330
BOOK REVIEWS
interviews as well as genealogies, and show how these different sources are complementary. The last essay in the book (chapter 11) includes a number of boat people's songs and shows how much can be learnt from them.
Discussion of historical "events" from evidence contained in genealogies in this way is useful, and, indeed more such discussion, of more "events" is needed. Nonetheless, something is missing from these essays, such as a discussion of the genealogies as family, rather than historical records, of the limitations of oral accounts as accurate reconstructions, of the particular problems posed by tablets as being records designed to be publicly known and so forth. Missing also is a reconstruction of the purposes for which the genealogies were drawn up in the first place and the politics of lineage and inter-lineage groups that played such an important part in their construction and transmission. The study of genealogies is indeed an important element in the study of lineage history and organization, but it is much more useful if an anthropological perspective can be incorporated.
The historian does, of course, have an important part to play in studying genealogies. As well as discussing the historical implications of material included in the genealogies, he can study them textually, compare them and sort out their inter-relations. The authors of this book have not yet done enough of this sort of work. The Lung Yeuk Tau Wan genealogy, for instance, that provides some of the most important passages quoted in this book, is not, as is suggested in the book, a genealogy of any Wan lineage, but is an early version of the Lung Yeuk Tau Tang genealogies. It is, in fact, one of the earliest genealogies relating to this area extant, and as such is very important for the study of the early Ch'ing and even the late Ming in the New Territories. The historian can also supplement the genealogies through interviews, but it is important to note the sources of these accounts. The reference to a Kaak Chun market on page 45, alleged to have been set up by the Haus of Ho Sheung Heung and Yin Kong, for instance, would be more valuable if the source of the information i.e. from which lineage and which village - had been given.
The four chapters (1, 2, 3, and 7) on genealogies include a record of Hong Kong University's efforts in collecting these