Symbolic Coding and Intertextual Narration of Hani Marriage Belief

Overview

This study examines two material artifacts within Hani marital culture—the gold craft object Riyue Pan and the woven artifact Pa An—as symbolic carriers of cultural memory and social meaning. Operating from a semiotic framework integrating Peirce's trichotomy and Barthesian mythological analysis, the research investigates how these objects function as signifying systems that encode and transmit matrimonial and cosmological knowledge within a cultural context characterized by oral transmission and script-absent language preservation.

Methods and approach

The investigation employs integrated semiotic deconstruction combining Peirce's semiotic trinity and Barthes' mythological theory as analytical frameworks. Fieldwork documentation and visual analysis were conducted to systematically deconstruct the signifier composition, referential meanings, and pragmatic deployment contexts of both artifacts. This approach enables examination of the transformation trajectory from utilitarian function to symbolic resonance, analyzing how material properties and visual signification systems encode cultural meaning.

Key Findings

The Riyue Pan demonstrates a semantic shift functioning as a rigid symbol, transitioning from fertility invocation and protective amulet to matrimonial alliance marker through metaphorical encoding via milk nail pattern configurations and animal-plant totemic symbolism. The Pa An operates as a flexible symbol whose geometric pattern compositions visually instantiate Hani migratory territorial histories and craft technical knowledge, establishing material-based affective dimensions. Both artifacts collectively materialize cosmological understanding, aggregated historical memory, and institutionalized gender-differentiated labor organization within matrimonial ritual contexts.

Implications

These material artifacts transcend functional utility to operate as testimonial objects authenticating relational bonds while simultaneously encoding collective cosmology and cultural historical knowledge. The symbolic rhetoric embedded across both objects demonstrates mechanisms through which script-absent societies materialize and transmit complex cultural information through object-based intertextuality. The findings indicate how material culture functions as primary knowledge substrate in oral-dominant societies, with marital artifacts serving as condensed repositories of cosmological, genealogical, and social organizational principles.