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Ritualized Pigs and the Origins of Complex Society: Hypotheses Regarding the Hongshan Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Sarah M. Nelson
Sarah M. Nelson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, Denver CO 80208
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Abstract

Pigs are prominent in the ceremonial and ritual iconography of the Hongshan culture, including jade pig-dragons found in high-status burials, a life-sized pig statue made of unbaked clay, and a mountain that resembles a pig. To attempt to link real pigs with the iconography, the place of actual pigs in the society is examined. Continuity of artifact types from sites 7000-3500 B.C. allows the assumption that pigs were initially important in the subsistence base. I suggest that pig iconography implies pig rituals, and that the pig rituals may have aided in the formation of an elite class. The elite are archaeologically manifested in the elaborate tombs, and their existence can also be inferred by the need for managers in creating the tombs and the artifacts within, as well as in procuring jade and possibly copper.

豬在龍山文化禮儀祭祀中佔有顯著地位, 諸如在社會顯要之墓葬中發現的玉石豬龍,以生粘土製成的眞實尺寸的豬塑像,以及類似豬的山形圖像等都反映了這一點.爲了把眞實豬與祭祀圖像聯係起來, 本文對豬在社會生活中的實際地位進行了考察, 找到了幾個可以對

豬圆像進行解釋的原因.從公元前7000年到3500年遺址中出土器物類型的連績性證實了豬對先民得以存活下來的重要性.在本文中筆者試圖證明豬的圖像暗示了豬崇拜儀式的存在,而豬的崇拜儀式則很可能對上層階級之形成不無助益.從考古學的角度看,精致的墓冢表明了死者的特殊身份,而上層階級之存在也可以從墓冢的修築, 隨葬器物的製作,玉石和銅的採集都需要有組織者來組織管理這一點上得到印證.

Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 20 , 1995 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1995

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