Chapter 6 family

In the above two chapters, I discussed from the relationship between the group and self to the pattern of social structure.I also put forward several concepts in that chapter, such as "differential pattern" and "group pattern".I know that these unfamiliar nouns will cause trouble for readers, but in order to mark some concepts that are not properly referred to as nouns in the existing sociological vocabulary, I have to write these new signs.The markings don't completely satisfy me, and can be misleading.For example, after reading my analysis in that chapter, a friend once shook his head and said that he could not agree with me that there are no groups in rural Chinese society.He cited families, clans, neighborhoods, neighborhoods, and villages. What are these but groups?Obviously we use the same noun to refer to different entities.In order to distinguish the two types of "communities" with different structures, I give the word group a narrower meaning, which only refers to the communities formed in the group structure, and is used to compare with the communities formed in the differential order structure. Groups are distinguished from groups; the latter are called "social circles", replacing what is commonly called a group by a community.A community is any organized group of people.Among the various communities listed by that friend, they generally belong to the nature of what I call social circles.Here I can add that I am not saying that there are no "groups" in Chinese rural society, all communities are of the nature of social circles, such as Qianhui, which is credit, obviously belongs to the structure of groups; in this analysis, I only From the perspective of the main structure, in Chinese rural society, the differential order structure and the organization of social circles are relatively important.Similarly, the pattern of differential order also exists in Western modern society, but it is relatively unimportant.These two patterns are the basic forms of social structure, and they can be distinguished conceptually, but they can often coexist in fact, and what can be seen is just that each has its own advantages.

It is not superfluous to conceptually distinguish these two configurations and two kinds of organizations, because this distinction can indeed help us gain a lot more practical understanding of social structure and avoid confusion.Here I will continue to use this set of concepts to look at the nature of the basic community in Chinese rural society, the "family". What I want to discuss here is the basic community in our rural society, which is commonly called the "big family".I called it "Expanded family" in "Gangcun Economy".The main body of these nouns is "family", and a small or big adjective is added to family to illustrate the difference in the form of "family" in China and the West.But now I feel that this is not appropriate. It is more appropriate to call the basic community of China's rural society a "small family".

The reason why I proposed this new term is to explain the difference between "family" in Chinese and Western societies from the principle of structure.The difference between what we commonly call a large family and a small family is by no means in size, not in the number of people included in this community, but in structure.A family with more than ten children does not qualify as a "big family", and a family with only four parents, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law cannot be called a "small family".In terms of number, the former is more than the latter, but in terms of structure, the latter is more complicated than the former, and the principles used by the two are different.

The concept of family has a clear definition in anthropology: it is a reproductive community composed of parents and children.Parent-child refers to its structure, and fertility refers to its function.Parent-child refers to both parents; children are limited to children born to spouses.This community is united for the birth and rearing of children.In a society where individuals bear the task of childbearing, there will be no shortage of such communities.But the function of childbearing, as far as each individual family is concerned, is short-term. When the children grow up, they will leave the care of their parents and manage their own childbearing affairs, generation after generation.The community of the family is therefore temporary.In this respect, the community of the family is not quite the same as an ordinary community.Communities such as schools and countries are not temporary, although in fact they are not permanent, but they are not temporary, because their functions are long-term.Since the family has procreation as its function, it must prepare for the end at the beginning.The purpose of parenting is to end parenting.I have discussed this meaning in detail in the book "Reproductive System".

But in any culture, the community of the family is always endowed with functions other than procreation.The cooperation between husband and wife does not end when the children grow up.If the family does not degenerate, it is limited to the community formed by parents and children. At the beginning of its formation, and after the children grow up, there is a period of time when it is only a union of husband and wife.Although husband and wife operate economic, emotional, and gender cooperation, the affairs they manage are subject to great restrictions. Any affairs that require the cooperation of more people have to be managed by other communities.

In the West, the family is a group community. As I have explained above, there are strict group boundaries.For this reason, there are few affairs that this community can manage, the main thing is to have children.However, in China's rural society, the family does not have strict group boundaries, and the members of this community can expand outward along the order of kinship as needed.The elements that make up this so-called social circle are not limited to parents and children.But there are limits to the lines that expand structurally.The line of expansion of the Chinese family is monophyletic, that is, it only includes the patrilineal side; with a few exceptions, the family cannot include both daughter-in-law and son-in-law.Son-in-law and married daughter are all outsiders under the patrilineal principle.On the patrilineal side, it can be expanded very far. A family with five generations under the same roof can include all patrilineal relatives within five generations.

