What is the totem of the Miao in western Hunan?

The Miao is one of the older ethnic groups in the Chinese family, with a long history and splendid culture. Among the many splendid cultures of the Miao, the totem culture is an important and indispensable part of the whole Miao culture. Miao compatriots living on the land of Danzhai for generations worship birds as totems, which has a long history and a long history. Nowadays, although we have not seen the ancient and grand Miao bird totem worship program, but from the popular Miao folk colorful traditional culture can be glimpsed in the Miao bird totem cultural legacy. The author of the Miao culture, especially the Miao totem culture is quite interested in long-term in-depth excavation and collection of a large amount of information, the use of history, ethnology, folklore, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and other disciplines of comprehensive research, now on the Danzhai Miao bird totem culture to talk about the rough insights, experts and scholars please do not be stingy with their advice.

Totem, one of the primitive beliefs, is written as "totem" in English pinyin, which is a dialect of North American Indians, and originally means "their kin". Marx pointed out in "Summary of Morgan's Book on Ancient Societies" that totem "means the sign or emblem of a clan; for example, the figure of the wolf is the totem of the wolf clan." In his first book, Frye writes that a "totem," "is an object worshipped with superstition by a group of primitive peoples, who believe that an intimate and special relation is maintained between themselves and any one of them. ...... The connection between the individual and the totem is a union of natural interests; the totem protects the people, and the people express their reverence for it in various ways, forbidding the killing of an animal if it is an animal, or the cutting or gathering of a plant if it is a plant. ...... A totem is never an isolated individual; it is often a whole group of objects, usually referring to a particular kind of animal or plant ......"② That is, a totem is a class of objects, which the primitive people honored with superstition, while believed themselves and the various members of their group to have a close and special relationship with such objects. People in ancient times believed that a certain animal or natural object related to the clan (tribe) is a sign or symbol of the clan (tribe), which symbolizes the clan (tribe) of an ideological **** knowledge, an ancient beliefs, a spiritual power. Therefore, the totem is the sign of the primitive nation and the deified ancestor.

The deified ancestor as the object of totem worship, as the clan (tribe) of the symbol, was widespread in the world of primitive peoples. Totem worship, as a cultural phenomenon, was prevalent in the early stages of the development of every historical nation in Chinese history. The totem worship of the Chinese nation is summarized into three main types: dragon totem, bird totem and flower totem. As a member of the Chinese family, the Miao people have also practiced totem worship of dragons, snakes, birds, fish and butterflies throughout history. Gathered in today's Danzhai on this piece of land, the Miao compatriots called themselves "ga hao" historically had a bird as a totem, is the descendant of the bird totem tribe. Nowadays, the culture of the brocade chicken, the culture of the hundred bird clothes, the culture of batik, the culture of the bird cage, the culture of brocade (cloth), the culture of the lusheng, the culture of the backpack, etc. scattered in the folk of the Miao people is the historical inheritance of the bird totem culture, and is also the Miao people's history of the bird as a totem of cultural examples of worship.

Analyzed from the perspective of ethnolinguistics, the Danzhai Miao have a long history of bird totem worship. Marxism believes that language is a product of human society, it develops with the development of society, the national language is the form of national culture, it is produced with the national generation, Danzhai Miao language is also produced with the "ga haun" clan. Danzhai Miao call themselves "Ga Ha" [qa33n?0?513], which belongs to the Qiandong Miao dialect. In the vocabulary of the Qiandong Miao dialect, "Ga" [qa33] means "original", "source", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", "root", According to the grammatical translation of the Miao language, the direct translation of "ga haun" should be the root of the bird, and the meaning of the translation is from the bird totem tribal clans. In the vocabulary of the Danzhai Miao dialect, the pronunciation of "[n?0?513]" in the word "Ga haun" [qa33n?0?513] is the same as that of "bird", but also the same as that of "snake". The pronunciation of "[n?0?513]" in the word "ga hao" is the same as the pronunciation of "bird", but it is also the same as the pronunciation of the generalized names "snake" and "fish". This indicates that the term "ga haun" [qa33n?0?513] as a clan name comes from the ancient matrilineal clan society, where birds, snakes, and fish were used as totems, and the generalized names of birds, snakes, and fish were used as the clan names. This is a major characteristic of matrilineal clan societies. In the era of matrilineal clan society, due to the low productivity, human intelligence is not developed, do not understand the surrounding things, often with their own residence, food and other life has a close relationship with some things as their own with some kind of marriage relationship, or even blood and the same kind of relationship, and therefore to be worshipped, and the image of these things as the clan's emblem, to the name of these things for the clan's clan name. From the Chinese literature and the ancient customs of the Miao people, the Miao people have experienced the historical stage of matrilineal clan society, and the Danzhai Miao people, who call themselves "Ga Ha", have also experienced this historical stage. In this historical stage, the Miao live in the Yellow River, the Yangtze River in the middle and lower reaches of this area, and this area since ancient times is the land of the water, abundance of fish, but also birds, snakes, birds, snakes, fish ecological relationship is extremely close. Therefore, the ancient Miao birds, snakes, fish as totems, birds, snakes, fish, the general name "n?0?513" for the clan's clan name, is very likely. However, the Danzhai "Miao in the territory of the ancient times with the ancient times in the Yellow River, the Yangtze River in the middle and lower reaches of the 'Jiu Li', 'three Miao' has a lineage of origin relations. Therefore, the Danzhai Miao people, who call themselves "Gaha", have historically taken birds as the object of totem worship, and have passed down the bird totem tribal symbols in the form of language. This is the Miao bird totem tribal cultural heritage of a historical imprint. In other words, the ancient "Ga Ha" is the Bird Totem Tribe during the matrilineal clan society, and today's "Ga Ha" is the descendant of the Bird Totem Tribe. Chronology over five or six thousand years, the Danzhai Miao people call themselves "Ga haun" of this title rhyme still exists, the historical development has not changed since ancient times.