The Civil Lives of The Civil Lives of Dead BodiesDead Bodies

Eriberto P. Lozada Jr.Dept. of Anthropology, Davidson College

Funerary Ritual and Popular Religion in

p p gy, g

y gPostsocialist Rural China

Dead Bodies Animate Civil SocietyDead Bodies Animate Civil Society• From Verdery: “Politics around a

reburied corpse thus benefits from the aura of sanctity the corpse is

d t b d f thpresumed to bear, and from the implicit suggestion that a reburial (re)sacralizes the political order represented by those who carry it out” (1999:32).

• Funerary ritual is a common, highly-accessible public demonstration of everyday politics

• The power of dead bodies: very personal, intensely social –personal, intensely social recognized by all nation-states, societies through legal regulations, popular traditions and norms, civil society organizations such as the Catholic ChurchCatholic Church

• Dead bodies lie at the nexus of the animate and inanimate, the social and the physical, state and society; ideal location of ideology, religious beliefs political/economic practices

Prayer Group, 1996Meizhou Prefecture, Guangdong

beliefs, political/economic practices

Research QuestionsResearch Questions• While dead bodies have been demonstrated to

have active political lives, especially in p , p ypostsocialist states, what kinds of politics do they participate in?

• How do the dead posthumously reconfigure the• How do the dead posthumously reconfigure the communities of the living?

• How do civil society organizations like the Chi C th li Ch h i t t ith th liChinese Catholic Church intersect with the lives and practices of people and the Chinese state?

• What does funerary ritual say about practicesWhat does funerary ritual say about practices and beliefs of popular religion, and the social context of postsocialist rural China?

• Chinese civil society as orthopraxy?• Chinese civil society as orthopraxy?

Examining funerary ritual (again!)Examining funerary ritual (again!)

• Data from fieldwork conducted from 1993-2001; ethnography published as God Aboveground, p g ,where I purposely (and mistakenly) did not explicitly examine the issue of civil societyR bli i f• Recent publication of many studies of death and dying, with a focus on the theoretical body, medical anthropology, politics and inequality (i e Margaretand inequality (i.e., Margaret Lock’s Twice Dead)

• Using funerary ritual gives us a new look at classic debates over civil societyover civil society

• Recent political conflicts between the Vatican and the Chinese state

1997 Baptism by Fr. Liang,Little Rome – an illegal act?

Why Religious Organizations and Civil Society?Why Religious Organizations and Civil Society?

• Transcendent power as source of authority, y,charisma

• Key means of mobilization andmobilization and structuring of local landscape

• Ways of connecting to• Ways of connecting to non-local sources of capital (political, social, economic)economic)

• Source of empowerment for those

Group picture during visit by Maryknoll Superior General, Summer 1996

disempowered

Little Rome: A Catholic village in south China

Little Rome, 1934

Little Rome 1996Little Rome, 1996

Little RomeLittle Rome

Throughout the Church’s turbulent history in China, the persistent faithhistory in China, the persistent faith of such villagers has enabled the Catholic Church to survive many movements of persecution, including th l t t d i th C lt lthe latest during the Cultural Revolution. In good times, the Chinese Catholic Church flourishes politically and intellectually in the

1934p y ycities; but in bad times, which have been frequent since the Nestorian Christians first showed up in the Tang courts the Church survived

1934 Communion

Class

Tang courts, the Church survived through its rural strongholds.

Little Rome, 1996Meizhou Prefecture, Guangdong

Little RomeLittle Rome

19341934 Communion

Class

1919: After World War I, the French missionaries cede the mission to the newly-formed American Maryknoll missionaries; mission to the newly formed American Maryknoll missionaries; China is their first mission.

Little Rome, May 1926“If you want a good penance, try to kneel as they are for two hours. The little b b h i i i t ld Th hi i id th ltbamboo chair is a concession to old age. The men worship inside nearer the altar. All our chapels and houses here are Chinese style. The chapel badly needs repairs.”Fr. Thomas Malone, MM

1932: First Hakka priest under Maryknoll, from 1932: First Hakka priest under Maryknoll, from Little Rome, is ordained.Little Rome, is ordained.

