〔1〕Chia as an Expanded Family

The term family, as commonly used by anthropologists, refers to the procreative unit consisting of parents and immature children. A Chia is essentially a family but it sometimes includes children even when they have grown and married. Sometimes it also includes some relatively remote patrilineal kinsmen. We can call it an expanded family, because it is an expansion of a family due to the reluctance of the sons to separate from their parents after marriage.

Chia emphasizes the inter-dependence of parents and children. It gives security to the old who are no longer able to work. It tends to ensure social continuity and co-operation among the members.

In a given economy, the indefinite expansion of the group may not be advantageous. In the process of expansion social friction among the members increases. As we shall see presently, the Chia will divide whenever the division proves to be advisable. The size of the group is, therefore, maintained by the balance of the opposing forces working for integration on the one hand and for disintegration on the other. We shall analyse these two forces in the following sections.

Some quantitative data about the size of the Chia in the village may be helpful for our further discussion. In spite of the fact that most studies of China have stressed the importance of the large-family system in China, curiously enough, in this village a large-family is rare. In less than ten per cent. of the total number of Chia do we find more than one married couple.

叁

家

农村中的基本社会群体就是家，一个扩大的家庭。这个群体的成员占有共同的财产，有共同的收支预算，他们通过劳动的分工过着共同的生活。儿童们也是在这个群体中出生、养育并继承了财物、知识及社会地位。

村中更大的社会群体是由若干家根据多种不同目的基于亲属、地域等关系组成的。由个人成员组成的社团很少而且占次要地位。以下四章将提供该村的社会背景以便我们研究其经济生活。

一、家，扩大的家庭

“家庭”这个名词，人类学家普遍使用时，是指一个包括父母及未成年子女的生育单位。中国人所说的“家”，基本上也是一个家庭，但它包括的子女有时甚至已成年或已婚。有时，它还包括一些远房的父系亲属。之所以称它是一个扩大了的家庭，是因为儿子在结婚之后并不和他们的父母分居，因而把家庭扩大了。

家，强调了父母和子女之间的相互依存。它给那些丧失劳动能力的老年人以生活的保障。它也有利于保证社会的延续和家庭成员之间的合作。

在一定的经济条件下，这个群体本身无限的扩展很可能是不利的。在扩展进程中，其成员之间的磨擦增加了。我们即将看到，家是会分的，即所谓“分家”。而且，分家只要较为可取，它就分。因此，家的规模大小是由两股对立的力量的平衡决定的：一股要结合在一起的力量，另一股要分散的力量。在下面几节里，我将分析这两股力量。

关于这村里家的规模，有一些定量的数据可以帮助我们进一步开展讨论。尽管大部分对中国的研究强调中国大家庭制度的重要性，但非常奇怪，在这个村里，大家庭很少。在家的总数中，我们发现有一对以上已婚夫妇的家不到十分之一。

The most common type is that which consists of a nucleus of a married couple and several dependent patrilineal relatives. In fact, more than half, or 58 per cent. of the total, are of this type. But there is not a married couple in every Chia. Sometimes, for instance, after the death of her husband, a woman lives with her children without joining another unit. It may also be the case that a father lives with his son without a woman in the house. These are cases resulting from social disorganization, mainly due to the death of working members of the group; they are consequently unstable. Either the widower will remarry or the child will marry in the earliest possible future so that a normal functioning of the group can be restored. This type of unstable Chia amounts to 27 per cent. of the total.

An average Chia in the village consists of four persons. This is by no means an exception, and indicates the smallness of the group. Evidences from other rural districts in China give a similar conclusion. The variation lies between six to four persons per family. The so-called large-family is chiefly found in towns and evidently has a different economic basis. For the present material, it can be said that in the village here described, the Chia is a small kinship group consisting of a family as its nucleus and several dependent relatives.

〔2〕Continuity of "Incense and Fire"

The parent-child and the husband-wife relations are two fundamental axes in the family organization. But in the Chia the former seems more important. The essential character of the Chia is that married sons do not always leave their parents, especially when either father or mother is dead. Furthermore, to find a bride for a young man is regarded as part of the parental obligation. Mates are selected and ceremonies arranged by the parents. On the other hand, the legal act of marriage, although preceding the birth of the child, always anticipates the realization of parenthood. The main purpose of marriage, in the village, is to secure the continuity of descent. To ensure posterity is the chief consideration in the selection of a daughter-in-law and this is explicitly expressed in the consultations which are held with the fortune-tellers. The incapacity of a daughter-in-law to fulfil her obligations may be taken as a strong ground for her repudiation without compensation. Again, the full status of a woman is acquired after the birth of her child. Similarly, the affinal relation remains impotent unless a child is born. It is, therefore, justifiable to start our description of the organization of Chia from the parent-child relation.

最常见的类型是：以一对已婚配偶为核心，再包括几个依赖于此家的父系亲属。事实上，超过一半的家，准确地说，占总数58%的家都属于此类。但并不是每一个家都有一对已婚配偶。有时候，在一个妇女丧夫之后，她就和她的子女在一起生活，而不去加入另一个单位。也有这样的情况，一个父亲和他儿子居住在一起，家中没有女人。这些都是社会解组的结果，主要是由于这个群体中从事劳动的成员死亡所致，因而它们是不稳定的。鳏夫会再结婚，孩子也会在不久的将来，一有可能就结婚。任何一种情况都能使一个不正常的家庭得到恢复。这一类不稳定的家占总数的27%。

村中，一个家的成员平均为4人。这说明这种群体是很小的，而且这绝不是一种例外的情况，从中国其他农村地区的材料也可以得出同样的结论。中国农村家庭，平均的人数大约是在4至6人之间。所谓大家庭，看来主要存在于城镇之中，很明显，它们具有不同的经济基础。就现有材料看，可以说，这个村里的家是一个小的亲属群体，以一个家庭为核心，并包含有几个依靠他们的亲属。