Cai Hua - A Society Without Fathers or Husbands

7/31/2019 Cai Hua - A Society Without Fathers or Husbands

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A Sociey wihouFaher or Huband

T N of C

l by v

Z K YK


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The publisher would like to thank both the Centre Naional duLive at the Fench Ministry of Cuture for its assistance and heauthor for his caeful review of the transation

2001 Urzone, Inc.6 Broadway, Suite 6o8New York, NY 10012

A ights reserved

No at of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrievasystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means, icludingeectronic, mechanical, photocopying, micolming, recoding,or otherwise (except for that copying permitted by Sections 107and 108 of the US Copyigh Law and except by reviewers forthe pubic press) without writen permisson from the Pubisher.

Originaly pubished in France as U p : L d 1997 Pesses Universitaires de France

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed by The MIT Press,

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England

Library of Congress Cataoging-in-Publication Data

Hua, Cai.[Une socit sans pre ni mari Engish]A society without fathers or husbands : the Na of China / Cai

Hua transated by Asti Hustvedt.p m

Includes bibliographical references 1890951129

1 Naxi, (Chinese people) 2 MatrilinyChinaYunnanProvince. 3 Ethnology ChinaYunnan Province. Hustvedt,Asti Title731398313 2003068'089'91dc21 99128

CIP


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XV Varous ypes of oestc roups W s Fm? A mrsn Vrs ms Grs

w Fm

XV nusn

s

Gssa

Bbr


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A S O C O U F A R S O R U S B A N D S

From the perspective of historica materialism and diaectical mate

rialism Engels has shown that the evoution of marriage in man

passes through the stages of consanguineal marriage group marriage conjugal marriage unt it reaches monogamy Before the

democratic reforms of 156] the state of marriage and the family

for the Nai makes one think that they were in the process of passing

through or were about to pass through this evoution and also akes

one think that the origin of the adhu (friendship marriage foreshadowing the stage of conjugal marriage can be found most certainy

in group marriage Therefore it is completey natural that there is

in their matrimonia reationships remnants of group marriage and

traces of the matrilinea can community 6

Since te 1970s, in addition to tese two books, dozens of ds -cssions and complementary reports ave sraced on te sbject.Bt on te wole, tese pblications do not signcantly die inteir presppositions

Becase tese stdies were gided by evoltionism , two in-adeqacies repeatedly trn p. On te one and, the researcersdd not learn te a langage and tereore missed essential con -cepts, s ince te testmonies wee ltered trog a translato. Onte oter and, tey aled to treat te realm o kinsip exas-tively. Indeed, most of te essentia l concepts o a kinsip werecompletely overlooked even te dstincton between te twotypes o visits went nnotced. Conseqently, wle tis mateial

represents great progress in comparison wit previos work, i tremains incomplete and tereore s dclt to se wen con-dcting scientiic researc.

I discovered te a in a pblication by my colleages at teInstitte o History of te Province o Ynnan, were I workedas a researcer. At te begnning o my stdies in te Departmento Etnology and Comparative Sociology at te Unversty of

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A S O C E Y O U F A E R S O R U S B A N D S

wy and ow did the cie adopt maage ate tan continuingto live accoding to tadition? Is te ule o descent tat he ol-

lows tuly patilineal ? I maiage is te esult o te diusion oanote cultue, ate tan someting tat was geneated omwitin, did tis society once exist witout maiage altogete ? Inote wods, i coabitation is a taditional pactice, shold it beconsideed a type o maiage? Given tat incest is poibited intis society, and tat most of te ns do not excange womeno men, wee and ow does ecipocity take place? Finally, owcan a society be establised only on consanguineal mr9nsand not on amil ies?

ext, questions concening cetain anthopological conceptsaose. Gven tat te mode o te visit dies in its essentia laspects om te mode o maiage and tat ter is lacking,te stuctue o the puely matilineal n dies om tat ote limited amily. Is it possible to conceive o a moe igid den-ition o maiage and o te ami ly? Wy is it tat, accoding to

all available anthopological knowledge, only te a live witoutmaage? Ae tey te exception tat conims te ule? I teanswe is yes, wic ule ae tey conming?

Te a, wo ae poud o te customs, spoke eely aboutthem to eseaces in te 1960s. Te publications tat esultedom tis eseac ceated all sots o poblems fo te a, n pa-ticula te monogamy campaigns duing te Cultual Revolution,wic set out to nomalize the a by oce. As they say, "once bit -

ten , twice sy' Since then , te a ave caeully avoided eveal-ing anything about tei taditions to outsides.

