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Ritualists and Rhetoric
The Proliferation of Nuosu-Yi Cosmology in Southwest China
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Bimo ritualists in Liangshan (Nimu), Sichuan Province, are working to sustain and expand the Nuosu-Yi animistic cosmology amid rapid, state driven modernisation. Moving between mist shrouded or sun lit mountain landscapes, vibrant marketplaces, and bustling valley cities, bimo creatively negotiate with clients, state authorities, and academic elites to navigate the tensions brought by urbanisation. This ethnographic study throws new light on the rhetorical strategies ritualists creatively use to carve out space for distinctive forms of knowledge, enabling them to ritually fold new social realities into their world and unleash new forms of âcosmological proliferationâ. Challenging bounded anthropological views of cosmology, culture, tradition, morality, and ethnic identity, the book foregrounds the multiplicity, dynamism, and inventiveness of Nuosu-Yi everyday life.
Jan Karlach, Ph.D. (2021, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University), is a social anthropologist at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences. He publishes ethnographic research on Yi history, identity, religion, cosmology, knowledge production, and stateâsociety relations in Southwest China.
Ritualists and Rhetoric will appeal to anthropologists, sociologists, Asian and China studies scholars, students, librarians, and general readers interested in animism, religion, history, modernity, and stateâsociety relations in Southwest China.