In Hakka Clan

Lineage is one of the main research objects of anthropology, anthropological lineage research mainly concentrates in southern China, the research involves in lineage's functions, the revival of lineage culture, lineage structure, village politics and ethnic identity. The main targets of the lineage study includes the Han Chinese population (such as the Fuk Lo and Hakka) and minority groups (such as Tujia, Zhuang and Dai). With regard to lineage study, more cases should be accumulated and used for cross-regional, cross-ethnic comparison, from which to extract the relevant theory to construct theories of the local lineage, to deepen understanding and reflection on all aspects of the lineage. In addition, since lineage is based on communities and villages, it plays an important role in participation in local governance, therefore examining the lineage and local governance is the important direction in current lineage research.Making the Liao lineage of Changjiao village the case study, this paper does an ethnographic-style description on many aspects of the Liao lineage, including its origins and reproduction, fuctions,marriage, family, funeral, lineage and the rural economy, lineage and village politics, lineage and village culture, shows the complete picture of the Liao lineage and states the relations between the Hakka lineage culture and rural society of eastern Guangdong. This paper is divided into eight chapters. Chapter one introduces the reserch background, methods, relevant concepts, the framework and literature review. Chapter two depicts the general situation of the field site, including the natural environment, cultural background, population and livelihoods. Chapter three describes the origins and reproduction of the Liao lineage, including the origins,branches of this big faimly, distribution and migration. Chapter four deals with the lineage function, mainly discusses the ancestor worship fuction, enlightenment function and mutual aid function. Chapter five analyzes the marriage and family of Liao lineage respectively, which contains the type of marriage, marriage customs, marriage procedures,intermarriage regions and surname. Chapter six describes the burial customs and procedures, and dicusses the secondary burial and cremation of local village. Chapter seven deals with the relationship between lineage and the rural community, including the following four aspects:relationship between the lineages, lineage and grassroots political power, lineage and the rural economy, lineage and rural culture. Chapter eight is the conclusion of the whole paper.This paper makes lineage the main line, by conducting a comprehensive investigation on the whole picture of the lineage of a Hakka village in eastern Guangdong Province and discussing the impacts and functions of lineage on local village society, the author wants to indicate that lineage orgnization still plyas an important role in today's society.