A Study on the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of Jingpo
Situated mainly in the Dehong Autonomous Region of Yunnan province,Jingpo has been still in the late period of the primitive society till the "Democratic Reform" in 1956.Because the minority didn\'t have characters in history,its customary norms have been passed down by means of "conducting of mouth and ear".All the central governments of previous dynasties had adopted the "Indirect Rule" on Dehong region till its liberation,and the local Chieftain didn\'t impose strong control on Jingpo region,so the region is under a kind of "spontaneous order" basically.Since the documents about Jingpo were very insufficiency,it is difficult to research Jingpo\'s customary norms.So researching the solving disputes is a right way.The disputes represent society\'s concrete facts,and solving disputes verifies the specific operation of the norms.Therefore,researching the dispute settlement mechanism can make a step further on the customary norms of Jingpo.This article,based on more than 100 cases settled by Jingpo\'s customary norms as main reference material that the author collected through field work in Jingpo region by myself, takes the dispute settlement mechanism as the inspection object and the research center before the "Democratic Reform",so the author attempts to make a simple description of the law order in Jingpo region.To restore true history of the mechanism to maintain social order,the author elaborated the contents of the mechanism after beginning with its formation environment and on the center of the "mediating" in the dispute settlement mechanism of the heritor Shanguan.As examples of marriage,life and theft disputes,the author elaborates the operational state of the mechanism,and then summarizes its five characters and three values. Only respecting history can we return to original history on the greatest degree,and it can lay a solid foundation for today\'s legislation.By analysis of specific cases,the author combines the static customary norms with the dynamic process of solving disputes,and implies a clue of the change about the mechanism,which shows the rationality and the vitality of Jingpo s dispute settlement mechanism.In this article,the author doesn\'t want to give some kind of systematic interpretation of the mechanism,and just wants to touch itself in the angle of legal culture.It reaches the purpose that my shallow research can evoke further research.More specifically,this article arranges as follows: The Introduction includes four parts,which separately introduce the research origin and the significance of selected topic,the retrospect of the relevance study,materials and research method,as well as special concept and the time-space determined.Speaking from the jurisprudence not paying enough attention to customary norms and few achievements about Jingpo s dispute settlement mechanism,the author tries to interpret this mechanism by ways of history,anthropology,ethnology and sociology,which promotes the process of the legal system modernization of Jingpo.The first chapter discusses the environment of Jingpo\'s dispute settlement mechanism. The author sums up the subjective and objective conditions which the mechanism formed by retrospection of Jingpo\'s civilization history,which contains its inaccessible living environment,backward economy and primitive religion belief.The second chapter explores the content of Jingpo\'s dispute settlement mechanism.The author believes that its ways can be divided into three categories:meditation,ordeal and fighting.And the meditation is the most important and normal way.It is against the disputes that the fact is clear and irrefutable evidence,so its essence is to adopt a peaceful way to eliminate the contradiction.The mechanism is divided into five kinds:the elder dispute settlement mechanism,village-head dispute settlement mechanism,heritor Shanguan dispute settlement mechanism,Chieftain dispute settlement mechanism and central government official dispute settlement mechanism.The heritor Shanguan dispute settlement mechanism is the main body,which has solved the majority disputes in Jingpo region.As a way,the ordeal is the last way which is based on the primitive religion belief.It is not yet discovered in the literature and the field materials that the God\'s justice does not carry out.This shows that the dignity of the God has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Jingpo people.The fighting isn\'t a very common way which solves the dispute between two parties.The result of the fighting is either let the other party to put up with its way,or to compel the other side back to the normal track of meditation.These three ways complement each other and maintain the social order of this region together.The article points out that" the law follows deficiency with proper motion ".There are two kinds of authorities to guarantee the result which is carried out smoothly:one is the inherent authority that the people are generally recognized,that is,conscientiously complying with the result and the authority of primitive religion belief;the other is from external enforcement generated by external authority,that is,primitive political authority of the heritor Shanguan,clan authority and the authority of public opinion.Because the heritor Shanguan is the supreme ruler with considerable force in the area,he is the most important to implement the result.Certainly,this is also to maintain his dominant status.The third chapter studies the operation of Jingpo \'s dispute settlement mechanism(Ⅰ).As examples of marriage and sexual relationship disputes,the chapter discusses operational state of the mechanism.Coming along with the history of human civilization for marriage system, it\'s inevitable to bring about these disputes.The author divided these disputes into five categories:the love disputes,the marriage disputes,the divorce disputes,the adultery disputes and the raping disputes.Marriage disputes include violating "the same family name not to marry","the unidirectional maternal uncle to show the marriage","maternal