Risk Society, the Predicaments of Folk Religion and Experience of Modernity: The Guardian Spirits in the Mandi Dailue Ethnic Society of Xishuangbanna

Abstract

Global processes and encounters with modernity have led to unique development patterns in ethnic minority areas in China. Rubber tree planting and rubber production, for example, have forged a link between tropical jungle villages like Mandi in Xishuangbanna (Yunnan Province) and China’s booming car industry, and even the wider capitalist world system. As a result, the Dailue ethnic minorities in Mandi have experienced a social change from mechanical solidarity in rice agriculture to organic solidarity in market economic conditions. Such changes also expose Dailue society to increasing “modern” social risks, and this, in turn, has influenced religious practices. The traditional guardian spirit cults of the house (dubula hen), village (dubula ban) and region (dubula moeng) are held responsible for social risk management in Dailue culture. The increasing social risks have compelled people like the Dailue from Mandi to question and revisit the predicament of their folk religion, revealing the ongoing importance of spirit cults.