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Picture Of Early Society Law

Posted on:2013-02-15Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z Y LiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116330374958522Subject:National Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Wa nationality in China mainly inhabits Awa mountainous area in the southwest of Yunnan province. Despite the early submission to China in history, its geographic isolation and mountain barriers had nullified the administrative establishment and governance by the central government before liberation and hindered the reach of Central Plain culture. As such, Wa nationality has preserved most original ecological features of its own social culture and cultivated a customary law system with a long history, rich contents and national characteristics. The pre-nation morphology of Wa nationality before Democratic Reform has rendered itself a precious living fossil for researches in law of primitive societies and legal theories such as the origin and operation of law.Based on the social and historical investigations in1950s and fieldwork conducted by the author and other scholars, the paper is expected to present an overall view of Wa nationality's law of primitive society prior to Democratic Reform. The author rejects the research paradigm deconstructing customary law of primitive societies with modern law terminologies and legal systems, but introduces Wa nationality's customary law in accordance with realistic logic and norm requirements in social life from the following five aspects:economic life, political authority, religious beliefs, marriage and family, and conflict resolution. Through detailed description of Wa nationality's law of primitive society, this dissertation first aims at deciphering the historical logic, cultural codes and social justifiability lying behind the norms while extracting primitive people's wisdom of tackling social issues. Then, more than a collection of norms and cases, this dissertation employs the theories and methods of function school and interpretation school in legal anthropology and analyzes the complicated relationships between law of primitive society and geography, economic patterns, political authority and clan interaction, thus transforming customary law research into dynamic and three dimensional scope. Thirdly, analyses of typical cases prove that law of primitive society is not a set of norms. Interests balance made by parties involved and their social relations, clan power and social opinions could affect the results. As indicated, law of primitive society in fact is comprehensive governance under multiple social factors. At last, Shifting from micro to macro perspectives, typical cases to general ones, this dissertation analyzes Wa nationality's legal culture and comes to a profound understanding of regularity in law generation, inheritance, operation and changes.Chapter one analyzes Wa nationality's economic development and changes of legal rights in economic law from a diachronic perspective. Marxist historical materialism deems that law is no more than a symbol and a record of economic relationships, Wa nationality's primitive society no exception. Instruments and levels of production have shaped Wa nationality's different subsistence economies at different historical phases, and then cultivated different contents and maintenance of legal rights in economic law. This chapter presents Wa nationality's various economic customary law and analyzes profoundly the complicated struggle between economic rights relationships during the transition from public ownership to private ownership.Chapter two introduces Wa nationality's multi-dimensional structure and political order from a synchronic perspective. Primitive societies, no matter how simple, are socially hierarchical. The author analyzes different social development and derived political structures and authority sequence in the central area and marginal area of Awa Mountain, pointing out the evolution tendency of political structure from looseness to strictness and political authority from egalitarianism to kleptocracy.Chapter three analyzes the well-connected relationship between Wa nationality's law of primitive society and religions in detail. The animistic primitive religions not just lay down the spiritual basis of Wa nationality's primitive law but also mold its operation and inheritance. Various taboos and norms derived from religious beliefs and experience in production and life are very effective social manipulation methods to Wa nationality. The author also adopts anthropological theories to analyze the myth Si Gang Li and the unique religious marks such as wood drums, biao niu, lie tou and bronze drums. In addition, this chapter also mentions the spreading of incoming religions such as Buddhism and Christianity in Wa nationality's marginal area have had an important impact on its legal system.Chapter four is about the primitive people's marriage, families and property inheritance in the unique Wa nationality. With the exception of patrilineal marriage at most areas, few villages still hold on to the matrilineal wedding customs. This chapter describes Wa nationality's patrilineal and matrilineal customs involving marriage, families and inheritance while analyzing their corresponding differences.Remedy precedes rights. Legal norms in different fields have been introduced above in Wa nationality's law of primitive society. Effective order control system and conflict resolution mechanism need to be developed when interest conflict or breaches of norms arise among social members. Wa nationality has nurtured various conflict resolution mechanisms. For example:self-help, mediation, hearing, ordeal and fighting. It is the profound social, institutional and cultural reasons that lie behind the diversification of conflict resolution without conflict crossing and distinctions of order control in different areas and regions.
Keywords/Search Tags:primitive society, law of primitive society, Wa Nationality, customary law, anthropology of law
PDF Full Text Request
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