the vitality and stream of everyday life.
Sabra Webber (Advisor)
Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member)
Mark Bender (Committee Member)
Morgan Liu (Committee Member)
229 p.
Asian Studies; Comparative; Cultural Anthropology; Ethnic Studies; Folklore; Religion
Chinese Muslims; Hui; Death; Folklore Study; Ethnology; Religious Study; Islam; Ethnic Study;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zhao, Y. (2017). Space of mortality: a study of death-related practices and talks in a Chinese Muslim village [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492691430932976

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhao, Yuanhao. Space of mortality: a study of death-related practices and talks in a Chinese Muslim village. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492691430932976.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhao, Yuanhao. "Space of mortality: a study of death-related practices and talks in a Chinese Muslim village." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492691430932976

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1492691430932976
1,109
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.