What is the totem of Miao nationality in Xiangxi?

Miao nationality is one of the oldest nationalities in the big family of Chinese nation, with a long history and splendid culture. Among many splendid Miao cultures, totem culture is an indispensable part of the whole Miao culture. Miao compatriots who have lived in Danzhai for generations have a long history of worshipping birds as totems. Nowadays, although we haven't seen the ancient and grand bird totem worship program of Miao nationality, we can see the heritage of Miao bird totem culture from the colorful traditional culture popular among Miao people. The author is interested in Miao culture, especially Miao totem culture, and has excavated and collected a lot of materials for a long time, and made a comprehensive study by using many disciplines such as history, ethnology, folklore, linguistics, sociology and human culturology. Now, I want to talk about the bird totem culture of the Miao nationality in Danzhai. Please give me your advice.

Totem, one of the original beliefs, is written as "totem" in English pinyin, which is a dialect of North American Indians and originally means "their relatives". Marx pointed out in Morgan's Abstract of Ancient Society that totem refers to the symbol or emblem of a clan; For example, the wolf's figure is the totem of the wolf family. " 1) Foley wrote in his first book "Totem", "It is the object of superstition and worship of a group of primitive people, who believe that they have a close and special relationship with any one of them. ..... The connection between individual and totem is the combination of natural interests; Totem protects people, and people express their reverence for it in various ways. If it is an animal, killing is forbidden. If it is a plant, it is forbidden to cut or collect. ..... Totem has never been an isolated individual, it is often a whole group of objects, usually referring to a certain animal or plant ... "(2) That is to say, totem is an object, and primitive people respect it in a superstitious way, but believe that they and all members of the same group have a close and special relationship with this object. In ancient times, people thought that some animal or natural thing related to this clan (tribe) was the symbol or symbol of this clan (tribe), symbolizing an ideology, an ancient belief and a spiritual strength of this clan (tribe). Therefore, totem is the symbol of primitive nation and the deified ancestor.

The deified ancestors, as the object of totem worship and the symbol of clan (tribe), once existed in all primitive nations in the world. Totem worship, as a cultural phenomenon, was widespread in the early development of China. Totem worship of Chinese nation can be summarized into three types: dragon totem, bird totem and flower totem. As a member of the big family of the Chinese nation, Miao nationality also has totem worship of dragons, snakes, birds, fish and butterflies in history. Today, the Miao compatriots who call themselves "Gan Ao" live in the land of Danzhai. In history, they take birds as totems and are descendants of the bird totem tribe. Today, the golden pheasant culture, bird clothing culture, batik culture, birdcage culture, brocade (cloth) culture, Lusheng culture and suspender culture scattered among Miao people are the historical inheritance of bird totem culture and cultural examples of bird totem worship in Miao history.

From the perspective of ethnolinguistics, the bird totem worship of Danzhai Miao nationality has a long history. According to Marxism, language is the product of human society, which develops with the development of society. National language is the form of national culture, which comes into being with the generation of nation, and Danzhai Miao language also comes into being with the generation of "Gan 'ao" clan. Danzhai Miao people call themselves "noisy" [qa33n? 0? 5 13] belongs to the Miao language in eastern Guizhou. In Qiandong Miao vocabulary, ga [qa33] means Ben, Yuan, Root, Root and Noisy [n? 0? 5 13] means both a bird and a young woman. According to the grammatical translation of Miao language, the literal translation of "Gan Ao" should be the root of the bird, while the free translation comes from the clan of the bird totem tribe. "Gan 'ao" in Danzhai Miao vocabulary [qa33n? 0? 5 13] The word "[n? 0? The pronunciation of "5 13" is not only the same as "bird", but also the same as "snake" and "fish". Explain gawk [qa33n? 0? 5 13] as a clan name, the word comes from the ancient matriarchal clan society, with birds, snakes and fish as totems and birds, snakes and fish as clan names. This is a major feature of matriarchal clan society. In the era of matriarchal society, because of low productivity, underdeveloped human intelligence and little understanding of the surrounding things, people often regard some things closely related to their own lives, such as their residence, diet and so on, as having some kind of marriage relationship with themselves, even blood relationship and similar relationship, so they worship them, regard their images as clan emblems and regard their names as clan names. According to the records of Chinese documents and the reflection of the ancient customs of the Miao nationality, the Miao nationality experienced the historical stage of matriarchal clan society, and so did the Danzhai Miao nationality who claimed to be "noisy". At this historical stage, Miao people live in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Since ancient times, they have been water towns, rich in fish, and also the habitat of birds and snakes. The ecological relationship among birds, snakes and fish is extremely close. Therefore, the ancient Miao people regarded birds, snakes and fish as totems and called them "n? 0? It is possible that 5 13 "is the clan name of this clan. However, the Miao people in Danzhai "have homologous relations with Jiuli and Sanmiao who lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in ancient times". Therefore, the Miao people in Danzhai, who call themselves "Gan Ao", used birds as the object of totem worship in history and language as the way of inheritance, inheriting and remembering the tribal symbols of bird totem. This is the historical imprint of the cultural heritage of Miao bird totem tribe. In other words, the ancient "Gan Ao" was a bird totem tribe in matriarchal clan society, and today's "Gan Ao" is a descendant of the bird totem tribe. Five or six thousand years later, the title of "Ganao" of Danzhai Miao still exists, and its historical development has not changed since ancient times.