Living mostly in the mountainous regions of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces, the Yi, one of China's minority nationalities, have long been sedentary agriculturists and stock raisers. Music, dance and traditional myths and legends have served the Yi people as means for expressing various aspects of their culture. Thus beyond its value as literature, the romantic saga Seventh Sister and the Serpent is a rich repository of Yi social life, customs and mores.
The narrative is set in a mythical world where the appearance of fantastic beings and personified animals is taken for granted. The story begins with a flood, which occurs in a distant era of the past. When the flood waters recede, Seventh Sister's parents are discovered in the upper branches of a tall tree. They descend from the tree and give birth to a son and seven daughters. The son of the Dragon King, Serpent Prince, begins an extended and eventually successful courtship of the youngest daughter, a process through which we are introduced in great detail to Yi social customs.
The saga serves as a vehicle for the promotion of important Yi values and warns of the consequences of not living up to them. Hard work, constancy in love, family unity and filial piety are strongly stressed- woe to those who defy the traditional code of behavior! The fate which befalls Eldest Sister is the most obvious example of a moral lesson. In the early part of the saga, she rejects the opportunity of marrying hard-working Serpent Prince in favor of marrying a marten. Later, she covets Seventh Sister and Serpent Prince's hard-won wealth and eventually murders Seventh Sister twice- first as a human being and second as a reincarnated thrush. Yet Eldest Sister receives her just reward when after stuffing herself with cabbage grown from the thrush's remains she drowns in the very well into which she first pushed her youngest sister. The lesson is clear- wealth can only be gained through hard work and self-reliance and implies certain responsibilities. When Seventh Sister and Serpent Prince return to her parents' home after several years of marriage (appropriately in the year of the Snake), they are both performing an act of filial piety and demonstrating that they are capable of making a way for themselves in the world.
The story of Seventh Sister and the Serpent seems much less fantastic than most myths until we consider that the main characters are a beautiful young girl and a serpent. Yet this motif is not uncommon among the peoples of southwestern China. It appears also in the folklore of the Zhuangs of Guangxi. The details in the story vary from group to group and nationality, reflecting local customs and tastes. In the several Yi versions of the tale, the number of sisters varies, events occur in different sequence, and different values are stressed within the conflict between good and evil. However, the motif of a young girl marrying a serpent and coming back to life as a bird after being killed is consistent. Unfortunately, it is difficult with our present knowledge to attribute the original creation of the tale to any particular nationality. Serpent Prince and Dragon King are stock figures in the mythologies of numerous areas in China.
The Yi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. Besides their extensive oral tradition, the Yi also developed a simple writing system used to record historic and sacred texts. Most of these texts make use of a five-character line. The title of the saga, \Seventh Sister and the Serpent,\is derived from the Yi \which means \ah se (an Yi folk melody) style which, like the written texts, uses a five-character line. The poem was collected in Yunnan Province in the later 1950's by a team of researchers based in Kunming. The present translation follows a Chinese version of the text published in 1980.
关键词：saga Yi people oral tradition social customs 对象： 彝族口述文学 方法：文本细读 视角：民俗学
材料：彝族传说《七大姐和蛇》及西南地区流传的相似的传说、故事 论点：彝族传奇是其文化、价值和道德观念的集中体现
意义： 在音乐、舞蹈之外，文本和口传文学也包含有关着少数民族习俗、传统的丰富信息，其重要
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的研究价值有待进一步发掘
Bilingual Society and Bilingual Education of the Yi Ethnic Minority of the Liangshan Yi Ethnic Minority Autonomous Prefecture in China Amid
Cultural Changes—History, Present Situation,
Problems, and Analysis 文化变迁中的中国凉山彝族双语社会和双语教育
——历史，现状，问题与思考
TENG XING
大致内容：本文选自亚洲开发银行技术援助中国少数民族项目总结交流会报告汇编，目的是为凉山彝族双语教育政策的实行提供理论基础，并通过双语教育政策使得少数民族一方面能保持传统文化，另一方面更好地融入主流社会，完成现代化转变。
作者先指出各个民族学习双语或多语的必要性，然后回顾凉山彝族双语教育发展史，附数据表。再阐述凉山彝族双语教育的现状，扫盲成果和问题，对此进行反思。
Ethnic entrepreneurs as carriers of ethnic identity: a case study among the Liangshan Yi (Nuosu) in China
作为族群认同载体的企业家：一项在中国凉山彝族的研究实例
Thomas Heberer
摘要：In this article, the author examines the connection between Yi (Nuosu) entrepreneurship and ethnic identity. First the term identity is discussed, and then important factors for creating identity among Nuosu entrepreneurs are outlined. Concerning the Nuosu–Yi,
until today the clan plays a predominant role. Through entrepreneurship, clantranscending institutions and a clan-transcending ethnic identity are emerging. The author follows up by addressing identity issues in terms of the rewritten official Chinese history on the Yi. To understand the entrepreneurs’ concept of identity, it is necessary to understand that their discourse on questions of status and identity very often coincide with arguments advanced by Yi scholars. Nuosu entrepreneurs, as a new economic and social elite, thereby contribute to the shaping of a new Nuosu collective consciousness. Time (history) and space (Liangshan) are crucial markers of Nuosu identity, but the author argues that economic success is an additional factor for developing a new identity as well. Notably, entrepreneurs are both carriers of ethnic symbols and agents
of modernization who actively shape identity.