aunt not to marry" and the rank endogamy disputes.The author analyzes the above solving dispute\'s solution through many cases,and discloses its customary norms and the penalty method. Whether these cases occurred in Chieftain Society or Socialist Society,the main solution is "mediating" through the elder or village--head.The results of the" judge" can be executed smoothly whether a few death penalty or the majority property compensation.Many customary norms still stubbornly stick to their positions in the realm,so it is worth thinking deeply for the relevant department how to solve the disputes by adjusting the relationship between Jingpo\'s customary norms and the statute law.The fourth chapter researches the operation of Jingpo\'s dispute settlement mechanism(Ⅱ). As examples of the life and theft disputes,the chapter discusses operational state of the mechanism.If the marriage and sexual relationships disputes are the representatives of the civil disputes,the life and theft disputes are the representatives of the criminal disputes.The life disputes may be divided into the following four categories:intentional homicide disputes, "langdangsi" disputes,the blood disputes and the manslaughter disputes.The author reveals the ways how to handle the life disputes through the analysis of specific cases,which is with the life price and homomorphism compensation system.This kind of unique homomorphism compensation system is to pay the victims in accordance with the deceased\'s body parts,and it is also the response that Jingpo people sincerely believe the primitive religion.It shows the hierarchy in Jingpo society that the compensation of killing an officer is as much as two times of killing a civilian.In the theft disputes,the article divides it into three categories:ordinary theft disputes,special theft disputes and hard-solving theft disputes.Among them,special theft disputes refer to the disputes to steal the millet,chicken and bee.The hard-solving disputes are resolved through the ordeal,which are all related to Jingpo\'s primitive religion belief.The theft is implemented by the heavy fine,some are even killed.Generally,the criminal disputes were solved by the heritor Shanguan dispute settlement mechanism; because the nature of criminal disputes is worse and its social harmfulness is serious to a greater impact on ordinary people.Handled the criminal disputes,not only did it embody that the Chieftain attached importance to the people\'s life and property,but also enhanced his prestige and maintained his dominant position.Of course,it is flexible to determine the specific amounts for the heritor Shanguan,which is the vitality of the mechanism.The fifth chapter sums up the characteristics of Jingpo s dispute settlement mechanism. The purpose of this chapter is to deepen the comprehension of the content and operation of the mechanism and a better grasp on it.The article thinks that the mechanism is spontaneous formation in Jingpo society.It has five characteristics that include multiple forms,primitive democracy,locality,restorability and magical intention.Some of these characteristics could explain exactly why the mechanism has the survival space in Jingpo rejoin now.The sixth chapter is dedicated to the value of Jingpo\'s dispute settlement mechanism. Taking the law culture and the law sociology as an angle of view,the article thinks that the mechanism mainly has three great values:reflecting clues to the origin of law,promoting social harmony and inheriting national law culture.The origin of law is the cornerstone of jurisprudence and is still puzzling many scholars today.Till the liberation,since it had been still in primitive society and existed dispute settlement mechanism in Jingpo region,this may provide a little clues that "law is not synchronized with the country ".For many Jingpo s customary norms derived from the sacrificial ceremony,the objective facts can also provide a thread of proof to verify that "sacrificial ceremony is one of the law origin ".These can provide some clues to explore the origin of law.The role of the mechanism should not be underestimated because Jingpo\'s heritage of law culture depends mainly on "conducting of mouth and ear".The majority of Jingpo people feel the authority of customary norms through solving disputes of the heritor Shanguan,headman and priests,and it has expanded imperceptibly the influence of Jingpo s law culture because Jingpo people pass it generation by generation.The social harmony is one of goals which the human society pursues,and the mechanism is to maintain the harmonious condition of Jingpo society.For example,the meditation system of which the Jingpo person gathers around the firepot and drinks while solving the dispute,the life price.property compensation system and God\'s thoroughness,all those glitters the glory to pursue society harmonious idea.It is precisely originated from the pursuit of social harmony;Jingpo people can continuously strengthen the cohesion of the nation and maintain the social stability of Jingpo region for a long time.The last part draws a conclusion and goes beyond it.Through the analysis and study of preceding chapters,the author draws a conclusion that "the mechanism plays an important role in order to maintain the social order in Jingpo region".Studying history is to draw lessons for today.Though mainly the research took the society before the "Democratic Reform" as its background,the author has also involves a few cases that occurred in recent 20 years and resolved by Jingpo\'s customary norms.This shows that the civil mechanism still has a tenacious vitality in today\'s Jingpo society.Only facing this kind of reality and kindly treating the mechanism,can the legislature and judiciary further promote the process of law modernization of Jingpo.At the same time,the article warns us that we must absorb useful factors of the minorities\' law culture and make better use of all legal tradition in China.This not only helps strengthen the legal construction of the minority areas,but also it is instructive to promote Chinese modernization process of the legal system.