Traditional Ecological Views and Practices of the Miao People on Hainan Island: Formation, Structure, and Contemporary Transformation

Abstract

This paper examines the formation, structure, and contemporary transformation of traditional ecological  views among the Miao (Hmong) people on Hainan Island, China, adopting an ecological anthropology  paradigm and drawing on multi-sited fieldwork conducted across Miao-inhabited and Li–Miao mixed  communities in Baisha, Qiongzhong, Wuzhishan, Ledong, Changjiang, Chengmai, and Qionghai in Hainan  Province between 2022 and 2025. Grounded in Berkes's (1999, 2012) four-tier Traditional Ecological  Knowledge framework and Rappaport's (1968) ritual ecology perspective, the study documents how Hainan  Miao ecological thought is rooted in a dual philosophical foundation of Daoist cosmology and animistic  indigenous beliefs, and how this worldview has undergone three historical phases of transformation: a  relatively closed traditional phase (Ming dynasty to 1949), a state-integration and market-shock phase  (1949-2000), and a contemporary ecological civilization phase (2000-present) anchored by the  establishment of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in 2021. The paper presents rich ethnographic  cases from Wengcun Miao Village, Shuiman Township, Xiangtu Village, and Youyi Village, illuminating  the Miao ecological knowledge system across three dimensions: ethnobotany, ethnozoology, and ecological  governance institutions. The community-level institutional apparatus-comprising the village elder (yangge)  authority, the customary langgui code, and the chicken-feather-letter (jimaoxin) whistleblowing  mechanism-is analyzed as a socially enforced ecological regulation system that has maintained biodiversity  and forest cover across centuries. The paper further argues that Miao TEK exhibits dynamic adaptive  capacity rather than static cultural heritage, and calls for its formal integration into the national park co-management frameworks and rural revitalization policy.