This is a group photo I took in December 2021 in Penang Valley, Sanya, Hainan. I didn’t organise it in time at the time, mainly because the content was still missing some material. I don’t know if I can go there again, so I decided to organise it first.
The primitive religious beliefs of the Li people, as the most important aspect of their daily life, have created the distinctive features and cultural symbols of their own ethnic customs and traditions. The basic contents of the primitive religious beliefs of the Li include ancestor worship, nature worship, totem worship and witchcraft worship. Its basic features are manifested in its primitive, customary and pious nature. The specific living environment and production and living conditions of the Li people have formed their unique customs and habits.
Ancestor worship originates from the concept of immortal soul. The Li believe that when a person dreams or falls ill, the soul temporarily leaves the body; death is when the soul leaves the body forever and becomes a ghost. Therefore, they attach great importance to funeral sacrifices. Depending on the type of sacrifice, they can be categorised into ‘big ancestor ghosts’, ‘middle ancestor ghosts’ and ‘small ancestor ghosts’.
Those who kill a cow as an offering are called ‘cow-eating ghosts’ or ‘big ancestor ghosts’; those who kill a pig as an offering are called ‘pig-eating ghosts’ or ‘big ancestor ghosts’; those who kill dogs or chickens as sacrifices are called ‘dog-eating ghosts’ or ‘chicken-eating ghosts’, also known as ‘small ancestor ghosts’.
Nature worship manifests itself formally as the worship of natural objects, but in essence it is the worship of all kinds of natural ‘ghosts and gods’, in order to maintain the primitive characteristics of its natural religion. In the primitive religious beliefs of the Li people, the concept of ‘god’ had not yet been separated from illusory entities.
In ancient times, each clan had its own totem worship, and different clans had different totem worships and concepts. A tribe could include clans with different totem cults. The totem worship of the Li may have emerged at the same time as the matrilineal clan society of the Li, which is characterised by the belief that there is some connection between a certain blood union of a person and a certain plant or animal.
Sorcery in the Li area can be divided into three types: ‘black sorcery’, ‘white sorcery’ and ‘funeral sorcery’, each with its own function.
To sum up, in the Li society, ancestor worship, nature worship, totem worship and witchcraft worship together constitute the ideological and cultural consciousness of the Li people.
The only external part we can see is totem worship, which has had a profound impact on the economic and cultural development of the Li people.
