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YUEN-FONG WOON
first preference to buy or rent private plots belonging to a fellow villager.
Chungshe was similar to Na-loh in social organization. There was no community temple belonging to the village as a whole. Instead, each lineage had its own ancestral hall with corporate property. Moreover, private or corporate property seldom changed hands from one lineage to another. Lineage mates only bought land from one another or from their own ancestral halls.
In his final chapter, Pasternak gives two explanations to account for the differences in social organization between his two Taiwan villages. The first is that there was the need for common defence in Tatieh against another ethnic group in the vicinity. But in Chungshe, there was no such need. The second reason is that there was a need for co-operation in irrigation projects in Tatieh but not in Chungshe.
I think these explanations might also account for the differences in social organization between Lung-tsai She and Na-loh Ts'uen of Hoi-p'ing. Lung-tsai She was situated in the upper course of the T'aam River (*). The terrain was much more hilly, and there was a greater need for cross-surname co-operation in irrigation and drainage. Na-loh was in the middle course of the T'aam River. The village did not suffer from water problems. Informants have only heard one case of flood in the village. People went away for several days until the water subsided. Usually the farmers relied on nearby streams for irrigation. They just went to carry water back by means of their buckets.
In the case of Lung-tsai She, the need for cross-surname co-operation in defence was apparent between 1911 and 1926 when the whole of Hoi-p'ing was in civil disorder as a result of power struggles between the Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Yunnan Warlords. The Kwaan, the Wong and the Tang in Lung-tsai She joined with other villages in the vicinity to form the multi-surname Tsung-long Heung Militia (2) for self-defence. In the case of Na-loh village, however, there was no co-operation between the Kwaan and Oo for defence.
Thus, it appears that the need for co-operation in defence and irrigation resulted in greater social integration among villagers in Lung-tsai She than among villagers in Na-loh, just as Pasternak's study has suggested. Nonetheless, the contrast between the Hoi-p'ing villages...