Nuo and Dongba Culture
This article compares Nuo (傩) ritual culture and Dongba (东巴) culture, both surviving forms of primitive religion within contemporary society, arguing that comparing them illuminates broader features of ancient religious practice. Dongba culture, the primitive religion of the Naxi people, is renowned for preserving primitive religious forms intact and for its living pictographic script. Nuo, originating in the Shang-Zhou era as a plague-exorcising ritual, has persisted since. The author identifies shared characteristics: both recognize alien/supernatural forces through worship of nature and ancestors rather than abstract, omnipotent deities, envisioning parallel spirit/ghost worlds structured like human kinship systems (e.g., Dongba nature deities/ghosts and Nuo's wind, thunder, mountain, dragon spirits). Both ritual systems are also fundamentally utilitarian, secular-custom-oriented, and inclusive—aimed not at spiritual transcendence but at practical concerns like fertility, longevity, harvests, and warding off disaster, reflecting collective, communal belief rather than individual salvation-seeking religion.
This page publishes the bibliographic record and the project's summary. The scanned article text belongs to its publisher and is shown to readers under a research-use policy; it is not reproduced in this record.