VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933
127
The most simple of these groupings is the sex family proper. Larger than this, although tied almost as closely together and of much the same order, is the “larger family”, in which relatives by blood or marriage, but extending over several generations through the male line, live together in a common household. Often it is only fragments of other simple families, widows or orphans, who, dwelling together with a sex-family, form out of it a "larger family". On the whole the sex family proper and the "larger family" present the same general features, and need not here be distinguished.
Kulp uses the term “economic family" to describe all those who make up a common economic unit. The individual kinsmen may live in sex-families, in larger groups in separate parts of the village, or abroad, but so long as they pool their resources, own their property in common, and are administered by a single Chia-chang they may be called an economic family. This grouping, according to Kulp, is the working unit for maintenance in the village community.
The term "religious family" may be used to describe a unit of all those who trace their descent from and worship a common ancestor. The whole clan usually sacrifices to a common ancestor, of course, but various more recent ancestors may be the object of worship by smaller groups, down to the single family which honors the spirits of its deceased parents or grandparents. If the group in the religious family is large enough it may have its own ancestral temple aside from the one which will be the center of worship for the whole clan. Because it is the chief preserver of village practices and values, and because its leader is one of the individuals through whom clan authority is integrated, the religious family has great significance in village life. It is the practical unit of social control in the village.
A definite system of integrating authority among the various groups within the sib is characteristic of clan life. Over the sex groups which make up an economic family, or over a number of economic groups which make up a religious family there is a recognized head, who in his province has both an authority over and a responsibility for the members in his group. Above the economic or ancestral groups stand the clan leaders. In many cases the head of a lesser group will by no means have the final authority in matters which Westerners might consider his responsibility alone. Thus
Ibid., p. 148.