关键词：entrepreneurship; ethic entrepreneurs; ethnic identity 对象：凉山彝族企业家
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方法：以实地调查得出的数据证明经济发展是促成新的族群认同形成的因素。 视角：人类学
材料：凉山彝族现代经济发展情况。
论点：经济发展是促成新的族群认同形成的因素，凉山彝族企业家既是群族象征的载体又是现代化进程的动力。
意义：通过研究实例认识到经济因素对族群认同形成的影响以及凉山彝族企业家的作用。
Ethnicity, local interests, and the state: Yi communities in Southwest China
族性、地方利益和国家：中国西南部的彝族群体
Harrell, Stevan
摘要：This paper attempts to explain why the nature of ethnic identity is so different in the three Yi communities in the many villages within fifty kilometers of the industrial city of Panzhihua (formerly Dukou) at the southernmost point of Sichuan province. Ethnic identity and ethnic interaction; The Yi Minzu in China; The Yi of Panzhihua City; The Nuosu of Yanbian County; The lipuo of Pingdi Township; The Shuitian of Zhuangshang Village; the paper try to conceptualize the problem from the perspective of ethnic Identity and ethnic interaction through case studies, it tries to testify that an identity is accepted if it does not contradict either strong primordial sentiments or cogent instrumentalist.
关键词：族群，族性，族群关系，文化冲突 对象：中国西南部彝族群体 方法：比较社会学和历史学
视角：地缘政治对民族认同的影响 材料：案例研究，民族史，地方志
论点：民族认同既不是与某种原始心理等同，也不是屈从于某种认知框架，而是广义的文化认同。
意义：主要讨论了在族群认同问题上，族性与地方利益所给予的影响，由此给出了一微观地域个案研究的方式。
The Yi and the Media
彝族与传媒
Stevan Harrell
摘要:本文系作者在一次会议上的发言讲稿，主要内容是上世纪90年代作者对凉山彝族与大众传媒的关系进行考查的情况。文中作者简略介绍了彝族和彝语的基本情况和作了历史
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发展概况简介，更主要的是他以彝族为例说明了少数民族传统的地域传媒（local media）、人际传媒（interpersonal media）的形式。作者文中花最大笔墨呈现的是少数民族、少数民族文化与大众传媒（mass media）相互作用的途径和关系。作者试图理顺的是媒体在当代的作用及少数民族在中国的地位，即大众传媒在呈现少数民族文化时对该文化是否有改变及改变的程度；随着上世纪80年代早期少数民族精英的培养，政策主要由中央制定，这些政策在少数民族地区的执行主要依靠这些精英，大众传媒被这些精英用来增强本民族间的交流及本民族对外的宣传。
关键词：China；Yi；Minority；Mass Media；
对象：中国彝族传统的地域传媒（local media）、人际传媒（interpersonal media）及彝族与大众传媒（mass media）
方法：整理、归纳彝族文化各传播、交流的媒介以说明少数民族文化与大众媒体互相改变对方的同时促进对方发展的情形。
视角：传播学、人类学
材料：作者亲身体验的彝族文化传播媒介实例
论点：文中罗列了传统的彝族文化交流传播的媒介（手写、口头、演艺、视觉），说明了自上世纪70年代后期，彝族文化逐步从单纯的外来文化接受者转变为双向的自身文化输出者和外来接受者。大众传媒变得可为彝族人所用，彝族人也接受大众传媒将彝族文化呈现给本民族之外的世界。传播彝族文化的大众传播媒介可分为标准化印刷文本（教科书、不同版本的经典作品、报刊杂志）；彝族文化原汁原味的演出（标准的舞蹈录像带、当地人的公开演出、民歌、民乐的录音）；公众视觉艺术（工厂化生产的漆器、纺织品及服饰艺术）；世界性语言（汉语、英语）的学术成果（书籍、会议）；展览（旅游目的地、博物馆）；具有彝族文化元素的演出（剧院中的歌舞演出、流行及摇滚音乐）
意义：厘清少数民族文化在本民族内部及本民族外的有效、准确的交流沟通方式。
Maris Gillette
