What are the customs of the Li people?

Li families, like Han Chinese, are patriarchal small families. However, the small family in the H'mou area has significant characteristics, and until the liberation, it had not become a fully independent production unit. Its economic role was mainly to take part in the production and distribution of the Hop Mu, to operate handicrafts and sideline industries, to cultivate mountain fences and small gardens, and to deal with the relationship between private property and its own debts.

The marriage system is monogamous. Generally arranged by parents, betrothed from childhood; aunt and cousin not married, the same clan not married. It has become customary for the "family to match the family". The bride price is often several cows and a lot of money.

Clothing

In terms of clothing, women wear buns on the back of their heads with bone hairpins, embroidered headscarves, unbuttoned clothes with open chests, and in some places, "kanjou-style" tops with skirts underneath. Most of the women love to wear earrings, collars, bracelets, and some of them keep the habit of tattooing and tattooing. Men knot mane, some knotted in front of the forehead, some knotted in the back of the head, wrapped around the head, shirt collarless to the chest placket.

"Putting on the squatters"

The custom of "putting on the squatters" is prevalent in the Li ethnic area. Each village has one to several "squatters", known in Li as "Boulong Boudoirs", where daughters go to live when they grow up. All men of different blood groups can go to "Bulong" to look for lovers, blowing and singing, confessing their love, which reflects the social freedom of unmarried young men and women of the Li ethnic group; but on the other hand, there are abnormal male-female relationships mixed with the activities of "putting squatters". At the same time, married men and women are also involved in the activity of "put squatters", which has a great impact on production, family harmony and health. Li region after marriage "not fall husband's family" custom is quite common, children born out of wedlock are generally not discriminated against, divorce and widow remarriage is relatively free.

The Li people live in a congregation with the same surname. The houses in which they live are mostly "boat-shaped houses" in the Hemanu area, and the houses in the general area are all in the shape of a golden character.

Title and Surname

The title and surname of the relatives of the Li people are very characteristic. The Li people call each other according to their religious relationships, for example, the children of an uncle, no matter how young they are, and the children of an uncle, no matter how old they are, must address the children of the uncle as brother or sister. Therefore, in Li society, you will often hear an older person call a one- or two-year-old brother or sister. When calling someone socially, you can only call them by their first name, not by their family name together with their first name.

The Li people of the Fu surname in Dongfang County were originally five blood groups, each with a surname, and each blood group was divided into a big male, a middle male, and a tail male, called the five surnames and fifteen males. Five surnames can intermarry, and fifteen males can not intermarry within, after a number of generations and can be married in cycles. The same Lai Surname Group, which is divided into several Han surnames in different areas, cannot intermarry although the Han surnames are different.

Residential Characteristics

The Li people chose small plains in the valleys, river terraces or flat stream slopes as addresses for their villages. The principles of land selection are; close to cultivated land, close to rivers and streams; the terrain should be high, with a certain slope; the place should be "clean", i.e., there should be fewer beasts, and not too close to the main transportation routes. Its geological surface layer is mostly sandy clay layer, below the sandy gravel layer, soil quality are generally good, bearing capacity can meet the building requirements.

The villages of the Li ethnic group are mostly surrounded by tall broad-leaved forests and shrubs. Therefore, you can't see any residential houses outside the village, and the subtropical village scenery is the same scenic feature as that of the Li compatriots' residence ****.

"Boat-shaped house"

The boat-shaped house is the traditional housing of the Li people, which is the "dry bar" left over from the ancient times. In the Han "pyramid" shaped house has not yet been introduced to the Li area before the boat-shaped house was the main form of housing for the Li people on Hainan Island. Due to this kind of house is more inclined to half-overhead or horizontal low overhead shape, so it can also be called dry rail construction of derivative types, is rich in national and local characteristics of the Li traditional housing type.

The boat-shaped house is characterized by a longitudinal rectangular plan, and the whole house consists of two parts: the front porch and the living room. The whole roof *** such as boat-shaped, bamboo and wood frame, rattan bundling, thatched roof, to the ground, the house is not compartmentalized, open the door to the head, the door on the eaves of the extension, the eaves for the rest, the place to put things, generally do not have a window, it is said that the window will be "evil spirits" into the house, haunted by people and animals, causing disease. Therefore, the whole room is dark and poorly ventilated. In short, the boat-shaped house has the advantages of windproof and rainproof, warm in winter and cool in summer, and also can slightly take into account the advantages of ventilation. At present, the boat-shaped house is still popular in Baisha, Changjiang, Dongfang, Ledong, Baoting, Qiongzhong and other counties in some areas.

Pyramid thatched roof

It is not the original Li, but the Li people learned from the Han. Its advantages are labor-saving and material-saving, good ventilation and lighting, easy drainage, etc. It is characterized by the rectangular shape of the whole house, the roof with a golden roof instead of a round-arched boat-shaped roof, the eaves are high, the main door is at the front of the house, and there are many kinds of houses such as single-room, double-room, triple-room, quadruple-room, and courtyard-type.

The jinja house consists of a front porch, a living room (also called an overhall or a living room), a bedroom and a kitchen, with a foyer after the entrance and bedrooms and kitchens on both sides of the overhall. The living room is the largest, usually about 15 square meters, the bedroom is about 10 square meters, the kitchen is about 8 square meters, the living room is the center of life and living, in the middle of the back wall, there is a shrine or a shrine shelf, worshipping the ancestors. Inside the bedroom, there is a wooden or bamboo bed and some other items, etc. The kitchen is equipped with a stove, water tank, cooking utensils, baking racks, etc. The kitchen is also equipped with a kitchen with a stove, water tank, cooking utensils, baking racks, etc.

Additionally, the Li people also live in brick houses, similar to the mainland's row-house type of family quarters.

