Description

Book Synopsis
Using historical documents and evidence gathered in the field, Rubie Watson provides a social history of the 600-year-old Chinese lineage village of Ha Tsuen in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and demonstrates the crucial role that the lineage played in the evolution of the community from a few scattered households in the fourteenth century into a regional power from the 1700s onwards. Despite a patrilineal ideology that extols the virtues of brotherhood and equality, Dr Watson shows that the lineage has in fact played a central role in the formation, development and maintenance of an Ãlite class of landlords and merchants, who, even though their economic importance has now declined, continue to exert political control. Dr Watson examines the dynamics of interclass relations within a single lineage and shows how these relations have been transformed as a consequence of the growth of wage labour.

Table of Contents
Preface; Maps; 1. Introduction; 2. The development of the Teng lineage: Ha Tsuen's early history; 3. Lineage organization and ideology; 4. Economic organization: the land and the market; 5. Local political organization; 6. Class differences in Ha Tsuen: the social and cultural dimension; 7. Marriage, affinity and class; 8. Economic and political changes: 1945–1978; 9. Social and cultural transformations; 10. Class and kinship; References; Glossary; Index.

Inequality among Brothers Class and Kinship in South China 53 Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology Series Number 53

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    A Paperback by Rubie S. Watson

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      View other formats and editions of Inequality among Brothers Class and Kinship in South China 53 Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology Series Number 53 by Rubie S. Watson

      Publisher: Cambridge University Press
      Publication Date: 9/17/2007 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780521040587, 978-0521040587
      ISBN10: 0521040582
      Also in:
      Social classes

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Using historical documents and evidence gathered in the field, Rubie Watson provides a social history of the 600-year-old Chinese lineage village of Ha Tsuen in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and demonstrates the crucial role that the lineage played in the evolution of the community from a few scattered households in the fourteenth century into a regional power from the 1700s onwards. Despite a patrilineal ideology that extols the virtues of brotherhood and equality, Dr Watson shows that the lineage has in fact played a central role in the formation, development and maintenance of an Ãlite class of landlords and merchants, who, even though their economic importance has now declined, continue to exert political control. Dr Watson examines the dynamics of interclass relations within a single lineage and shows how these relations have been transformed as a consequence of the growth of wage labour.

      Table of Contents
      Preface; Maps; 1. Introduction; 2. The development of the Teng lineage: Ha Tsuen's early history; 3. Lineage organization and ideology; 4. Economic organization: the land and the market; 5. Local political organization; 6. Class differences in Ha Tsuen: the social and cultural dimension; 7. Marriage, affinity and class; 8. Economic and political changes: 1945–1978; 9. Social and cultural transformations; 10. Class and kinship; References; Glossary; Index.

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