Harrell, Steven, Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China
透视中国西南部的彝族（书评）
大致内容：《透视中国西南部的彝族》是Stevan Harrell编成的人类学成果合集。本书向英语阅读者介绍了中国西南部的彝族。这一民族虽然人数近七百万，却鲜为人知。它集合了彝族、汉族及西方学者对中国西南（川、滇）地区彝族文化历史、风俗习惯、社会变化及中国少数民族政策等研究的成果。该书是第一部用西方语言（英语）写就的向世界展示中国这原本不为人知的世界的学术作品；全书大致以时间顺序编排论文，较系统地展现彝族从古至今的面貌。具体每一章节和收录的论文标题如下
PART ONE: The Yi in History 历史中的彝族
1. Reconstructing Yi History from Yi Records, by Wu Gu 从彝族的记录中重塑彝族历史
2. Nzymo as Seen in Some Yi Classical Books, by Wu Jingzhong 一些彝族经典书籍中的Nzymo
PART TWO: Nuosu Society in Liangshan 凉山的Nuosu社会
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3. A Comparative Approach to Lineages among the Xiao Liangshan Nuosu and Han, by Ann Maxwell Hill and Eric Diehl
用比较的方法研究小凉山Nuosu族与汉族之间的宗族关系
4. Preferential Bilateral-Cross-Cousin Marriage among the Nuosu in Liangshan, by Lu Hui 凉山Nuosu族间的换婚
5. Names and Genealogies among the Nuosu of Liangshan, by Ma Erzi 凉山Nuosu族的姓名与家谱学
6. Homicide and Homicide Cases in Old Liangshan, by Qubi Shimei and Ma Erzi 老凉山的凶杀及凶杀案
7. Searching for the Heroic Age of the Yi People of Liangshan, by Liu Yu 寻找凉山彝族人的英雄时代
8. On the Nature and Transmission of Bimo Knowledge in Liangshan, by Bamo Ayi 论凉山Bimo知识的本质和传播
PART THREE: Yi Society in Yunnan 云南的彝族社会
9. The Cold Funeral of the Nisu Yi, by Li Yongxiang Nisu彝族的冷葬
10. A Valley-House: Remembering a Yi Headmanship by Erik Mueggler 山谷之舍：纪念一位彝族头人
11. Native Place and Ethnic Relations in Lunan Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan, by Margaret Byrne Swain
云南Lunan彝族自治县的当地村寨及民族关系
PART FOUR: The Yi Today 今日彝族
12. Language Policy for the Yi, by David Bradley 针对彝族的语言政策
13. Nationalities Conflict and Ethnicity in the People’s Republic of China, with Special Reference to the Yi in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, by Thomas Heberer
中华人民共和国的民族冲突与民族性，关于凉山彝族自治区的彝族 14. Education and Ethnicity among the Liangshan Yi, by Martin Schoenhals 凉山彝族的教育和民族性
15. Nuosu Women’s Economic Role in Ninglang, Yunnan, under the Reforms, by Wu Ga (Vugashynyumo Luovu)
云南Ninglang地区Nuosu女性改革中的经济角色
16. The Yi Health Care System in Liangshan and Chuxiong, by Xiaoxing Liu 凉山和楚雄的彝族保健体系
Language policy for China’s minorities: Orthography development for the Yi
中国少数民族的语言政策：彝语的拼写发展
Bradley, David
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