Institution Reproduction: Chinese Peasant's House Division Practices

This dissertation concludes that house division practices may occur in certain social space and time and reproduce or modify the institutions happening in social space and time in which house division institution is embodied. We can become conscious of the transition of social structure. The transition of family model is form'clan standard'to'individual standard'.House division is prevalent whether in traditional Chinese society or in modern Chinese countries. House division refers to a process or state in which sons'families break away from their father's family. The authority of the father which restrains house division and sons'desire for independence which promotes house division are in conflict with each other and result in house division. Various changes of social institutions are reproducing and modifying house division system through exerting power on the two conflicting forces.Since the foundation of PRC, a series of campaign of land collectivism made family-owned land into collectivity-owned land. As the family land, the nuclear property of a traditional family, was lost, the authority of the father was challenged for the first time in such a direct and violent way. In addition, in the collectivism period, the producing function of a family was replaced with Gongfenzhi, a new mode of distribution according to amount of work done. Therefore, authority of the father in a family was further weakened while sons'desire for independence and ability to be independent were all strengthened.The two differentiation of occupation of farmers in Gang Village after the Agrarian Reform characterize the two generations. That is, the former generation was converted from farmers to craftsmen while the latter generation changed from craftsmen to employees. The two differentiation of occupation between the two generations influenced house division practices in the following ways: for one thing, sons'payment from non-agriculture work makes their father's financial control impossible and sons'desire for independence stronger; for another, the increase of sons'income and their financial contribution to family almost destroys the base of their father's authority, house property. Chinese clans emphasize the principle of paternal succession, which means it is sons but not daughters who have the right to inherit properties in house division. Besides, male offspring have to be responsible for supporting and offering sacrifice to paternal ancestors. This principle represents Chinese farmers'simple awareness of unity of right and duty. Though The Inheritance Law in the Republic of China emphasized the quality of inheritance between males and females, daughters never enjoyed equal inheritance right. The reason for that was it was sons who were chiefly responsible for supporting their parents. Thus, it was impossible for daughters to have equal inheritance right so long as virilocal marriage was dominant in the society. The marital custom of Gang Village transformed from traditionalparents-arranged marriage to modern self-controlled marriage. In semi-controlled...