KINSHIP JARGON

(Chinese Society)

James L. Watson©

[Revised July, 2007]

I. Issues related to marriage:

1. Endogamy results when social rules encourage or restrict marriage within certain categories of people (e.g., caste endogamy in India or ethnic endogamy in Lebanon).

1) Homogamy is a form of endogamous marriage; homogamous unions are those that bring together people of the same category (e.g., class homogamy in China or in England).

2. Exogamy results when people are required, or encouraged, to marry outside a designated category. China has (or, rather, had prior to the revolution) a strict rule of surname exogamy, meaning that one could not marry anyone of the same surname. This rule was applied irrespective of known descent (see below); it was assumed that people of the same surname were somehow related and therefore must not marry. Such unions were thought to be incestuous.

3. Prior to the communist revolution, concubinage was common among the wealthy classes; it was also found among ordinary people, as a reproductive strategy to ensure a line of male heirs. Chinese concubinage should not be confused with polygyny (plural marriage in which two or more women are co-wives of one male). In the Chinese marriage system only one woman can be ritually recognized as a man's principal "wife"; all other mates are secondary and are best called “concubines.”

4. Relatives created by marriage (known in colloquial English as “in-laws”) are affines. Relatives who are within one's own patriline are agnates and relatives in one's own mother's line of descent are matrilateral kin.

It is inappropriate in the Chinese context to call the latter matrilineal kin because China did not have matrilineages - whereby descent is traced in the female line. China was, and still is, a patrilineal society, see below for more.

In China, the three sets of recognized kin - agnates, affines, and matrilateral kin - are distinguished by different terminology, indicating different conceptual spheres of human relationships.

5. In China, as in many societies, marriage was (and, in some regions, still is) arranged by matchmakers who negotiate between sets of people referred to as wife-takers and wife-givers. The bride and groom rarely had much to do with the marriage negotiations. (But this, of course, has changed dramatically since the mid-1980’s).
   
   

There is, of course, a sexist bias revealed in the use of the terms wife-givers and wife-takers. However, given that China was and still is an extremely androcentric (centered on the male) society and given that it was and still is the wife who usually moves (by patrilocal residence -see below), it seems appropriate to retain the terms "wife-givers" and "wife-takers."

6. Chinese marriages were (and most still are) validated by an exchange of marriage payments, consisting of:

1) Bridewealth (usually cash that goes from the wife-takers to the wife-givers.) In the older anthropological literature, bridewealth is sometimes referred to as brideprice.

2) Dowry (goods, money, jewelry, and - rarely - land that accompanies the bride and is provided by the wife-givers.)

3) When the bridewealth is reconverted by the wife-givers into the dowry for their daughter, this is referred to as indirect dowry.

4) In China (as in some other societies) there is a marked difference in marriage payments correlating to social classes. Farmers and ordinary workers often had a system that emphasized bridewealth (i.e., dowry did not exceed or equal the amount of bridewealth). Wealthy landlords, merchants, and government officials tended to have an exchange system that emphasized dowry (i.e., dowry usually exceeded bridewealth). For the wealthy, dowry was a means of claiming and/or asserting status.

II. Post-marital residence takes different forms, such as:

1. Patrilocal residence, in which the bride moves into the household of her father-in-law.

2. Uxorilocal residence, in which the groom moves into the household of his wife (or, more precisely, the household of his father-in-law).

3. Neolocal residence, in which the groom and the bride establish a new household, not directly associated with their parents' households.

D. Matrilocal residence is usually confined to matrilineal societies (see below) and, hence, it is not appropriate to use this term in the Chinese context. Matrilocal residence involves the movement of the groom into the household of his bride's mother.

III. Descent Systems vary as follows:

A. Unilineal descent systems focus on one line, either in the patriline (through the father's line, traced through males) or in the matriline (through the mother's line, traced through females).

B. Patrilineal descent is the dominant system in China and correlates to the transfer of property through partible inheritance (equal inheritance among male heirs) and to the naming system, by which the surname is passed in the patriline.

C. Matrilineal descent is not found among Han Chinese people, but it is common among some non-Han minority groups. In matrilineal descent systems the mother's line is dominant; property is passed in the matriline (which means that a male inherits from his mother's brother, not his father).

