article
Marriage, family, and the state in contemporary China
Pacific affairs • 57 (2) • Published In 1984 • Pages: 213-236
By: Wolf, Margery.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article examines the institutions of family and marriage and their importance as a fundamental building block of the state that would remain even after initial attempts by the new Communist regime to dismantle both the patriarchy and the lineage system. While land reform weakened the older lineage systems, the new Marriage Law that promised to liberate women was not enforced because Party control in rural areas was dependent on local cadre support which continued to depend on patriarchal power. Also rural families continued to be an important support of the elderly in a country which could not yet afford pensions or other social services.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Cultural goals
- Urban and rural life
- Gender status
- Marriage
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Han Chinese
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- East Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 2021
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1980-1981
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1949-1981
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- People's Republic of China
- NotesAdditional notes
- Margery Wolf
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 39001202
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- China--Social life and customs