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The Role of the Frontier in Chinese Lineage Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Burton Pasternak
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Extract

Many writers interested in Chinese culture and society have drawn attention to the uneven distribution of large, highly corporate, localized lineages in China. Many have noted the concentration of such lineages in the two southeastern provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung, but relatively few writers have attempted to offer anything like a systematic explanation for the distribution. The most recent and ambitious attempt to come to grips with the problem is found in Maurice Freedman's book, Chinese Lineage and Society. The author reviews a number of factors relevant to the emergence and persistence of strong lineages, and singles out a few which he considers to be of special importance. A relationship is suggested between rice cultivation, extensive irrigation, the exigencies of frontier life, and the emergence of large, localized, highly corporate lineages. The purpose of this paper will be to reassess the role of the frontier in the development of the Chinese lineage. We will consider the extent to which the conditions of frontier life may have functioned as a catalyst in the formation of elaborated, localized lineages in China. Freedman has suggested that the need for cooperation in opening and bringing water to wild land, and in defending life and property, stimulated a rapid development of corporate, localized lineages on the southeastern Chinese frontier.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , May 1969 , pp. 551 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 New York, 1966.

2 London, 1958.

3 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 160.

4 Idem.

5 Idem.

6 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 163.

7 Ibid., p. 164.

8 Ibid., p. 8.

9 For a more extensive discussion of the social correlates of irrigational variation see the author's article, “On the Social Consequences of Equalizing Irrigation Access,” in Human Organization (forthcoming).

10 Wiens, Herold J., China's March Toward the Tropics, (Hamden, Conn., 1954), p. 182Google Scholar.

11 Eberhard, Wolfram, Social Mobility in Traditional China, (Leiden, 1962), p. 116Google Scholar.

12 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, pp. 11–12.

13 London, 1957, p. 24.

14 Myron Cohen, “The Hakka or ‘Guest People’: Dialect as a Sociocultural Variable in Southeastern China,” in Ethnohistory (forthcoming).

15 Herold J. Wiens, China's March Toward the Tropics, pp. 187–190.

16 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 163.

17 Ibid., p. 164.

18 For a comprehensive discussion of societal levels from an evolutionary perspective see Sahlins, Marshall D., “The Segmentary Lineage: An Organization of Predatory Expansion,” in the American Anthropologist, 63, 1961, pp. 322–345CrossRefGoogle Scholar; or Elman Service, Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective, (New York, 1962)Google Scholar.

19 Marshall D. Sahlins, “The Segmentary Lineage: An Organization of Predatory Expansion,” p. 326.

20 Fried, Morton H., “The Classification of Corporate Unilineal Descent Groups,” in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 87, 1957, pp. 1–29Google Scholar.

21 See Hsien-chin, Hu, The Common Descent Group in China and its Functions, (New York, 1948), p. 45Google Scholar; and Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, pp. 6–7.

22 Compare Kirchhoff, Paul, “The Principles of Clanship in Human Society,” in Fried, M. H. (ed.), Readings in Anthropology, II, (New York, 1959), pp. 260–270Google Scholar; and Morton H. Fried, “The Classification of Corporate Unilineal Descent Groups.”

23 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, p. 7.

24 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 165.

25 Ibid., p. 166.

26 See Gallin, Bernard, Hsin Hsing, Taiwan: A Chinese Village in Change, (Berkeley, 1966)Google Scholar; and Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 99.

27 See the author's article, “Atrophy of Patrilineal Bonds in a Chinese Village in Historical Perspective,” in Ethnohistory (forthcoming); or Tatieh: A Study of Agnatic Atrophy and Village Integration, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1967 (and University Microfilms)Google Scholar.

28 For an excellent discussion bearing on the history, nature, and shortcomings of official attempts to restrict immigration to Taiwan, see Chin-teh, Chuang, “Ch'ing-ch'u Yen-chin Yen-hai Jen-min T'ou-tu Lai-t'ai Shih-mo” (An account of Early Ch'ing Prohibitions on the Immigration of Coastal Peoples to Taiwan), in Taiwan Wen Shian, XV, 3, 1964, pp. 1–20Google Scholar; and XV, 4, 1964, pp. 40–62. C.f., Ch'i-lu, Ch'en, “A Brief History of Taiwan,” in the Journal of the China Society, 5, 1967, p. 80Google Scholar; Cheng-siang, Chen, Taiwan: An Economic and Social Geography, (Taipei, 1963), pp. 46–51Google Scholar; and Chen, Ta, Chinese Migrations, With Special Reference to Labor Conditions, (Washington, 1923), p. 42Google Scholar.

29 Ta Chen, Chinese Migrations, With Special Reference to Labor Conditions, pp. 42–43.

30 T'ai-wan Sheng Miao-H Hsien-chih (The Gazetteer of Miaoli County in Taiwan Province), 1960, p. 51.

31 Ibid., pp. 51–52.

32 Ibid., p. 53.

33 See Chen Cheng-siang, Taiwan: An Economic and Social Geography, pp. 48–49.

34 See the author's article, “On the Social Consequences of Equalizing Irrigation Access,” (forthcoming).

35 See Liu Chao-shu, T'ai-wan Kao-p'ing Erh-hsien K'o-chia l-wang K'ao (Researches on the Migrations of the Hakka in Kaohsiung and Pingtung Counties), unpublished manuscript, n.d., (copy in author's possession); c.f., Chen Cheng-siang, Taiwan: An Economic and Social Geography, pp. 48–49.

36 Chen Shao-hsing, ‘Social Change in Taiwan,” in Studia Taiwanica, No. 1, 1956, pp. 4–5.

37 Myron Cohen, “The Hakka or ‘Guest People’: Dialect as a Sociocultural Variable in Southeastern China,” (forthcoming).

38 It is interesting to note that the “Six-Camps” organization, although completely reorganized, still exists in the form of a Liu-tui Chung-i Tz'u Kuan-li Wei-yüan Hui (Six-Camps Loyalty and Righteousness Temple Management Committee), and Liu-tui Chung-i Tz'u Tao-ku Chi-chin Hui (Six-Camps Loyalty and Righteousness Temple Grain Foundation). These agencies have lost their earlier military function, but they continue to constitute a viable and effective Hakka religious, social, and political organ. Hakka heroes are worshipped, a temple is maintained, stipends are provided for gifted students, and Hakka interests are generally guarded.

39 See the audior's article, “Atrophy of Patrilineal Bonds in a Chinese Village in Historical Perspective,” in Ethnohistory (forthcoming); or Tatieh: A Study of Agnatic Atrophy and Village Integration, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1967 (and University Microfilms)Google Scholar.

40 Freedman, Maurice, Chinese Lineage and Society, p. 115.Google Scholar