Popular Religion Inside Out: Gender and Ritual Revival in a Hebei Township

TY - JOUR

T1 - Popular Religion Inside Out

T2 - Gender and Ritual Revival in a Hebei Township

AU - Bunkenborg, Mikkel

PY - 2012/11

Y1 - 2012/11

N2 - Over the past three decades, rural China has seen a resurgence of ritual and religious practices involving lineage halls, temples, and novel sectarian movements. This revival of rituals is well documented in ethnographic literature, and a case in point is the establishment of a temple for a local dragon deity in the Hebei township of Fanzhuang. Descriptions of this particular revival focus on a score of males involved in the practical organization of the annual temple fair, while largely ignoring the contributions of a group of spirit mediums and middle-aged women attending rituals in private homes and neighbouring villages throughout the year. The locals often compare the gendered division of labour evident in the temple to households where men are said to be responsible for external matters while women take care of internal affairs. Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that religious practices in both temples and households evince a gendered division of labour: men take charge of the public exterior and relations with the authorities and women see to the private interior and relations with deities. The ongoing revival of rituals is thus gendered in such a way that the significant role of women tends to be hidden from public view.

AB - Over the past three decades, rural China has seen a resurgence of ritual and religious practices involving lineage halls, temples, and novel sectarian movements. This revival of rituals is well documented in ethnographic literature, and a case in point is the establishment of a temple for a local dragon deity in the Hebei township of Fanzhuang. Descriptions of this particular revival focus on a score of males involved in the practical organization of the annual temple fair, while largely ignoring the contributions of a group of spirit mediums and middle-aged women attending rituals in private homes and neighbouring villages throughout the year. The locals often compare the gendered division of labour evident in the temple to households where men are said to be responsible for external matters while women take care of internal affairs. Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that religious practices in both temples and households evince a gendered division of labour: men take charge of the public exterior and relations with the authorities and women see to the private interior and relations with deities. The ongoing revival of rituals is thus gendered in such a way that the significant role of women tends to be hidden from public view.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0920-203X

VL - 26

SP - 359

EP - 376

JO - China Information

JF - China Information

IS - 3

ER -