Ecological Research on Tujia Ethnicity in the Qingjiang River Basin of Hubei Province

Author: Ai Xunru
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: This paper is the first to take the Tujia ethnic group's inhabited areas in the Qingjiang River Basin of Hubei Province as a natural-socio-economic complex ecosystem, with the Tujia ethnic group in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture as a case study. Combining cultural anthropology and ecology, it employs the emic field research method of cultural anthropology, historical data tracing, and the basic principles and methods of ecology to study the biological and ecological characteristics of the Tujia population in the Qingjiang River Basin. The research covers the biological and ecological adaptation, cultural ecological adaptation, and the characteristics of the composite ecosystem in Tujia inhabited areas, including Tujia physical ecology, distribution patterns, ethnic origins and migration, population ecology, and the ecological adaptation characteristics of Tujia clothing, food, housing, transportation, and daily necessities. It also explores the ecological implications of Tujia production and survival methods and ecological balance, the ecological connotations of Tujia religious beliefs, life and death concepts, ethnic rituals, and village governance models, the historical inheritance of ecological philosophy in Tujia folk literature, and the characteristics of ecosystems in Tujia regions during different historical periods.