Morality, Power, And Social Structure In The Transition Of Rural Society

Based on social anthropological"thick description", this study has analyzed the changes in morality, power, and social structure in a Chinese village in Yongxing county, Hunan province. The field works were done in three periods: Jul and Aug in 2005; Jan in 2006; Jun to Oct in 2006.Firstly, the dissertation has given a thick description and simple analysis on the characteristics of morality, power and social structure of the village before the liberation and during Mao's era. It indicated that the vertical social structure of the village has been essentially transformed after 1949, and"fanshen"is the keyword of that change. But there was no substantive change in the horizontal social structure of the village. This conclusion was further supported by following factors: 1) politically,"revolution", as the main content, became the leading standard of the social stratification in the village; 2) being socialist-minded and professional was the"flag"of the village elite; 3) social relationship between the villagers were still regulated by ethics and"chaxu"principle (an differentiated order) in spite of the revolutionary discourse. The revolutionary discourse and ethical principle were, to some extent, integrated together, and both became the rules for resolving disputes and maintaining discipline among villagers. In addition, villagers` religious belief was partly replaced by the revolutionary morality, and their nature worship became weak and dormant; but the core of their ancestor worship has been conserved.Secondly, the dissertation has provided a thick description and simple analysis on the characteristics of morality, power and social structure in the contemporary village from four aspects, such as politics, dispute solving, daily life, and faith-related activities in the village. It indicated that the horizontal and vertical social structures have both changed, and"great transformation"was the keyword of this change process. This conclusion was supported by following factors: 1) economic factor became the leading standard of the social stratification in the village; 2) the moral prestige was no long the necessary condition for village elites to participate in village public affairs; 3) social relation pattern between villagers in different stem family has turned into a self-oriented circle-structure dominated by instrumental rationality, different genders tend to treated equaly in the family, but the inter-generational relation between the nuclear family and stem family was featured by a asymmetrical power structure favoring the young; 4) the ability of the villagers to resolve disputes by themselves became weaker, the ability of village discipline nearly disappeared, but the"gray society"often got involved in those affairs; and 5) villagers' religious belief was difficult to keep out the impact of the monetary pressure, and their nature worship declined and became instrumental. Their ancestor worship declined rapidly too, and has lost the function from which the villagers could find the meaning of their life significance.Lastly, the dissertation has given an analysis of the village governance in the"great transformation"period, and indicated that"de-ethicizing"was the salient feature. This character has been clearly demonstrated among a great number of important social facts as following: semi-closed local knowledge, egocentric morality, elite politics, governance order hinged upon strength, property rights defined by indentures, and dependent life. Compared with the"ethics-centered"(Lunli Benwei) society, these facts indicated that the basic of the social structure in contemporary village was the nuclear family which was composed of self-oriented individuals, rather than ethic-based relations or groups. In other words,"nuclear-family-centrality"(Hexin Jiating Benwei) has already become the key character of the social structure in rural China. The essence of"nuclear-family-centered"social structure, as a new mode, is: the nuclear family is big, and the individual take second place, and the group is small.The dissertation also argued that"nuclear-family-centrality"was a result of village transition towards modernity which requires social rationalization. However, the bottom line of morality for the self-oriented individuals was absent outside of the nuclear family, and this has caused a"basic social problem"which was marked by governance, ethical and faith problems because of the paradox of modernity and the unsuccessful social transition.