Chinese CatechistSeptember 1937F J F S ithFr. J.F. Smith

Little RomeLittle Rome• Prior to 1949, the local Church

maintained a strong alliance with the Nationalist Party. y

• 1950: Bishop Francis Ford is arrested for espionage and dies in a Canton prison one year later. “Bishop” Lan is entrusted with the di b l i h hdiocese, but along with other Chinese priests and sisters, is imprisoned.

• 1955: Major crackdown in Shanghai and arrest of ChineseShanghai and arrest of Chinese Catholic leaders.

• 1957: The CCP establishes the Catholic Patriotic Association as the institutional framework for thethe institutional framework for the Catholic Church.

• 1966: With the Cultural Revolution, even state-sanctioned religious activities cease in the

1940 Funeral Procession,Little Rome

religious activities cease in the public arena.

Little RomeLittle Rome• 1980: Establishment of the Chinese

Catholic Bishop’s Conference and the Catholic Administrative Council i B iji ( i ti ll l tin Beijing (organizations parallel to Patriotic Association);“Bishop” Lan returns from Beijing and revives public Catholic activity.

• 1983: The Meizhou Diocese• 1983: The Meizhou Diocese established and churches with living clergy resurfaced, incorporated into the state institutional framework for religion.g

• 1988: A local Patriotic Association established in Little Rome

• 1992: the Bishop’s Conference is marked as the highest Catholic Best Friends in 1935, married children gorganization in China.

• 1991: The first priest from the diocese is ordained, later to be assigned to Little Rome; the first

f

,with each other; later revealed that one had reported on the other (in 1990s, not talking to each other)

sister took her final vows in 1996.

Little RomeLittle Rome

1952: Sr. Wang, who took her final vows with Maryknoll before ythey were expelled.

1997: Sr. Wang, with two of her students, during the church opening ceremony.

Administrative Structure of the Chinese Catholic ChurchAdministrative Structure of the Chinese Catholic Church

Chinese Catholic Church

Religious Affairs

National ChineseBishop’s Conference

National CatholicPatriotic Association

Religious AffairsBureau

Provincial CatholicPatriotic Association United Front

DiocesePrefectural CatholicPatriotic Association

Consultative Conference

County CatholicPatriotic Association

Parish

Consultative Conference(政协)

Funerary Ritual in Little RomeFunerary Ritual in Little RomeThe Structure of Han Chinese Funerary RitualFrom Watson 1993, 1998

1. the announcement of the death to the community, as in the ritual wailing of women;

2. the wearing of mourning clothes and other worn symbols of mourning;

3 th it li d ti f th

PaperOfferingsprior toburning

3. the ritualized preparation of the corpse for burial, as in the “purchasing of water” (mai shui) to cleanse the body;

4. the transfer of goods to the deceased, as in the burning of paper objects or food offerings;

g

offerings; 5. the preparations of a written memorial,

such as the soul tablet; 6. the use of money in ritualized contexts; 7. the performance of music to mark

transitions in the rites;transitions in the rites; 8. the sealing of the corpse in the coffin;

and 9. the transfer of the coffin out of the

community, as in the funeral procession 10 (my addition); after rites of disposal the10. (my addition); after rites of disposal, the

funeral banquet Women (joined by some men) wailing as visiting groups file in

Prayer GroupsPrayer Groups• Defining who is and who

is not in the community –marks off who is Catholicmarks off who is Catholic (including some who lived in neighboring villages); mixed in with visiting kinvisiting kin

• Size and number of visits by prayer groups was dependent upon the status of the deceasedstatus of the deceased (and his/her family)

• Priest or church elder would lead chanting of f Fr Liang and prayer groupfunerary songs

• At least once a day from the set-up of the sang tang to rites of disposal

Fr. Liang and prayer group chanting for the

deceasedg p

Other aspects of funerary ritualOther aspects of funerary ritual

Sealing the Casket. Funeral Procession

Firecrackers and Musicians leading the way.

