By reconstructing the interaction between the indigenous people and the Chinese state over a long period of time from the Tang dynasty to the Qing, this thesis argues that the anomaly of indigenous contact with the state in the southwest, unlike the Pearl River delta or even Fujian, is the very long duration of contact and the persistent representation of the indigenous as part of the dominant (Han) tradition, despite the Han claim to superiority. / In my visits to Gaozhou, Leizhou and Hainan, I was attracted by the interesting phenomenon that Madam Xian (Xian Furen) or the God of Thunder (Lei shen) is worshiped not only as a deity, but also as an ancestor. The deities had been blended in with the ancestor because in the late imperial period, local people had changed the foci of their territorial worship as they became become part of the Chinese polity. / This paper draws on a variety of sources---including official documents, the images of the subjection of the natives, the temples, and the performance of ritual and so on---to voice the indigenous point of view. It goes into the history of Hainan, Leizhou and Gaozhou to relate changing religious practices with social changes and the contact between the indigenous and the state. It also relates history to ritual practices as they are currently observed. By bringing together published historical sources, steles and documents found in the field and current observations of ritual practices, this thesis shows that the imperial tradition was made up of many different strands. / 賀喜. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 261-276). / Adviser: David Faure. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0714. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 261-276). / He Xi.