CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION
37
reports that twenty-four villages near Canton joined together to build a large house for "general consultations" because of the increase of crime in the area, especially from the Triad society. The inter-organization of the villages was "fairly comprehensive in its scope of activities. Again when the Taiping threatened in North Kiangsu in 1859, villages in five districts built walls round themselves and set up defence organizations, many of which operated on an inter-village basis. Eleven villages in Shensi had a common defence system, and while other communities were punished for not deterring the Boxers, they were spared, because they regarded the Boxers as enemies and killed them.
Summary and Discussion
The relative strength of organizations based on religious ideology or using religious elements at the village level, and their contribution to community stability and integration, appear to have depended on a number of factors and their relation to each other in turn. Important among them were: the degree of social differentiation in the community; differences in kinship affiliations; differences in wealth and education; also the numerical size of the village; its relation to other communities in the area and to those living outside communities; its proximity to town centres; the general economic conditions obtaining in the area at a particular time; and to some extent the virtue and competence of locally-based officials. Such factors also helped determine which type of organization would become the most important for a community.
State cults were probably more successful in their aim with villages possessing gentry members and nearer to centres of government, but would be limited in their intended effect by other interests of persons able to use them. The cults were made use of by the already influential (and usually rich) on the whole in order to realize aims connected with their roles as local leaders and members of kin-groups. They could, however, through helping to realize such personal ambitions, aid in village integration: canonization of ancestors of village leaders, especially those of lineage villages, could bring prestige to a village and give it an additional symbol of solidarity. It could also, however, lead to competition and disharmonies between influential persons when their numbers were large.
CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION
37
reports that twenty-four villages near Canton joined together to build a large house for "general consultations" because of the increase of crime in the area, especially from the Triad society. The inter-organization of the villages was "fairly comprehensive in its scope of activities. Again when the Taiping threatened in North Kiangsu in 1859, villages in five districts built walls round themselves and set up defence organizations, many of which operated on an inter-village basis. Eleven villages in Shensi had a common defence system, and while other communities were punished for not deterring the Boxers, they were spared, because they regarded the Boxers as enemies and killed them.
Summary and Discussion
The relative strength of organizations based on religious ideo- logy or using religious elements at the village level, and their con- tribution to community stability and integration, appear to have depended on a number of factors and their relation to each other in turn. Important among them were: the degree of social differen- tiation in the community; differences in kinship affiliations; dif- ferences in wealth and education; also the numerical size of the village; its relation to other communities in the area and to those living outside communities; its proximity to town centres; the general economic conditions obtaining in the area at a particular time; and to some extent the virtue and competence of locally-based officials. Such factors also helped determine which type of organi- zation would become the most important for a community.
State cults were probably more successful in their aim with villages possessing gentry members and nearer to centres of govern- ment, but would be limited in their intended effect by other in- terests of persons able to use them. The cults were made use of by the already influential (and usually rich) on the whole in order to realize aims connected with their roles as local leaders and members of kin-groups. They could, however, through helping to realize such personal ambitions, aid in village integration: canoni- zation of ancestors of village leaders, especially those of lineage villages, could bring prestige to a village and give it an additional symbol of solidarity. It could also, however, lead to competition and disharmonies between influential persons when their numbers were large.
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