VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933
135
least two other important factors immediately suggest themselves, In the first place, North China has been the scene of a number of invasions by Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern peoples. Coming as conquering groups, these peoples were usually of a different and lower cultural level, and invariably they were absorbed by the Chinese, whose culture they adopted. This contact between two different groups--invaders and those already living in the area--was of a different sort from that described as obtaining in South China. In the North it resulted in an amalgamation of peoples, an increase in the total number of surnames, and, without question, in a multiplication of clans in single villages. Secondly, this multiplication was furthered by the scourges of North China: wars, floods, droughts, pestilences and attendant famines. All these have caused migrations away from North China, but even more prevalently, migrations within the area. Thus villages have come to be composed, not of one clan alone, living under a completely familistic type of village organization, but usually of several clans, which were forced to evolve a modified type of village government, based upon clan organization which could not entirely be displaced. It is this system which will now be studied in some detail.
II
Civism is by no means so compact a form of organization as is familism, for the economic, psychological and religious ties are not so strong between the various groups of members. Villages are on the whole small enough, however, and the mode of life restricted enough for the village to be an effective unit of self-government on a traditional and customary basis. Moreover, because the multiple clan village makes use of clan organization wherever possible, it inherits some of its strength.
Leadership in the Chinese village rests in the hands of a group of men commonly spoken of as "elders", who owe their position to several qualities: kin status, age and ability of a certain type. Membership in the village is a prerequisite. It is an interesting fact, however, that membership in a village is not always synonymous with mere residence in it. Families which are "recent" arrivals in a village, or individuals who dwell in it only during certain periods of the year may be excluded entirely from membership in the community.
VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933
135
least two other important factors immediately suggest themselves, In the first place, North China has been the scene of a number of invasions by Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern peoples. Coming as conquering groups, these peoples were usually of a different and lower cultural level, and invariably they were absorbed by the Chinese, whose culture they adopted. This contact between two different groups--invaders and those already living in the area -was of a different sort from that described as obtaining in South China. In the North it resulted in an amalgamation of peoples, an increase in the total number of surnames, and, without question, in a multiplication of clans in single villages. Secondly, this multipli- cation was furthered by the scourges of North China: wars; floods, droughts, pestilences and attendant famines. All these have caused migrations away from North China, but even more prevalently, migrations within the area. Thus villages have come to be compos- ed, not of one clan alone, living under a completely familistic type of village organization, but usually of several clans, which were forced to evolve a modified type of village government, based upon clan organization which could not entirely be displaced. It is this system which will now be studied in some detail.
II
Civism is by no means so compact a form of organization as is familism, for the economic, psychological and religious ties are not so strong between the various groups of members. Villages are on the whole small enough, however, and the mode of life restricted enough for the village to be an effective unit of self-government on a traditional and customary basis. Moreover, because the multiple clan village makes use of clan organization wherever possible, it inherits some of its strength.
Leadership in the Chinese village rests in the hands of a group of men commonly spoken of as "elders", who owe their position to several qualities: kin status, age and ability of a certain type. Membership in the village is a prerequisite. It is an interesting fact, however, that membership in a village is not always synonomous with mere residence in it. Families which are "recent" arrivals in a village, or individuals who dwell in it only during certain periods of the year may be excluded entirely from membership in the com-
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