Abstract:

 As the resistance of farmers becomes increasingly complex, the research on the organization and politics of farmers’ protests for their rights goes more in depth. To be realistic, this approach is necessary. However, as resistance is a process, the form prior to a complex protest is usually primitive, simple, and selfgenerated. This primitive resistance is defined as “resistance in the early stage which lacks careful planning or organization and is spontaneously initiated by farmers with their own volition.” Being “primitive” is relative to being “complex,” it has its own unique fighting ethics. This resistance form has its roots in the farmers’ experiential cognition and is out of their instinct for selfdefense. It is recognized as an effective way to solve problems, focusing more on their own “reason” rather than “legitimacy.”This paper takes a protest in Village Hai, Eastern Zhejiang province, as an example to describe the sea villagers’ initial stage of their protest against the environment during which the farmers spontaneously used resisting forms such as road blocking, verbal abuse, smashing, and worship as their own way to protect themselves. These forms of resistance were somewhat effective in that they had sent the chemical factory warnings, expressed their demands, and showed their own way of thinking and acting. As a behavioral expression, the villagers protected themselves by the most direct way, effective even not so organized. If handled improperly, the event might have evolved into an intense mass struggle, becoming a factor of social unrest. As a psychological expression, the villagers’ primitive resistance was backed up by the value system naturally formed in the village society by the villagers who had avoided disasters and reconstructed their action knowledge with their past experiences. Utilization of the primitive resistance included protest, maintenance, and rethinking.

Key words: environmental events, , primitive resistance, , rights protection