Te people o Yongning keep an eye on stanges, especiallyeseaces. Eac time someone comes to te aea to gate in -omation about tei customs, te vl lages immediately inomtose n cage. My st tip tee was no exception. Wen I metwit a a ocial e waned me staigtaway "Te eseaces


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I N R O D U C I O N

My ield data and te histoical mateial I ncoveed in teancient Cinese texts povided te main soces o tis pesent

wok. Some o my stati stics and cetain inomation abot te po-litical and agaian systems beoe 19 56 as well as some examplesconcening people wo live in vi llages otside te paametes omy investigation wee clled om te epots mentioned above.

Te pesent wok concens aboe all te a kinsip system.It is divided into tee pats. In pat 1 ate a geneal pesentation I examine a soci al statiication te political and economicegimes om te Qing dynasty nti l te ea o te Gomindangeligion to te pesent day and te dieent etnic gops tatlive nea te a n ode to give some context o tis system okinsip. In pat 2, I pesent and analyze te ondation o a kn-sip and te o existing modali ties o tei cent sexal lie. Iwill also attempt to sow te connection between tei conception o kinsip and tei mode o sexal lie. In elation to otesocieties a matimonial penomena eveal specic taits tat I

will examine om bot an etnological and a istoical pespective. I will also attempt to eveal te oigins and caacteistics oa maiage. Tis section concldes wit an accont o te attitdes eld by te local govenments since 1956 towa a cstoms and te meases tey adopted ding vaios peiods inesponse to tem. In pa t 3 , I st compae te modalites o asexal lie wit maiage in its geneal sense om an antopological point o view ten I compae te basic nit o a kinsip

and economy wit te amily. Finally attempt to analyze yetonce again the denitions o maiage and o te amily.

In view o te absence o anyting like it in etnogapic inomation and conseqently o adeqate antopologcal concepts te system o a kinsip and especially tei modalities osexal lie necessitate meticlos and detaile attentio to botdesciption and analysis. Moeove wile in ote societies tee


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A S O C I O U F A R S O R U S B A N D S

is ony one orma modaity o sexua ie, in a society tereare our. It oows tat my wok incudes capters o unequa

engt, depending on te importance and compexity o tei d i-verse temes .


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OE

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tertol borderprov e border

rlrod

Mp 1 D strbuto of the Moso

rod

0 provce cptl

prefecture hedqurters d strct hedquers

cnto hedquers

ource Map of the People's Republic of China (Bejng Cogrphc Press 1985)


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C O

Genera Presentation

Idntity

Beoe te 1950s ou gops living in te Yunnan and Sicuanpovinces wee eeed to as te Moso (f) by te Han, teetnic majoity of Cina. ac o tese goups went by its ownname and continues to do so. One goup, te axi (wit an ap-poximate population o 2 10,000), esides in Ljiang and te su-

ounding areas in Yunnan. A second goup, te a (wit anappoximate population o 30 ,000), lives in te Yongning basinand te suounding aeas to te not o te inglang Distict inYunnan and to te west o te Yanyuan Distict in Sicuan. Tetid goup, te aRu (wit an appoximate population o 7,000) ,inabits te Muli and Yanbian Disticts in Sicuan. A out goupte aing (wit an appoximate population o 3 000), lives tote sout o te inglang Distict and in te village o Zanzi-

dang in te Yongsen Distict in Yunnan.Oiginal ly, te Moso came om bances o te Qiang, an

ancient population om te Tibetoqin plateau in notwestenCina. Since te end o te second centuy , te Moso avelived in te Yanyuan egion. Duing te it centuy, tey alsoappeaed in te Lijiang region , and in te ealy eigt centuy,tey could be ound arte sout, in te Bingcuan egion, east

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A S O C E Y W H O A H E R S O R H S B A N D S

o E Lake (Eai) , wee tey establised Yuexi Z (also calledMoso Z) one o te six amous pincipalities . In 738 , te

Nan Zao pincipality conqueed te ive otes and teebyomed a kingdom. Following tis event, te Moso disappeaedom te egio o Eai, leaving no taces in te Cinese texts oin eality tey can only be ound in te egions wee tey livetoday.

