304
couplet engraved on wood bearing the words "presented by the descendants of ancestor Baak-Kau". The exact details of Dang Baak-Kau's line of descent from Ching-Lok, however, remain obscure.
It was probably more common that farm land was owned by groups of people who traced their descent from a common ancestor in the form of ancestral trusts than by individual heads of families like Dang Baak-Kau. I overheard two men (one born about 1910, one about 1925) talking about the ownership of fields in the past. They said that among 100 people there were less than 9 who had their own rice fields. Most people farmed ancestral trust land. The rent was cheaper than that for other land. Once somebody had taken up a piece of ancestral land, he never had to return it, and it was quite common for people to sub-let to other people the ancestral land they rented. These ancestral trusts were each founded for the worship of an individual ancestor and for the education of his descendants. The terms "jou" and "tong" are used by the villagers to refer to an ancestor, his trust, and often the segment of the lineage which consists of his descendants.
The case of Dang Baak-Kau is representative of the small minority of personally wealthy Dang. Men like him formed the village elite, dominating local and lineage affairs, and monopolising village connections with the government. Most lineage segments and their ancestral trusts among the Dangs seem to stem from personally wealthy elite villagers like Dang Baak-Kau. It is no surprise that his descendants formed an ancestral trust in his name.
The power of village elites like Dang Baak-Kau may have been undermined by the abundance of outside employment and business opportunities within Hong Kong in recent years. Among our informants were two men born in the 1920s who had worked outside Kam Tin, one with the Agriculture and Fishery Department and another with a Chinese trading firm. We were told that they were exceptions. But such opportunities have abounded in the last couple of decades.
I. THE DANG LINEAGE, ELITES AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS
A. Early History
The first Dang ancestor to come to Guangdong province was Hon-
304
couplet engraved on wood bearing the words "presented by the descendants of ancestor Baak-Kau". The exact details of Dang Baak- Kau's line of descent from Ching-Lok, however, remain obscure.
It was probably more common that farm land was owned by groups of people who traced their descent from a common ancestor in the form of ancestral trusts than by individual heads of families like Dang Baak- kau. I overhead two men (one born about 1910, one about 1925) talking about the ownership of fields in the past. They said that among 100 people there were less than 9 who had their own rice fields. Most people farmed ancestral trust land. The rent was cheaper than that for other land. Once somebody had taken up a piece of ancestral land, he never had to return it, and it was quite common for people to sub-let to other people the ancestral land they rented. These ancestral trusts were each founded for the worship of an individual ancestor and for the education of his descendants. The terms jou and tong are used by the villagers to refer to an ancestor, his trust, and often the segment of the lineage which consists of his descendants.
The case of Dang Baak-kau is representative of the small minority of personally wealthy Dang. Men like him formed the village elite, dominating local and lineage affairs, and monopolising village connections with the government. Most lineage segments and their ancestral trusts among the Dangs seem to stem from personally wealthy elite villagers like Dang Baak-kau. It is no surprise that his descendants formed an ancestral trust in his name.
The power of village elites like Dang Baak-kau may have been undermined by the abundance of outside employment and business opportunities within Hong Kong in recent years. Among our informants were two men born in the 1920s who had worked outside Kam Tin, one with the Agriculture and Fishery Department and another with a Chinese trading firm. We were told that they were exceptions. But such opportunities have abounded in the last couple of decades.
I. THE DANG LINEAGE, ELITES AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS
A. Early History
The first Dang ancestor to come to Guangdong province was Hon-
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