article
Erasing the dead in Kaixiangong: ancestry and cultural transforms in southern China
Cambridge journal of China studies • 10 (2) • Published In 2015 • Pages: 38-52
By: Aijmer, Göran.
Abstract
This is an examination of the ancestral cult at Kaixiangong, based on the foundational ethnography by Fei Xiaotong (1946). The author comments on the absence of village ancestral halls, the shallow genealogies of the villagers (five generations), and the above-ground cemetery among the mulberry trees growing on the dykes separating the rice fields. He also notes the importance of the stove god who protects the domestic sphere of married-in women and, by association, their natal (cognominal) agnates. These facts are seen as indicating the relative importance of affines in the village's dual economy of rice cultivation and silkworm production.
- Region
- Asia
- Sub Region
- East Asia
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard; 2019
- Field Date
- not applicable
- Coverage Date
- 1936
- Coverage Place
- Kaixiangong, Wujiang, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
- Notes
- Göran Aijmer
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 52)
- LCSH
- Peasantry--China--Yangtze River Valley
- Yangtze Valley--Social life and customs
- Villages--China--Yangtze River Valley