Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects
The Eastern Minyag is a small community located east of Gangkar Mountain (Chinese: <i>gongga shan</i>) in Southwest China. Their complex rituals, performed by ritual specialists (<i>sutcywu</i>), serve various purposes: diagnosing the causes of individual psycho-physical ailm...
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2025-04-01
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| author | Valentina Punzi |
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| description | The Eastern Minyag is a small community located east of Gangkar Mountain (Chinese: <i>gongga shan</i>) in Southwest China. Their complex rituals, performed by ritual specialists (<i>sutcywu</i>), serve various purposes: diagnosing the causes of individual psycho-physical ailments, investigating the misfortunes affecting entire families, making offerings to the ancestors, and banishing the ghosts of the deceased. While research on the ritual traditions of communities in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands often subsumes Eastern Minyag rituals under the general category of Tibetan Bon, this article adopts a context-oriented approach that highlights the environmental conditions and cosmology of the Eastern Minyag community. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in 2018–2019, the article examines the material aspects of Eastern Minyag rituals occurring in domestic spaces. Specifically, it first explores how natural elements of animal and plant origin are selected and manipulated to create ritual objects. Secondly, it offers an overview of the setups and processes involved in the <i>vivi</i> ritual. Lastly, it reflects on the temporary agency of ritual objects contingent upon their ephemeral materiality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-13bd160b5b4d44e8868c8f7e92d0a8b5 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-13bd160b5b4d44e8868c8f7e92d0a8b52025-08-20T03:47:54ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442025-04-0116553910.3390/rel16050539Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual ObjectsValentina Punzi0Sciences Historiques et Philologiques, École Pratique des Hautes Études, 75014 Paris, FranceThe Eastern Minyag is a small community located east of Gangkar Mountain (Chinese: <i>gongga shan</i>) in Southwest China. Their complex rituals, performed by ritual specialists (<i>sutcywu</i>), serve various purposes: diagnosing the causes of individual psycho-physical ailments, investigating the misfortunes affecting entire families, making offerings to the ancestors, and banishing the ghosts of the deceased. While research on the ritual traditions of communities in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands often subsumes Eastern Minyag rituals under the general category of Tibetan Bon, this article adopts a context-oriented approach that highlights the environmental conditions and cosmology of the Eastern Minyag community. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in 2018–2019, the article examines the material aspects of Eastern Minyag rituals occurring in domestic spaces. Specifically, it first explores how natural elements of animal and plant origin are selected and manipulated to create ritual objects. Secondly, it offers an overview of the setups and processes involved in the <i>vivi</i> ritual. Lastly, it reflects on the temporary agency of ritual objects contingent upon their ephemeral materiality.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/5/539Eastern Minyagritualsmaterial culturematerialitymaterial agencySino-Tibetan borderlands |
| spellingShingle | Valentina Punzi Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects Religions Eastern Minyag rituals material culture materiality material agency Sino-Tibetan borderlands |
| title | Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects |
| title_full | Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects |
| title_fullStr | Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects |
| title_short | Fresh Twigs, Drying Blood, and Popped Corn: The Ephemeral Materiality of Eastern Minyag Ritual Objects |
| title_sort | fresh twigs drying blood and popped corn the ephemeral materiality of eastern minyag ritual objects |
| topic | Eastern Minyag rituals material culture materiality material agency Sino-Tibetan borderlands |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/5/539 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT valentinapunzi freshtwigsdryingbloodandpoppedcorntheephemeralmaterialityofeasternminyagritualobjects |