Week 1 (9/13): Introduction: Terms and concepts
1.1. Ritual and Rite
1.2. Rites de Passage
1.3. Approaches in Ritual Studies
1.4. Chinese Terms and Their Translations
1.5. Meaning of Being Chinese
Reading:
1. Course Pack (CP): 1, 2, 3, 9.
Film clips: Yellow Earth; To Live
Week 2 (9/20): Rites of passage as an approach to Chinese belief and behavior
2.1. Artifact versus Mentifact
2.2. The Official versus the Unofficial
2.3. The Ethical versus the Practical
2.4. Unity versus Diversity
2.5. Text versus Context
2.6. Textualization versus Interpretation
Readings:
1 (theory). CP: 4, 5, 6, 7.
2 (Chinese), CP: 8
Film clips: (Slideshows)
*Loewe, "Gods" and "The Life Hereafter" (in BB - "blackboard")
*Yoder, "Folk Religion" (in BB)
Week 3 (9/27): Text and context
3.1. On the Origin of Rites
3.2. On the Function of Rites
3.3. On the Relationship Between Rites and Other Practices
3.4. Studies of Rites of Passage in Chinese Societies
3.4.1. From Text to Practice and Interpretation in Chinese Societies
3.4.2. From Text to Interpretation in the Western Societies
Reading:
1. A. van Gennep, "Introduction"; Chapter I, II, III, pp. 1-40.
2. CP: 10-13 (some classic thoughts); 14.
Week 4 (10/4): Birth as rite of separation; Naming, taboos, and diets
4.1. Views of Life
4.2. Textualization and Ritualization of Practice
4.3. Diversity within Unity
4.4. From Magic to Ethics
Reading:
1. van Gennep, Chapter IV and V, pp. 41-64.
2. van Gennep, Chapter VI, pp. 65-115.
Midterm (1)
Week 5 (10/11): Childhood and initiation or capping/pinning: folk beliefs and customs
5.1. From Family Member to a Member of the Society
5.2. Morality and Practicality
5.3. Gender and Sex
5.4. Social Duty and Personal Desire
Reading:
1. CP: 17, 23; 33.
Performance: Reenactment of rites of birth
Week 6 (10/18): Engagement and wedding as rites of transition and incorporation
6.1. Duty or Joy: Constructing and Reconstructing Family
6.2. Simplification of Tradition
6.3. Collective Ethics and Individual Power
6.4. Ethics and Ethnicity in Intermarriage
6.5. From Ritual Structure to Ritual Meaning
Reading:
1. CP: 15, 18, 24; 32.
2. van Gennep, Chapter VII, pp.116-145.
Week 7 (10/25): Rituals in family life (1): gender role, kinship, and ancestral worship
Reading:
1. Watson and Rawski. #6, #7.
* Proverbs on face value (in BB)
* "Producing Guanxi" (in BB)
Film clips: Documentary: Marriage Customs in China
Week 8 (11/1): Rituals in family life (2): foodways, dress, house, and transportation
Reading:
1. Watson and Rawski. #4.
2. CP: 22, 41.
Midterm (2)
Performance: Reenactment of weddings.
Week 9 (11/8): Death as rite of separation and reincorporation
9.1. This-life and next-life
9.2. Diversity of Beliefs
9.3. Unity and Diversity of Funerals
9.4. Falling Leaves Settle on Roots
9.5. To Die as Chinese Ghost
Reading:
1. CP: 16, 19, 20, 25.
2. CP: 35, 42, 43.
2. A.van Gennep, Chapter VIII, pp. 146-165.
3. Watson and Rawski, #1, (pp.3-19); #2, (pp.21-34).
Film clips: All Under the Heaven; Road Home
Week 10 (11/15): Sacrifice and ancestral worship as expressions of worldviews & ethics
10.1. Perpetual Duty: Confucian Ritual
10.2. Immortality: Taoist Pursuit
10.3. Reincarnation: Buddhist Compromise
10.4. Ancestors in Heaven: Complex of Chinese Christians
10.5. Local Belief and Practice
Reading:
1. CP: 21, 26.
2. CP: 30, 34.
3. Watson and Rawski, #3, #5.
Slideshow: funerals of overseas Chinese
* CP: 36, 37.
* "Imperial Ritual in Beijing" (in BB)
* "About Qingming" (in BB)
Week 11 (11/22): Fengshui in burial: textualization, ritualization, and performance
Reading:
1. CP: 27, 28, 29, 31.
2. van Gennep, Chapter IX and X, pp. 166-194.
3. Watson and Rawski, #8, #9
* Book of Burial (excerpts)
Midterm (3)
Performance: Reenactment of a funeral.
Week 12 (11/29): Rites of passage for harmony and the immortality of the
soul:
Understanding Chinese culture from the roots
Reading:
1. CP: 38, 39.
4. Watson and Rawski, #10, #11.
Week 13 (12/6): Localization and globalization:
From roots to leaves: Ethnicity and migration of the Chinese Americans (Ethnicity
and migration)
13.1. In the Changing Chinese Societies
13.2. In Search of Identity among the Overseas Chinese
13.3. The Continuity and Transformation of Chinese Ritual Life
Thematic review: Rites of passage as a disciplinary or interdisciplinary
field
Project Presentation: Each person will have 10 minutes to present and answer
questions.
Reading:
1. Watson and Rawski, #12.
2. CP: 40.
Week 14: Final Exam: Dec. 13 (Monday), 7-9 pm
Project paper due (5-10 pages), and no late paper will be accepted.