Zhang Jijia 1, Xie Shushu 2

1 Ph.D., Department of Psychology, South China Normal University

2 Ph.D., Department of Applied Psychology, Jimei University

In three researches, using color classification task, Color similarity judgment task and color recognition task, to investigate whether different cultures and languages in Yunnan province affect these people’s color cognition including perception and memory, or weaker, just affect color memory. The results showed that 1) the color classification of undergraduates from Naxi, Yi and Bai were consistent with the cultures of these three nations; 2) Han students distinguished color similarity and recognized in green or blue category significantly faster and more accurate than Naxi students did. It meant that the mixed using of the words “green” and “blue” of Naxi   people led to their harder discrimination of green and blue than Han people; 3) Yi students discriminated ‘black’ with different brightness notably faster and more accurate than discriminated ‘white’. Bai students were on the contrary. Han and Naxi showed no notable difference.

To sum up, in our first study, Students from three nations were consistent in their classification of the 11 color terms in general, which was in flavor of perceptual Universalism. Nevertheless, there were significant differences among the three minorities and Han nation consistent with the differences in their languages and cultures and thus consistent with the predictions of Linguistic Relativity Theory. Language and culture do affect color cognition directly and indirectly.

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ZENG Xiao-peng and Wu Xiao-li

South-west University

Naxi language have many Reduplications. reduplication of Literal structure, vocabulary and syntactic structure, This paper comprehensive describe the reduplication phenomenon in Naxi language , and Attempt to have a systematic comparison with the same type of Chinese language. A character is a word , so through reduplicative words to research the role of reduplication in the way of Words express . Meaning of Reduplication show in grammar, it is also reflected in the Words .

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Dr. Michael Prosser

Applied Linguistics Department, Valencia Polytechnic University

Monolingual minority language communities can undergo complete language shift from the minority language to the official nationwide language in a very short time. For example over 100 years ago many Western European minorities could only speak their mother tongues, having no knowledge of the official state languages. In these areas today, due to pressure from the official state languages, virtually all speakers of minority languages are also competent in the state languages. Moreover, language shift is widespread to such an extent that a large proportion of members of the minority communities no longer speak the languages of their forefathers. Because of this it is of key importance that long-term measures be taken to protect minority languages (at the same time as promoting majority state languages) before minority language communities are completely competent in the majority language.

Although a large proportion of Naxi are still not competent in Mandarin, many Naxi in the town of Lijiang have already stopped talking to their children in Naxi. In other words, Naxi-Han language shift has already commenced. Many ordinary Naxi who wish to get on in the world are likely to imitate this urbanised Naxi elite in abandoning their mother tongue, which does not create an ideal atmosphere for the promotion of the Naxi script. Although the Naxi script has been in existence for some decades, the number of Naxi who have studied it has been extremely small and there are probably many ordinary Naxi who do not even realise that they have a romanised script.

This writer is of the opinion that if the population of rural Lijiang, the urbanised Naxi elite and the concerned authorities all urgently took action, they would still be in time to establish balanced Naxi-Han bilingualism and ensure the future of the Naxi language and script. This paper, using examples from outside China, explores some possible measures and strategies which could be taken to protect and promote the Naxi language and script. Such measures should encourage the Naxi elite and local Han residents to study, use and support both spoken and written Naxi and should also stimulate widespread bottom-up activity among all sections of the public. It is of key importance to involve the whole population of Lijiang, at the same time publicising everywhere the advantages of balanced bilingualism and bilingual education and to transform the extremely few experimental Naxi classes that exist at present into generalised (affecting the whole of Lijiang), long-term, normal, balanced bilingualism.

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Dr. Christine Mathieu

Professional anthropologist, independent scholar .

Ph.D Murdoch University Australia

“Divine Kings and Pictographs: the genealogical chronicles of the Lijiang Tusi and the Dongba manuscripts in the light of ethnohistory.”

Topic #1: Studies on Naxi history, language, scripts (writing systems), historical chronicles, religion, philosophy, literature, art, thoughts, politics, military, law.

Contents: a reading and analysis of the Mu genealogical chronicles; an ethnohistorical enquiry into the development of the Naxi Dongba scripts and ritual books.

Method of enquiry: An ethnohistorical method and anthropological method: kinship analysis, functionalist approach, structuralist approach, practice theory, discourse analysis, Marxist analysis, the comparative method in anthropology (mythology, ethnology); the history of religion; archaeological considerations; linguistics.

This paper explores two significant topics in Naxi history: the mysteries of the genealogical chronicles of the Mu Tusi, and the origins of the Naxi Dongba pictographs.  The author analyses the two genealogical chronicles of the Mu Tusi from the perspective of the ethnohistorical method. She argues that the differences in the lists of ancestors, names, dates and number of generations in those two chronicles can be explained in light of the known historical record, comparative mythology and kinship theory.  Her conclusions argue for the importance of these documents to the recovery of Naxi history, and in particular the history of the Naxi feudal system, the legitimacy of its successions and territorial appropriations, and Naxi ideological convictions.  The discussion will show that from the mid 16^th century, the Mu Tusi made a conscious and willing turn towards Confucianism, Chinese civilization and a stricter patrilineal regime, whilst within their realm, they remained attached to more traditional “Naxi” definitions of kingship and ritual.  The paper will also show that the Naxi custom of patrilateral cross-cousin marriage begins with the Mu Tusi, and that it is not symptomatic of a shift from matrilineality to patrilineality, or indicative of a historical split between Naxi and Moso, but rather it is indicative of a far reaching political reform that shifted the system of inter-tribal alliances from a matrilateral or bilateral system of marriage to a patrilateral system and played a significant role in transforming Lijiang from a tribal realm to a feudal territory.  The author will also argue that the Dongba played a central role in the feudalization of Lijiang and present a theory of the origins of the Dongba scripts and ritual books, in light of this historical proposition.

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