This kind of community formed according to the principle of monophyletic kinship has a special name in anthropology called clan.Our home is structurally a clan.However, it is not exactly the same as our so-called clan, because our so-called clan is composed of many families and is a community of communities.Therefore, I mentioned the term "small family" here.In principle, the structure of the small family and the big family is the same, the difference lies in the number and size. ——This is why I don't want to use a big family, but a small family.The difference of one word shows the structural nature of this community.

The family includes the family structurally, and the smallest family can also be equal to the family.Because the foundation of the kinship structure is the parent-child relationship, the parent-child triangle.Families are derived from family foundations.However, the family included in the family is just a circle in the social circle. It cannot be said that it does not exist, but it cannot be said that it forms an independent unit and is not a group. The difference in shape also caused the change in quality.Although the family includes the function of reproduction, it is not limited to the function of reproduction.According to anthropology, a clan is a business organization, which can become a tribe if expanded.Clans and tribes are endowed with complex functions such as politics, economy, and religion.So is our home.My hypothesis is that Chinese rural society has adopted a differential order structure, using the ethic of relatives to organize communities and run various businesses, making this basic family into a clan.On the one hand, we can say that in rural Chinese society, the family can be used to perform political, economic, and religious functions. It must be expanded.Moreover, all political, economic, religious and other things need long-term continuity. This basic community must not be temporary like Western families.The family must be continuous, not divided by the growth of the individual, and not ended by the death of the individual, so the nature of the family has become a family.The clan is long-term, just like our family.I call our community a small family, which also expresses this long-term nature, in contrast to the temporary nature of the family.

The Chinese family is a business organization, and the size of the family is determined by the size of the business.If the business is small, the couple's cooperation is enough to handle it, and the family can be as small as a family; if the business is big, beyond the capacity of the couple, brothers and uncles can all gather in one big family.This shows that the size of the family in our rural society can vary greatly.However, regardless of the extent of the difference in size, the structure is in principle a consistent, monophyletic pattern of differential order. Many other functions are assumed by the reproductive community, and the content of the relationship between the members of this community has also changed.In Western family groups, the husband and wife are the main axis. The couple manages the reproductive affairs together, and the children play a supporting role in the group. They leave the group when they grow up.Among them, political, economic, religious and other functions are performed by other groups, not within the family.Couples become the main axis, and the relationship between the sexes is the cohesive force.The development of the affections of the sexes makes their home the center of life's comfort.In my book "American Character", I used the term "life fortress" to describe it.

In our rural society, the nature of the home varies markedly in this respect.Since our home is a continuous business community, its main axis is between father and son, and between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It is vertical, not horizontal.The couple became co-ops.Although the matching shaft is not temporary like the main shaft, both shafts are rejected by ordinary emotions due to the needs of the business.What I call ordinary affection is contrasted with discipline.All business cannot be separated from the consideration of efficiency.Seeking efficiency requires discipline; discipline excludes the tolerance of private affairs.In a Chinese family, there are family laws, and husband and wife must respect each other. Women have the standards of three obediences and four virtues, and parents and children pay attention to responsibility and obedience.These are the characteristics of the business community.

Not only in rich families and scholarly families, men and women are separated from each other, but even in rural areas, the indifference between husband and wife is also a daily phenomenon.I paid special attention to this problem during my investigations in the countryside. Later, I was evacuated to the countryside and lived in the same house with the peasant family for a long time, which made me realize this fact even more.Most of the rural couples I know are "not needing to talk much" and "really have nothing to say".Everyone gets up early in the morning and is busy with their own affairs, so there is no time to gossip.Out of the door, each doing his own thing.If a woman does not work in the fields, she stays at home with her children.After the work is done, the men don't often stay at home. If a man guards his wife, he will be worthless.If you have something to do, you will be out if you have nothing to do.Teahouses, tobacco shops, and even streets and alleys are places for men to find emotional comfort.In those places, everyone is talking and laughing, lively.Back home, the husband and wife cooperated smoothly, and each of them did their own things according to what they were supposed to do.If you do well, you have nothing to say, and you don't have anything to say; if you don't cooperate well, you will make a fuss, use your hands and feet, and you can't call it intimacy.These observations made me feel that our homes in the West and our country homes cannot be compared in terms of emotional life.In the countryside, talking and laughing, affectionate and intentional is in groups of the same age and the same age, men with men, women with women, and children together again. Except for work and childbearing matters, gender and A large distance is maintained between the age groups.Far from being accidental, it seems to me to be the result of drawing into the community many functions other than procreation.In terms of feelings, especially between the sexes, the Chinese are unwilling to show their reservations and reservations on the surface like Westerners. This is also a character developed in this social situation.