Research On The Behavior And Ritualized Practice On Marriage Payment Of Chinese Peasants

Sociology,anthropology and folklore have done a lot of research on marriage payment.The main points can be summarized as marriage payment theory,marriage endowment theory and theory of inheritance.However,these analysis,characterized by perspective of functionalism,have been confined to the level of economic exchange,which is largely not based on the study of the peasants’ own "understanding".This paper attempts to conduct a "thick description" on the peasants’ specific practice of marriage payment in village G from Shandong Province.Based on previous research on marriage payment,this paper will take time-space change as background,start with local knowledge and research on the practice of marriage payment in a village located in the central mountainous area of Shandong province.All the descriptive data are obtained from field surveys.Specific methods of data-collecting is on a combination of participant observation and semi-structured interviews.Innovation of this paper is to propose the concept of ritualized marriage payment practice,which is used to interpret the social, cultural and psychological significance in the peasants’ behavior system.The status that studies are confined to economic exchange.are broken.The mechanical behavior of the level of economic exchange are embedded in a rich and vivid local knowledge.Studies have shown that peasants’marriage payment practice adjusted to the change of social and historical conditions.Level of payment grows rapidly.The flow of payment is changing from payment between two families-in-law,to endowment between parents.The form of payment is changing from goods to cash. Since the growth of household wealth depends less on the production of family relationships,marriage payment practice become more and more ritualized.The ritualized practice of marriage payment helps peasants to establish the order of life and the sense of stability.Local knowledge refers to the villagers’ understanding of their own behavior and action. Marriage payment for peasants is not simple reference to wealth exchange.The behavioral logic is to construct daily life meaning by way of behavior:the changes of outside economic and political environment lead to the transformation of life chances.The marriage payment practice must adjust to this transformation.The underlying causes of ritualized marriage payment practice is lack of coordination between transformation of social structure and cultural change. The ritualized marriage payment practice is rather performance than the root of problems.Mere criticism and negation for marriage payment are not conducive to problem solving.The key is to Strengthen coordination between social structure reform and cultural development.