Matrilineal descent systems should not be confused with matriarchal patterns of rule or social control. In matrilineal societies, as in all documented societies, males tend to dominate; anthropologists have yet to verify a true matriarchal system (during any historical period or in any place).

IV. Descent groups are a central feature of Chinese society. All of the following descent groups are based on patrilineal descent:

1. Lineages (or, alternatively, patrilineages) are well-organized sets of agnates who can demonstrate that they descend from the same founding ancestor. Lineages, in other words, are based on known (demonstrated) patrilineal descent.

1) A lineage is a corporation based on the sharing of corporately owned property (usually but not exclusively land), resources, or information.

2) Members of a lineage are conscious of themselves as a group, in opposition to similarly defined groups. Membership is strictly regulated by rituals of induction, usually held at birth or in the context of adoptions. Names of members are recorded in the written genealogies kept by leaders and used to settle legal disputes.

3) Members of a lineage are tied together by a strong sense of ritual unity imparted by regular participation in ancestral rites (i.e., rituals that celebrate and commemorate the founding ancestors of the lineage). These rites are held in ancestral halls (which contain the soul tablets of selected ancestors) and at the tombs of key ancestors.

4) As members of a corporation, those who belong to a lineage cooperate in various joint activities of a political and economic nature. A lineage is not, in other words, merely a ceremonial organization.

5) Women are not, strictly speaking, members of Chinese lineages. They are members of domestic groups but not descent groups (that is, they do not have a share in the lineage property and do not hold formal offices as lineage leaders). These restrictions are currently (2004) under legal dispute in the Hong Kong New Territories, where lineage property is still a matter of serious economic concern. This issue has less significance in other parts of China where Communist land reforms in the early 1950’s dissolved lineage estates.

6) There are localized lineages (usually settled in one village or set of contiguous hamlets) and dispersed lineages (with members living in several different communities).

7) Thus, in China there are single-lineage villages (all resident males being members of one lineage) and multi-lineage villages (communities composed of two or more lineages).

8) Although lineages are extremely important in Chinese society, it must be remembered that not all Chinese people are (or were) members of well-organized lineages. In fact, only a. minority of Chinese have lived in lineage-based communities. Nonetheless, patriliny is a powerful ideological force in Chinese society and the lineage, as a model of social organization, has had a profound influence on Chinese thought.

9) Lineages, as highly visible political and economic organizations, tend to cluster in the southern regions of China, notably in the provinces of Guangdong (incorporating Guangzhou and Hong Kong) and Fujian. Powerful lineages were also found in Shandong Province and in the lower reaches of the Yangzi River.

10) Powerful lineages are less prevalent in north China, where most communities are organized on non-kinship principles (e.g., on the basis of shared membership in local temples or in voluntary associations).

2. Higher-order lineages are patrilineal descent groups composed of several localized lineages that trace descent to the same founding ancestor. In other words, a higher-order lineage incorporates a set of closely related lineages).

1) Higher-order lineages are corporations (with shared property) and the members of such descent groups celebrate ritual unity through collective rites in honor of the founding ancestor or ancestors.

2) Higher-order lineages are primarily political organizations that serve the business and social interests of the wealthy (i.e., landlords, merchants, and the educated elite).

3) Localized lineages (including those located in the larger single-lineage villages) rarely have more than 3,000 - 4,000 members (counting males only). Higher-order lineages may have up to 50,000 members living in dozens of communities.

3. Clans, in the Chinese context, are based on fictionalized (or putative) descent rather than demonstrated descent.

1) The focal ancestors of clans are often legendary characters or remote historical figures. Members cannot, in other words, demonstrate that they actually descend from the clan’s putative founder.

2) Clans are usually located in major cities or provincial capitals; they are often commercial organizations run by wealthy merchants who need a base in cities.

3) In many respects clans resemble lineages (i.e., clans have corporate property, ancestral halls, group consciousness, and ritual unity). But clans are not organized on the basis of demonstrated descent. Furthermore, not everyone can automatically expect to participate in clan activities.

4) Clan membership (unlike lineage membership) depends upon the payment of regular dues (as in a social club). One becomes a member of a clan as an adult – one is not born into a clan (as is the case for lineage members).

For further discussion and clarification of the issues discussed in this brief guide, see James L. Watson, “Chinese Kinship Reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research,” China Quarterly 92:589-622, December 1982.