earticle

영어

This paper examines the unique illness cognition system and medical practices of the Yi people in Liangshan, Sichuan Province, with a focus on the cultural logic and deeper meanings embedded within them. Despite the increasing penetration of modern biomedicine, local therapeutic practices grounded in local knowledge remain widespread among the Liangshan Yi. Illness is often anticipated through dreams and anomalous events, while its causes are interpreted through divinatory practices conducted by bimo and suni. The Yi construct a pluralistic and layered explanatory model of illness etiology and develop corresponding ritual healing practices. These practices reflect not only the dynamic interactions between humans, ancestors, nature, and supernatural forces but also function as cultural strategies for coping with illness and uncertainty. Building on this foundation, the paper further explores Yi understandings of death, otherness, and the natural world. The dead, particularly deceased kin, are treated with a logic of “intimate distance” to preserve boundaries between the living and the dead and to maintain familial order. In contrast, ghosts believed to be transformed Han Chinese souls symbolize the cultural boundaries and ethnic distinctions perceived by the Yi. The Yi worldview is grounded in an animistic cosmology, in which all entities in the natural world are believed to possess spirits. Maintaining respectful relations with these spirit-beings is seen as essential to health and plays a role in fostering an implicit ecological awareness. Importantly, Yi medical practices are not static remnants of tradition but represent a dynamic cultural strategy, continually adapting through interactions with modern medicine and the religious traditions of neighboring ethnic groups.