Accoding to thei own designatios, te names of tese ougoups all sae te syllable n wose meaingas a popenameis unknown. In tei spoken language, n as a genealtem is always used as a qualiative adective tat means lack. X Ru and n9 all signiy people o uman eings

Lnusc CsscnTe Jingsa Rive, upive om te Yangzi, cuts te egion intwo. Te goups on te east side o te ive, te NaRu, te Na,and te Naing, undestand one anote. Tey do not , oweve,

undestand te Naxi, wo live on te west side o te ie. Ci-nese (in its spoke and witten oms) seves as tei commonlanguage. Cinese linguists elieve tese goups use two dialectso te same language. Tei languages all elong to te Yi bancof te Tito Bumese amily. Te westen goup uses dnb witing, pic togapy, and anote witte om called b wic isponetic. But only te samans know ow to use tese two wit -ten foms. Te easten goups ae witout te itten wod.

c Idn cnIn 1958 , te cental govenment oganized investigations to identiy te vaious etnic goups . Te povincial autoities wee incage o identiying tei local inaitants . In Yunnan, since teNaxi constituted te lagest goup, te cental govenment auto-ized tei name as tat o te tee goups in Yunna. All o


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G E N E R A L P R E S E N A O N

the a, axi, an ahing living in Yunnan Povince ae, consequently, liste as axi. On the othe han, the aRu an the a

living in Sichuan ae ientie by the povincial govenment ofSichuan an confme by the cental govenment as pat of theMongolian ethnic goup. his e signation is justifie by theiclaiming to be escenants of those left behin in the egion bythe amy of Kublai Khan. ve since this ocial ientification wasapplie, villages of the same ethnic goup but on ieent sies ofthe poince's boe have been ientie as two istinct ethnicities. Fo example, to the noth of the Yongning basin, cetain vil-lages ae now consiee axi, an othes, less than one kilometeaway, ae Mongolian . Howeve, these "Mongols have nothing incommon with the Mongols in Mongolia: not one among themeven knows how to ponounce a single wo in Mongolian .

T Clamn dnyFo moe than a ecae, the a fom Yongning have equeste

that the govenment, on evey level fom local to cental , oi-cially ecognize them as an ethnic goup istinct fom the axi ofLijiang. The People's Assembly of Yunnan Povince has agee tocall the a of Yongning Moso rn (Moso people) bu t not Moso (Moso ethnic goup). o e consiee an ethnic goup, atification by the cental govenment is necessa.

Goraphy of th Yonn n R ion

Befoe 1956, the teitoy ove which the a chief eigne oughlycoespone to the nothen half of the inglang Distict. Inthis wok, I efe to this aea as Yongning Region. Fo the mostpat, this egion has fou types of elief: mounta ins tha t eachan altitue of 3 ,800 to ,500 metes, the Yongning basin ( 2 ,670mete s in altitue) , the shoes of Lake Lugu (2 ,700 metes), anthe teaces (about 1 ,600 metes) of the Jingsha Rive valley.


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A S O C I T T O U T F A T R S O R U S B A N D S

CHA

Shuan

international border

povince borde

pefecture border

district border

0 province capital district headquarterscanton headquarers

Map 2. Location of the autonomous district of the Yi of Niglang.

'+3

Guzou

Source: h Aounts o th Autonoous Distrit o th Yi o Ninlan(Kuming

The Ethnic Minorities of Yunnan Press, 199).


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G N R A L P R S N A I O N

Covered mostly wit pine trees, s, and cestnut trees, temountains are ric in animal and plant lie, some o wic is used

in precious Cinese remedies. In te Jingsa River valley, wichas a subtropical climate, tere are two arvests o rice per year.Corn, sorgum, wheat, and several varieties o ruit, suc asoanges, clementines, and pears, are also grown tere.

Because the a I am ocusing on are distributed trougoutthe Yongning basin and along te shores o Lake Lugu, I willexamine te geogapy o tis area more clo sely. Located be-tween 10067 10069 longitude east and 2775 2777 lati-tude not, te Yongning basin is surounded by tall mountains .With an area o 70 squae kilometers, it is traversed, rom tesoutwest to te east , by the Kaiti Rive and, in te nortwest,by te Wenquan River. In te south is a mountain tat te a callGemu (mountain goddess) and te Chinese call Lion Mountin,because o its sape. In te nortwest, tere is a ot spring.

In te basin and along te sores o te lake, te annal cold

season lasts rom 150 to 170 days, and te average annual temper-ature is between 10 and 1 1 degees Celsius. Te rainy season allsbetween June and September, and te annual rainall is between1 ,000 and 1 ,5 00 millimeters.

Th Lins of Comm unic a tion

At present, Yongning as two roads . Te irst leads sout andconnects to the city o inglang. It was not constructed until

197 1 . Today, tere is a bus tat runs daily between Yongning andthe city o inglang. Tere is usual ly not even one truck a day onthis road. Anote road, built seven years ago, connects Yongningto the town o Yanyuan. To te north, tere is only a rued patthat leads to Wuju in te Mul i District, and to te west, a roa isunde construction tat will eventually reach te sores o teJingsa Rive. Beore te 1970s, tansportation was even moe

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A S O C E I O U F A E R S O R U S B A N D S

diicult. Fo exampl e, te tip between Yongning and Lijiangtook at least ten days, since one could only get tee on foot.

