The post-modernist view on language has made a great impact on the contemporary social science which is known as″linguistic/discourse turn″. This turn has been challenging the fundamentalassumption of Western universalism ,which sees implicitly or explicitly language as faithful representation of cultural phenomena ,and offers concepts and theories as facts and truth , without considering historical and cultural particularity . The paper seeks to develop an alternative narrative paradigm of doing anthropology in China , by drawing upon the Chinese tradition of discourse strategies , particularly that of Confucianism . The well-known Chinese classics such as The Spring and Autumn Annals ,and The Records of the Great Historian and so on have set a good paradigm of narration capable for Geertz's concept of″thick description″. The underlying meanings of cultural behavior are described in a veiled way , but hitting the heart transparently . This mode of discourse makes the deep meaning not fully expressible in abstract terms ,thus successfully avoiding the violations of Representativism . Any simple mentioning of small details implies a profound meaning not in terms of judgment and truth ,but as an elucidation for understanding . In this way ,the essence of culture is conveyed in a non- essentialist discourse . The principle of discourse could be articulated in Lao Zi's philosophical maxim that″Tao that can be described is not universal and eternal Tao″. A project is also presented which ,by applying the traditional discourse of ethnography , investigates the living culture of a Chinese village ( Dongwushan) ,located in the suburbs of Hangzhou City ,Zhejiang Province . The approach helps to uncover the indigenous cultures which have been buried and silenced by modern representation of Chinese culture . Meanwhile through the subtle description of the cultural fragments ,the village is found under a transformation for traditional cultural revival . The study thus makes a case of Chinese approach to ethnographic study ,which points to a possibility of″thick description″with which Chinese culture unfolds itself to the world in an authentic and elucidative way .
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吴宗杰, 姜克银. 中国文化人类学的话语转向[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2009, 39(5): 74-.
TUN Zong-Jie, JIANG Ke-Yin. The Discourse Turn in the Study of the Chinese Cultural Anthropology. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2009, 39(5): 74-.