Unveiling Pedigree Culture of Yi People

Yi people, with over 800 million populations, and as one of China's largest ethnic minorities, are mainly living over Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi, in which Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan is the largest Yi community. Liangshan Yi people inherit and preserve the oldest custom and intact traditional culture which is closely related with the Yi pedigree culture. This paper introduces the Yi's pedigree culture from three aspects and points out that pedigree is the tie to maintain Yi's blood origin, an important form to maintain Yi's social system, and valuable archives of Yi's history.