Te postal sevice, set up in 1 970, baely functions. Stampsae not always available. When you make a telepone call fomYongning to te city of inglang, it is almost impossible to eate peson you ae calling, wo, in tun, undestands next to not-ing of what you ae saying. Communication is even moe dicultbetween Yongning and te town of Kunming, te county seat ofYunnan Povince.

Th Economy

Cud PnsIn 1960, in te Yongning basin, te a population was 6,222,weeas today i t is estimated to be appoximately 1 2 ,000. Tea ae fames, and taditionally tey ave cultivated oats, buckweat, mnqn9 (Brss r) and ax only. Howeve, since

te end of te nineteent centuy, unde te influence of Hanimmigants, tey ave cultivated Dekkan weat (En rus) con, weat, potatoes, sunflowes, soybeans, and otevegetables, suc as beans, pumpkins, and milkweed. Befoe 19 56 ,Dekkan weat was appoximately 3 5 pecent of te cop, oats 2 5pecent, weat 19 pecent, and con 16 .5 pecent. Only afte te1950s did tey begin to gow ice. Today, it i s te main cop andtakes up appoximately 70 pecent of te cultivated ields . Te

iigation system of te paddy fields is pesently undegoingimpovements initiated by te local govenment. Seveal decadesago, peac, apple, and wild pea tees wee intoduced to teegion.


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G N R A L P R S N A O N

Arcr cqs nd sTe basin territory was once divided into several sectors , depend-

ing on were te villages were located. Eac sector was dividedinto several parcels of land, wose crops were rotated on an annualbasis. Te soil in te middle of te basin was more easily irrigatedthan tat in the outer areas . Terefore , te order in wic tegains were cultivated was xed: te first year was Dekkan weat,te second year was weat, te tird year was oats. Eac parcelwas planted wit te gain cosen for tat year to facilitate irriga-tion and grazing in te fields. Te land tat te a felt was too dif-ficut to irrigate and drain was left fallow fo one or two years.

On te non irrigable land, usually tat on te slopes , teyplanted corn, potatoes, and mnqn9 In teir gardens , tey grewax potatoes, beans, pumpkins, and milkweed. With te excep-tion ofmnqn9 te a aely gew legumes.

Hydraulic systems were sorely lacking or, if tey existed, adseious sortcomings. Tere was only one canal , wic was poorly

maintained, making drainage and irrigation difficult . Wen itcame time for sowing, arguments concerning te water towersfequently arose.

As tey continue to do today, eac ouseold regularly dried aed of leaves in te stable , and tis produced a mixed manure, teonly fertilize traditionally used. Human excrement is not used,since tere are no latrines.

Metal agicultural tools , such as plows, oes, sickles, axes, and

knives, are bougt in te ne igboring Han egions Tools madeout of wood, suc as p low frames, wooden oes, and flail s, arefabicated by te a.

Te villagers work on average, seven ous a day and sevenmonts a year. One adult is esponsib le fo a alf ectare of landan receives about 500 kilos of gain in return. Wit the surplus,e can feed one oter person.


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A S O C E O U F A E R S O R U S B A N D S

LvskThe a have aised ao, cows , hoses, and mes snce e

19 20s . The bao and cows come om the an egions and theoses om ibetan teitoy. A st, each time someone boghta bao o a cow, he wod ask a Lamaist monk to pay o theanima's good heath. oweve, as the nmbes o livestock p-chased gew age, these be ssings became moe and moe aeand eventaly stopped atogethe. The vi ages se hoses andmes to etch wood o the osehod and to tanspot copsand mane. Staw om ice, wheat, and Dekkan wea, as welas con stalks, i s sed as odde o the winte.

Raising goats is ae, since a gass tat gows in the basin ishazados to thei health. Jst as ae is the aising o yaks, whichcan only be done at igh atitdes 1 ,000 mees above te Yongning basin. Only a ew ibetan hosehods aise yaks.

Each hosehold genealy keeps ten, twenty, o even thitycckens and sevea pigs . Today on aveage, two people consme

the pok om one pig, appoximatey 60 kios, pe yea. Pok isextemely impotant In ovembe, each hosehold s laghtesone o two pigs and anothe one o wo at the ew Yea. Oncethe enais and hooves ae emoved, the pig is boned , and themea is andantly salted , then sewn p with linen thead. