The Stone of Mount Tai: Shigandang Worship in Northern China and the Power of Symbols

By using ethnographic evidence and theoretical analysis, this article challenges the distinction between symbolic meanings and power lying in material objects. The perception and worship of the stones from a holy mountain in a city in northern China show how the symbolic meaning and the agency of material objects are connected to each other, and the importance of the body as a parameter for our comprehension of the material world and society. Furthermore, this view on the connectedness between the agency of the stone, its symbolic meanings, and the human body reflects local people’s understanding of what network and association are in human beings’ daily life in a Latourian sense.