BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEW
SHEUNG SHUI: A REVIEW
ARTICLE.
165
PROBLEMS RELATING TO SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG.
MORRIS I. BERKOWITZ*
The rural resident of the New Territories is a resourceful and competent person. He wrings from a largely inhospitable terrain both a way of life and a livelihood, frequently in the face of extremely destructive natural forces. Now, however, the tremendous growth of Hong Kong and the development of his countryside for cities and industrial sites, threatens both his way of life and his livelihood. An unprecedentedly large flow of social scientists have of late descended upon these rural residents to document their way of life, hopefully before it is fundamentally changed. Among the earlier arrivals in this group is H. D. R. Baker who has done an unusual and profitable study of the village of Sheung Shui.1
Dr. Baker has attempted an extremely useful task: he has tried to do a major structural study of this village in an effort to carefully understand the differences between village, community, and lineage and to identify the functions of each of these entities in relation to each of the others. In order to do this, Mr. Baker begins with a detailed introduction to the history of the lineage which serves as a background for the three central chapters of his book which are concerned with the lineage as a ritual and kinship group, the lineage as a community, and segmentation within the lineage. This core is followed by briefer discussions of the leadership of the lineage, the interaction between members and those people who live within the lineage village but are not members of it. He concludes his discussions with considerations of how the lineage relates to outsiders, including other lineages, and some brief comments on the processes of change which are affecting the traditional form of lineage organization.
* Dr. Berkowitz is currently Senior Lecturer and chairman of the department of Sociology and Social Work at Chung Chi College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, on secondment from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is an Associate Professor.
1 Hugh D. R. Baker, A Chinese Lineage Village: Sheung Shui. London: Frank Cass, 1968, pp. xiv, 237, 50/-.