✦ 主 题 ✦

彝族的鬼神信仰，占卜和巫术——一个认知角度的解读

✦ 时 间 ✦

2022年10月14日（周五）13:30-15:30

✦ 地 点 ✦

浙江大学紫金港西区创意大楼A座1127会议室

✦ 概 要 ✦

I present a detailed ethnographic study of magic and divination of the Nuosu people in southwest China, and offer a cognitive account of the surprising prevalence of these objectively ineffective practices in a society that has ample access to modern technology and mainstream Han culture. I argue that in the belief system of the Nuosu, ghosts, divination, and magical healing rituals form a closely inter-connected web that gives sense and meaning to otherwise puzzling practices, and such belief system is importantly supported and reinforced by individuals’ everyday experiences. Contemporary Nuosu people overwhelmingly treat these practices as instruments for achieving specific ends and often entertain considerable uncertainty regarding their efficacy, which may be over-estimated for a number of reasons, e.g., 1) the intuitive plausibility of divination for ghost identification and exorcist rituals is enhanced by the belief in the existence of ghosts as a result of abductive reasoning, 2) negative instances (divinatory or healing ritual failures) are under-reported, and 3) people’s mis-perception of the probability of uncertain events’ occurrence often prevents them from realizing that the efficacies of magical/divinatory practices do not outperform chance. I conclude with some suggestive comments on the generality of the psychological and social mechanisms discussed.

洪泽(Kevin Hong)，哈佛大学人类进化生物学博士，现任浙江大学社会学系“新百人计划”研究员，哈佛大学人类进化生物学系兼职研究助理（Research Associate），Human Nature编委。研究方向为人类文化，行为和心理机制的生物学基础，人类群体动态的数学模型，以及从认知的角度解读人类社会中的无效技术行为（如巫术和占卜）。相关论文和学术写作发表在人类学，认知科学的龙头期刊 Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Cognitive Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 等。

阿嘎佐诗，英国牛津大学发展研究博士，现任浙江大学人文高等研究院特聘副研究员。研究兴趣包括发展主义、价值、民族志书写、人类学理论与学科史。其研究发表在cArgo: Revue Internationale d’Anthropologie Culturelle & Sociale、 Asian Journal of Social Science、《读书》、《人类学研究》等期刊。

李皓玥，纽约州立大学Albany分校社会学博士，现任浙江大学社会学系“新百人计划”研究员，耶鲁大学文化社会学中心兼职研究员（Faculty Fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology）。聚焦于中国环境治理实践，她目前正致力于Crisis, Legitimation and Contention的专著写作。