The Custom of Sacrifice in the Collecting Episodes in Ernan

Abstract

The collecting episodes related to the custom of sacrifice in Ernan in the Book of Songs mainly appear in Caifan, Caipin, and Guanju. In this kind of collecting episodes, water is an important component of the collecting location and symbolizes the ritual and rule; aquatic plants are the main collecting objects, which are characterized by meagerness, purity, and difficulty in picking; the collectors are mostly nobles and women, turning the gathering activities into symbolic cultural events. The collecting episodes in Ernan are often for the purpose of making sacrifice, which reflects the transformation of collecting activities from “custom” to “ritual”. The main principles of making sacrifice are “repaying and returning to the origin” and “worshiping virtue and rewarding contributions”; furthermore, there is an internal unity in sacrifice, witchcraft, and Xing. These can help us better understand the collecting episodes and their spiritual connotations in Ernan.