Abstract:

This paper takes Hainan fishermen's Sea God belief as the research object, combines the archaeological discoveries of the South China Sea Islands, the local chronicles of Hainan Island and other documents, and the author's continuous field research data in Hainan from 2012 to 2020 and studies the Sea God belief pedigree and ritual activities of Hainan fishermen from the pedigree theory, using the methods of literature analysis and field investigation.The pedigree of the sea god family includes the sea water standard God, navigation protection God, fisherman professional (industry) God, sea god pilotage God, and others. These form the land-island-ship-spatial pedigree of immigrant societies in Southeast Asian countries; and the time pedigree of before going to sea-after returning home-before fishing-shipwreck-daily.These pedigrees have been incorporated in daily ritual activities in sea ceremonies in South China Sea Islands and daily practice. Based on the genealogical theory, the temporal and spatial genealogy of Hainan fishermen's belief and the social relations and order in ritual activities were analyzed, also by literature analysis and field investigation. The results showed that: 1) The captain has absolute authority. 2) Tradition that formed from those who first visit the island and worshiped the temple prioritized fishing. 3) Joint worship of gods is prominent, with the worship of 108 brothers being the most important and grand aspect of sacrificial ceremonies. 4) The local sea god belief of Hainan fishermen is an important symbol of identity and regional identity of overseas Chinese in Hainan.

Key words: Hainan fishermen, marine belief, pedigree, ritual activities, identification