Funeral Group Photograph

The rest of the storyThe rest of the story

Burial at “Holy Mountain” Funeral Banquet

Descendants cleaning the bones. “Sweeping the graves,” Catholic-style.

Funerary Ritual and Little RomeFunerary Ritual and Little Rome• The conduct of funerary and grave rituals mobilize the

community and a demonstrations of connections (such i th b i t )as in the prayer groups, banners, procession, etc.)

• To fail in the proper conduct of funerary ritual, or in other grave rituals such as the veneration of ancestors, is to d ’ t d t b ith t t ideny one’s ancestors – and to be without ancestors in Chinese society is to be without an identity

• Structurally-identical to the practices of their non-Catholic neighbors orthopraxy (JL Watson 1993) andCatholic neighbors – orthopraxy (JL Watson 1993), and the Catholic ritual aspects can be seen as filling in the gap in Chinese popular religion (Cohen 1988)

• For non Catholic neighbors death and ancestor ritual is• For non-Catholic neighbors, death and ancestor ritual is a celebration of the lineage. For the Catholics in Little Rome, the conduct of funerary and other grave rituals is a celebration and reaffirmation of their Church, theira celebration and reaffirmation of their Church, their community of faith.

Old Problem of Civil Societyin the study of China

Old Problem of Civil Societyin the study of Chinain the study of Chinain the study of China

• Problem of relationship between social organizations and the state: autonomous, corporatist, or amphibious? I Chi i il i t ti l i ti h i it tIs Chinese civil society particularistic, or perhaps is it not civil society?

• Problem of defining “civil society organization”: b i ? I t t h t ? R t lit tbusinesses? Internet chat groups? Recent literature has expanded what is considered civil society organizations

• Globalization the market and transnational civil society• Globalization, the market, and transnational civil society• Problem of defining the state:

[the state is] phenomenological reality … produced through discourses and practices of power, produced in local encounters at the everyday level, and produced through the discourses of public culture an open field with multiple boundaries and no institutional or geographical fixityculture… an open field with multiple boundaries and no institutional or geographical fixity (Aretxaga 2003)

• Problem of civility

Definition of civil societyDefinition of civil society• a set of diverse social organizations that publicly interact

with the government at different levels to help arbitrate a g pdiverse array of particularistic interests. These social organizations horizontally connect people together and provide them with a forum for expressing ideas, p p g ,managing present activities, and envisioning the future

• Definition is based on Gellner (1995) definitionDefinition is based on Gellner (1995) definition • Disregards issue of relationship to the state• My definition emphasizes the space where people

i i il i ibl b fi ld kpractice civil society, accessible by fieldworkers• Inclusive of all “social organizations”

Funerary Ritual and Civil SocietyFunerary Ritual and Civil Society• state functionalism (Malarney 1996): “the use of ritual by state

officials to advance official objectives and ideology” (see also Whyte 1988)1988)

• Funerary ritual as practicing civil society in rural China, making visible civil society.

• If the Chinese Catholic Church is considered to be an organ of the t t h d l i l i l ti f t t id l d lstate, how do we explain clear violations of state ideology and laws

in the burial, ceremonial practices?• Orthopraxy in civil society; institutional amphibiousness, as

described by Ding1994 is possible because for the church in Little y g pRome, it is part of the official structure, recognized by the state – yet it follows its practices in the conduct of its activities; shared popular religious rites for Watson 1993 can translate into shared civil practices in the political realmp p

• [Orthopraxy] allowed for a high degree of variation within an overarching structure of unity (Watson 1993:89); the variation of different relationships to the state, different interests and means of association can increase the diversity of models of civil societyassociation, can increase the diversity of models of civil society