EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY
59
Hakka society thus seems to have been largely an affair of expansion. We can perhaps in this segment-ramification trace one of the main clues to an understanding of the spectacular Hakka migration from the north of China in southerly and westerly directions,24
IV
Karl Gustav Izikowitz defines ‘expansion' as 'the phenomenon of a fraction of inhabitants separating from their group and leaving their district in order to settle in or occupy, either for a long time or permanently, another area over which they have obtained control.'25 The move away to towns or overseas settlements, characteristic of the valley studied, could then hardly be described in terms of expansion, as this type of migrants always had an intention to return to the place of origin, and most often actually did so.26 Nor can we say that they obtained control over the areas where they resettled. I have so far argued that in Hakka communities, situations of economic strain were solved by expansion - distressed segments that broke away to establish independent units in new, geographically distinct, and often far away areas.
Extensive proliferation of this kind requires a particular ecological condition - space. During the 19th century in Kwangtung, opportunities for continued territorial expansion were diminished steadily as the rural landscape was increasingly taken into possession. Hakka groups pushed forward to the southern-most part of the province, to Hainan, and into the Tonkin area.27 The struggle for territorial control might be one of the reasons for the so-called Hakka-Punti War that ravaged Kwangtung Province in the 1850s and 1860s.28 The possibilities for expansion being reduced, the fractions that otherwise would have moved away from the localized community had to operate within the organizational framework provided by their major lineage group; but in order to do so they had to build a new economic system with foci of interest outside the traditional established order. We might tentatively call this process extension, meaning by this the phenomenon that individuals separate from their group and leave their district in order to settle, with the original design to stay temporarily, in another area, but still remain members of the localized social system existing at home.
EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY
59
Hakka society thus seems to have been largely an affair of expan- sion. We can perhaps in this segment-ramification trace one of the main clues to an understanding of the spectacular Hakka migration from the north of China in southerly and westerly directions, 24
IV
Karl Gustav Izikowitz defines ‘expansion' as 'the phenomenon of a fraction of inhabitants separating from their group and leaving their district in order to settle in or occupy, either for a long time or permanently, another area over which they have obtained control.'25 The move away to towns or overseas settle- ments, characteristic of the valley studied, could then hardly be described in terms of expansion, as this type of migrants always had an intention to return to the place of origin, and most often actually did so.26 Nor can we say that they obtained control over the areas where they resettled. I have so far argued that in Hakka communities, situations of economic strain were solved by expansion distressed segments that broke away to establish independent units in new, geographically distinct, and often far away areas.
Extensive proliferation of this kind requires a particular ecolo- gical condition space, During the 19th century in Kwangtung, opportunities for continued territorial expansion were diminished steadily as the rural landscape was increasingly taken into pos- session. Hakka groups pushed forward to the southern-most part of the province, to Hainan, and into the Tonkin area,27 The struggle for territorial control might be one of the reasons for the so called Hakka-Punti War that ravaged Kwangtung Province in the 1850s and 1860s.28 The possibilities for expan- sion being reduced, the fractions that otherwise would have moved away from the localized community had to operate within the organizational framework provided by their major lineage group; but in order to do so they had to build a new economic system with foci of interest outside the traditional established order. We might tentatively call this process extension, meaning by this the phenomenon that individuals separate from their group and leave their district in order to settle, with the original design to stay temporarily, in another area, but still remain members of the localized social system existing at home.
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