The influence of primitive witchcraft in folk paper-cutting
Primitive witchcraft and "life worship" are important themes of folk paper-cutting in northern my country. In the south, they mostly appear in ethnic minority areas. Whether it is the primitive witchcraft of worshiping gods, exorcizing demons, and begging for children, or the "witch stall" ritual popular in southern ethnic minority areas, survival and reproduction have always been the main content of the primitive "life worship" and are the most basic groups of human beings and all living things. Consciousness is also the origin of folk witchcraft and folk art. All folk art creations do not depart from the basic theme of "worship of life".
"Life worship" includes awe of supernatural powers and ancestor worship. This kind of worship has roughly gone through three stages: first, the worship of animals, plants and inanimate objects, and mythology of them; the second stage is the worship of demigods and half humans, integrating gods and humans into one; The third stage is the worship of people, turning people into gods. Many different totems appeared in different stages. To this day, in the Shaanxi folk paper-cutting in the Yellow River Basin, the totem forms of these three stages are still tenaciously living in every household. After long-term exchanges and integration, we can distinguish between different regions. Many common images can be seen in folk paper-cutting.
The reason why the themes of primitive witchcraft and "life worship" account for a larger proportion of folk paper-cutting themes in northern my country than in the south is closely related to the penetration and spread of Central Plains culture. Perhaps it can be said that the proportion of extensive and implicit content depends on the amount of "civilized" content. The civilization referred to here is only a product of technology and order in a general sense.
