The Coin on the Body: a Case Study of Hani in Xinjie Town, Yuanyang County

• Main Authors: Weng, Hui-Chuan, 翁惠娟
• Other Authors: Lin, Shu-Jung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/e6veyv

博士 === 國立清華大學 === 人類學研究所 === 102 === At the beginning of the 21st century, local authorities in southwest China's Yunnan province nominated 'Honghe Hani Rice Terraces' as the UNESCO's World Heritage. It opened up an opportunity to promote local economic growth through developing tourist business. Since then, the Hani ethnic minority in Xinjie Town, Yuanyang County experience rapid modernization in everyday life. Within the context of modernization, local Hani women were keen to collect and wear sliver coins issued by modern state authorities in the late 19th century and the first half of 20th century as body decorations. Through analysing its materiality, this dissertation proves that the worn and exhibited silver coin is the object of Hani fetishism. Buried underground during the period of Cultural Revolution, the silver coins contain magic power that would summon people. The Hani people believe that only the blessed person can find the buried silver coins and dig them out. In the process of rapid modernization, the Hani people encounter the crisis of social disruption as the consequence of alienating Hani cultural tradition. By wearing the silver coin, Hani women attain to its magic power that would protect them from the "demons" Associated with the state intervention and the money eruption. This dissertation further explores how the Hani people urges to resume the inalienable relation between people and thing while confronting the consequence of tourism.