Suchergebnisse

Introduction -- Introduction to Arthur H. Smith's Village life in China -- Being Chinese : the peripheralization of traditional identity -- Cultural and political inventions in modern China : the case of the Chinese "peasant" -- North China rural families : changes during the communist era -- Lineage development and the family in China -- Lineage organization in north China -- Lineage organization in east China -- Commodity creation in late imperial China -- Writs of passage in late imperial China : contracts and the documentation of practical understandings in Minong, Taiwan

Field-work in north, south and west China villages reveals that prior to the establishment of the People's Republic family organization at all three sites was characterized by the same customary arrangements concerning ownership of property, economic ties among family members, family management and family division. During the collective era and the present period of family fanning changes in these aspects of family life have been along similar lines. I was in a Hebei village for four months during 1986–87, and in 1990 carried out three-month periods of field-work in villages in Shanghai county and on the Chengdu Plain in Sichuan.

Using information from fieldwork in three mainland China villages and earlier work on Taiwan, the author aims to show that both ultimate aspirations and practical management are fully institutionalized within the context of family organization of villagers. She notes that in all three villages the status of the family as a unit of ownership of property and other resources is fundamental. Rights to individual property are clearly subordinate to those of the family as a whole. (DÜI-Sen)