The causes and influence of Yao women's taboos

In the traditional Yao society, there are many reasons why women are regarded as taboo objects. Some stem from the Yao ancestors 'worship and fear of ghosts, some stem from the Yao ancestors' summary of survival experience, and some are the influence of the Han society.

First of all, the emergence of some taboos and customs originated from the Yao ancestors 'worship of gods and their fear of nature and ghosts. In ancient times, due to the limitations of productivity and people's cognitive ability, our ancestors were helpless about nature and were puzzled by the unpredictable phenomena of nature and life, thus giving rise to the transcendental view that "all things have spirits". They believe that various gods have boundless magic and determine people's happiness and fortune. On the contrary, people are afraid and in awe of the gods and dare not offend them in any way to avoid being punished by the gods.

The Yao ancestors also believed that after death, the soul still exists. It has supernatural abilities and can harm and protect the living. Under the control of this primitive religious concept, people tried their best to conform to the will of the gods to eliminate the occurrence of misfortunes, which led to various restrictions on their actions and taboos. In order to make the living people live peacefully, people use various sacrificial rituals to please the souls of the dead according to their living environment, religious beliefs, and economic conditions. As a result, various sacrificial taboos have emerged. However, women have always been regarded as "filth","mildew","disaster stars" and "disaster water". Therefore, in sacrificial activities, women must be regarded as taboos.

Secondly, since the day of its birth, human society has begun to understand and transform nature, society and human beings themselves. In the process of understanding and transformation, people have summarized production and life experiences and lessons. Since people's ability to understand nature and society was limited by the level of social development at that time, in different historical periods, people's understanding of nature and society was correct and wrong, and their summaries of production and life experience and lessons were also correct and wrong.

The Yao people are a wandering farming people who have long followed the slash-and-burn production method. The level of productivity is low and economic development is seriously hindered. People's understanding of the causality of things also causes deviations, and some accidental phenomena are regarded as universally applicable laws. For example, women in Yao society avoid eating cows that die due to childbirth, or hens that die without laying eggs, otherwise it will be detrimental to pregnancy and childbirth. This is the result of erroneous associations based on the characteristics of animals and their organs. It cannot be explained materialistic and scientific. Therefore, it can only be painted with mysticism and used supernatural ghosts and evil forces to force people to respect and obey.

In addition, due to the difference in the division of labor between men and women and the emergence of agriculture, men have gradually become the burden of their sources of livelihood; with the emergence and development of private property, women's subordinate status to men has been expanded to all areas of life, so the taboos of underestimating women and treating women as unclean objects are widely popular in society. In class society, ideas such as "men are superior to women" and "men and women are not close to each other" became popular and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, resulting in all objects that women have used or touched, or biological things they have are regarded as "unclean things".

"Most of these taboos, customs and concepts related to women were formed during the period when patriarchy was dominant, especially when Confucianism in feudal society was dominant. The profound influence of the strong feudal patriarchal consciousness and the concept of male superiority over female inferiority was their most prominent feature."

"On the other hand, we can also see from the content that the feudal cultural consciousness in the Han area has taken deep roots in the Yao people." Therefore, the female taboos in the traditional cultural system of the Yao people often equate women with concepts such as disaster stars, bad luck, filth, unlucky, and unclean things. The essence is the reflection and reproduction of the concept that men are superior to women in real life.

Judging from the content of the above-mentioned taboos for Yao women, except for a small number of taboos that objectively protect women, especially pregnant women, most of the taboos are stereotypes that restrict women and discriminate against their personal dignity. This taboo not only affects the health of Yao women, but also limits their personal freedom, reduces their social status, and more importantly, seriously restricts the exercise of their own abilities.

Yao female taboos are not restrictions on a certain stage of women's lives, but constraints throughout women's lives. After women reach adulthood, as members of society, they must abide by various prohibitions specially set for them by society and families at all stages of their life journey. In particular, the various taboos set for women during pregnancy and childbirth have caused huge trauma to their physical and mental health.

For example, food taboos during pregnancy and childbirth seriously damage women's health. For example, the Hualanyao women in Jin Xiu mentioned earlier avoided salt and oil for a month after giving birth to a child. They could only cook some green vegetables with clear water for more than ten days after giving birth. Before that, they could only eat white rice, which caused pregnant women to lose the opportunity when they most needed to strengthen nutrition and replenish their physical strength. Giving birth to life, giving birth to children, and reproducing mankind are women's great contributions to the development of human society. However, in the most difficult period for women, traditional and old customs classified them into the ranks of "unclean" and "filthy", causing them to suffer the contempt of customs everywhere, adding an unreasonable spiritual burden.

Lowering the social and political status of Yao women limits their healthy development. The content of women's taboos covers all aspects. The physical and psychological constraints on women in various fields from family life to social and political life have caused double suppression on their psychology and behavior.

Women's taboos in life always remind women that their words and deeds must abide by the norms of "men and women are different" and "men are superior to women." This makes women's status low and their personality distorted in the family and society. At the same time, in the cultural background of female taboos, women's inferiority complex mentality has been formed and has become a subconscious. Therefore, female taboos have strengthened various social prejudices such as "men are superior to women" and formed a force that hinders women's development. This not only allows Yao women to position themselves in the narrow traditional life model of having children, but also becomes the standard for their evaluation by the world and society. This positioning greatly restricts women's social practice of entering society and seeking self-development.

In particular, female taboos related to religion and social and political life in Yao society exclude women from mainstream social life and social interactions, resulting in a certain degree of isolation and isolation between women and society. The consequences of this isolation and isolation have put women's cultural quality at the lowest level in society and formed a vicious cycle in which women have repeatedly lost various development opportunities.