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however, exclude each other. Rather they coexist in different contexts. Since the meaning of community itself is fluid, the Pangs can manipulate it in different contexts to define and redefine the transfer practice of their housing property. The transfer of ding wu is the case.
After the implementation of the Small House Policy, a new settlement unit developed. Though this settlement unit is subsumed within the term "cun", the Pangs have never recognised it as an extension of the wei (lineage community). As mentioned before, in the Ming Dynasty the Pangs' ancestors found a propitious location at which Fanling Wai was founded. They built thatched sheds to develop the settlement. Over the generations, the settlement became more populous and the Pangs built more brick or stone houses to replace these thatched sheds. At present the settlement is not merely a nucleated cluster of houses, but it significantly represents the agnatic community of the Pangs. Keeping this housing property intact solely through the Pangs' male line is strategically important for the maintenance of their community. Nowadays, though many outsiders have rented houses in the wei, they cannot acquire right of settlement, which is the most important criterion for defining the lineage community's membership. As for the settlement of ding wu in which there is only a number of contemporary lineage members, this property is not thought of as a cultural legacy representing the Pang's lineage history and agnatic community. So its transfer to outsiders does no harm to the social cohesion of their lineage community.
To recapitulate, the Pangs' conception of community boundary is changing. It has constructed and shaped their transfer practices of property to achieve maximisation of self and group interests in dramatically changing economic and legal circumstances. When property is defined as an essential material for lineage solidarity, its transfer should rigidly follow the patrilineal principle. For the property which is not so defined, villagers have the free right to dispose of it in their own interests. This principle explains why sometimes the Pangs' self interests are subordinated to the lineage interests and sometimes not.
Someone will argue that the villagers manipulate membership but not space to justify their different transfer practices. Of course, they are entitled to inherit or get zu wu and to apply for building ding wu,
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however, exclude each other Rather they coexist in different contexts. Since the meaning of community itself is fluid, the Pangs can manipulate it in different contexts to define and redefine the transfer practice of their housing property. The transfer of ding wu is the case.
After the implementation of the Small House Policy, a new settlement unit developed. Though this settlement unit is subsumed within the term "cun", the Pangs have never recognised it as an extension of the wei (lineage community). As mentioned before, in the Ming Dynasty the Pangs' ancestors found a propitious location at which Fanling Wai was founded. They built thatched sheds to develop the settlement. Over the generations, the settlement became more populous and the Pangs built more brick or stone houses to replace these thatched sheds. At present the settlement is not merely a nucleated cluster of houses, but it significantly represents the agnatic community of the Pangs. Keeping this housing property intact solely through the Pangs' male line is strategically important for the maintenance of their community. Nowadays, though many outsiders have rented houses in the wei, they cannot acquire right of settlement, which is the most important criterion for defining the lineage community's membership As for the settlement of ding wu in which there is only a number of contemporary lineage members, this property is not thought of as a cultural legacy representing the Pang's lineage history and agnatic community. So its transfer to outsiders does no harm to the social cohesion of their lineage community.
To recapitulate, the Pangs' conception of community boundary is changing. It has constructed and shaped their transfer practices of property to achieve maximisation of self and group interests in dramatically changing economic and legal circumstances. When property is defined as an essential material for lineage solidarity, its transfer should rigidly follow the patrilineal principle. For the property which is not so defined, villagers have the free right to dispose of it in their own interests. This principle explains why sometimes the Pangs'self interests are subordinated to the lineage interests and sometimes not.
Someone will argue that the villagers manipulate membership but not space to justify their different transfer practices. Of course, they are entitled to inherit or get zu wu and to apply for building ding wu,
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