Abstract

Embodied cultural heritage often takes shape in festive arenas where ritual practice produces visible social order and public norms. Based on fieldwork in Sizhai Village, China, this article examines the Dong wrestling festival through interaction ritual chains, tracing how preparation, meat distribution, sacrificial rites, processions, singing, performances, wrestling, and post-event visiting enact and stabilize festival order. The findings show that public allocation activates fairness and trust, coordinated rituals clarify roles and boundaries, performances sustain emotional resonance and collective memory, wrestling regulates antagonism through procedure, and visiting repairs social ties. Festival order, therefore, does not rely on coercive force but emerges through linked interactional moments where affective mobilization and procedural boundaries sustain each other.

Keywords: Dong wrestling, Traditional ethnic sport, Festive ritual, Social practice, Order formation