Three-stone stove

Li region of the stove - three stone stove (also known as Pinzihua stove, horseshoe-shaped stove) located indoors, the main reason is: Li people in the past backwardness of the economy and culture, life is difficult, and had to build a fire indoors in the winter to keep warm; Li region, mosquitoes and malaria, indoor smoky role of the role of mosquitoes to avoid the effect of disease; and take care of the fire needs. Li people's homes, no matter from which point of view, all belong to the same system, the same source of flow, but there are some differences, each dialect area has its own characteristics. Scientific knowledge

The Li people on Hainan Island in the process of long-term development, both in production and life, have accumulated a considerable wealth of experience and knowledge. In agricultural production, the Li people have grasped a variety of knowledge about crop growth, soil identification, choice of arable land and farming arrangements. For example, in the case of rice, more than twenty varieties can be distinguished from each other everywhere, and different adapted lands and planting periods can be selected according to their growth characteristics. In the practice of production, the Li people have also accumulated a lot of knowledge of guessing the weather according to the local animal activities and the law of natural phenomenon changes.

The Li people are good at hunting, and they can choose the right time to take hunting methods such as encircling, tracking, ambushing, digging traps, nailing bamboo tips, ambushing guns, hanging bombs, attacking with fire, and releasing poison, etc. according to the living habits of different beasts, which has a very good effect.

Women are good at spinning and weaving, and the spinning of kapok is particularly ingenious. Pedal spinning machines utilized spinning wheels and drive belts. Li women were able to utilize wild plant dyes on cloth. The yarn was dyed in various colors such as green, black, yellow, yellow, red, etc. In addition to this there were some areas that created the technically complex Val dyeing method. On the light yarn, various patterns are tied with fine threads, and after dyeing, when the fine threads are removed, the white patterns are revealed, and then the colored weft threads are woven in to complete the fabric with delicate patterns. These are the results of the Li people's good understanding of the plant world and the techniques of weaving and dyeing after a long period of observation and practice.

The Li people grasped pottery-making technology a long time ago and were able to make earthenware pots, jars, wine bottles, bowls, vases, pots and so on. The Li people close to the Han area are also able to burn the kiln like the Han people, making a variety of pottery with smooth color and beautiful patterns. These ceramics are loved by the neighboring peoples, and foreign merchants also buy them in large quantities from the Li area and transport them to the mainland for sale.

The Li people also have a profound knowledge of medicine. Many herbal doctors know more than a hundred kinds of herbal properties, and can use hot compresses, baked sweats, fire moxibustion and other treatments according to different conditions, and there are many effective medicines for poisonous snakes and mad dog bites. The Li people have accumulated rich medical knowledge in the process of treating diseases and saving people's lives, and have become the best in subduing the "miasma and plague", thus Li medicine has become a part of the treasure house of Chinese herbal medicine. The basic method of treating illnesses in Li medicine is similar to that of Chinese medicine, which is divided into the contents of looking, smelling, questioning and cutting.

In the Li people also retained a more primitive calendar, generally similar to the Han region of the "twelve branches of the earth" to calculate the sun and the moon, to twelve days for a cycle, the daily animal as a title, such as chicken day, dog day, pig day, cow day, insect day ...... etc.

Most of the Li people have used the Han Chinese weights and measures, but the valley mu area has been using their own calculation methods. For example: rice to bunch as the smallest unit, six bunches for a save, six save for a pair, two pairs for a law, two law for a thumb. The acreage of a field is the unit of saving, and the number of acres planted is said to be the number of saves planted. Buy and sell cattle, the length of the horn or the length of the body to calculate its size, not weight. The concept of number was weak, and the abacus was seldom used. To calculate complex numbers, straw or firewood is often used as the entity.

Funeral

Funeral ceremonies vary from place to place, and in the Hap Mu area, when someone dies, they will fire a gun to report the death, and the whole village or the whole mine will come to offer their condolences, and they will not eat staple food for three days, and they will not do any heavy work. Generally use a wooden coffin, non-stop coffin, buried on the same day, do not build graves. If the deceased is a man, buried in the village public **** cemetery, married women from other villages, must be carried back to his mother's family by the mother's family to take care of the funeral, and buried in his father's side of the public **** cemetery. Other areas have superstitious feng shui, stopping coffins, playing fasting, and choosing a place to build a tomb.

Working hard and thrifty, respect for the elderly and love for the young is a virtue of the working people of the Li people, regardless of the elderly and children are always looking for their own ability to do, there are very few idle days. The Li people are hospitable to visiting guests, all warmly treated with cigarettes and wine.

Taboos

There are many taboos during some festivals of the Li people, which belong to superstitious concepts. However, they have some connection with production and life. For example, it is forbidden to speak foul language and unlucky words during the Spring Festival; it is forbidden to wash and sweep the floor on the first day of the Lunar New Year, saying that it is afraid that the money of the whole family will be washed away and swept away. Hop mu system area of the Li people at the beginning of the year to the first five taboo field labor, cattle day, bug day, chicken day and other days, mu people can not go down to the field cultivation, said to be afraid of seedlings suffered birds and animals invasion. The first day of the lunar calendar to prepare for hunting in the mountains, also avoid sweeping the ground, or hunting beasts. Cutting down the mountain fence must choose the dragon day, horse day, rabbit day and other auspicious days, at the same time mu head can not sleep in the daytime, otherwise the crops will not be able to withstand the wind and rain. In the Cow Festival on March 8, it is forbidden to kill cows, and they should be given a kind of wine dipped in cow soul stone to ensure a good harvest in the coming year. People are not allowed to cross the stove, not allowed to step on, cut with a knife, etc., if prohibited, it is said that the "stove God" will be angry, causing family illness.