Description
Book SynopsisPresents the study of a workers' village in North Taiwan that makes an important contribution to the comparative literature on Chinese and Taiwanese social organization.
Trade Review"Ploughshare Village balances between Taiwan’s hills and plains as its people do between laborers and petty entrepreneurs. Stevan Harrell neatly builds these and the many other dialectical relationships he perceives in Ploughshare into an exceptional anthropological study."
* Journal of Asian Studies *
"Strongly recommend[ed] . . . not just to readers interested in China and Taiwan . . . but to those having broad interests in economic development, Marxian analyses, and dependency theories."
* American Anthropologist *
"By focusing on a village of labourers Harrell provides a useful comparison for all the previous studies of farming and fishing communities. . . . One of the best works we have in sinological anthropology. . . . An excellent illustration . . . of how a detailed village study can be linked, through time, to the wider systems in which it is placed."
* Man *
"A welcome addition to the growing literature on contemporary China. . . . Demonstrate[s] how Chinese social structure . . . is utilized in varying socioeconomic contexts."
* American Ethnologist *
"This anthropological study of a workers’ village in North Taiwan makes an important contribution to the comparative literature on Chinese social organization."
* Choice *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface to the 2015 Edition
A Note on Romanization
Introduction
1. Ploughshare in the Socioeconomic System
2. The Changing Nature of Work
3. Social Inequality
4. Community Relations
5. Family Organization
6. The Organization of Religion
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
