Confucian Ancestral Worship’s Legacies In Peninsular Malaysia

• मुख्य लेखक: Chong, Siaw Chan
• स्वरूप: थीसिस
• भाषा: अंग्रेज़ी
• प्रकाशित: 2020
• विषय: H1-99 Social sciences (General)
• ऑनलाइन पहुंच: http://eprints.usm.my/54045/

Confucian ancestral worship espouses the notion of filial piety to the family ancestors. Ancestral worship originated from Mainland China more than 2,700 years ago and this practice had since expanded worldwide. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Chinese families viewed Confucian ancestral worship as a matter of cultural inheritance. However, the legacies of Confucian ancestral worship in Peninsular Malaysia were unnamed, unspecified and uncategorised, especially amid rapid social change. This study is therefore aimed at identifying the (i) legacies of Confucian ancestral worship, (ii) tenacity of legacies, (iii) cultural expression and transmission of legacies, and (iv) social memory formation. This study is conducted under a conceptual framework that consists of Geertz’s symbolic anthropology and Goodenough’s ethnoscience. Using this framework, this study employs in-depth interviews, fieldworks and questionnaire survey to gather data on Confucian ancestral worship. The results and findings revealed that Confucian ancestral worship has seven legacies, where three are tangible (temporal cycle, mnemonics and ritual equipment) while four are intangible (performance art of the remote past, artistic disciplines, social expectation and intergenerational memory). The study revealed that the existence of legacies hinges on four extents of tenacity, seven cultural expressions, five cultural transmission channels and three types of social memory.