Abstract: Through investigating the traditional pig-raising in Enshi Prefecture in Hubei province,this paper examines the relationship between villagers' daily activities and their ontological security. Like many other rural areas in China,villages in southwest Hubei have undergone rapid social changes in the past decades,represented by depopulation and social fragmentation. Villagers staying in rural areas have used traditional pig farming to deal with these changes,which helps them to set up relative stability in changes. The study shows that traditional pig-raising,especially the ethnobotanical knowledge associated with plants collected for pigs,brings villagers a strong feeling of temporal and spatial order,as well as continuity, reliability and control,which is essential to ontological security. It helps villagers to maintain a state of "independence without isolation",which is conducive to the continuity of rural communities.

Key words: villagers staying in rural areas, traditional pig-raising, daily activities, ontological security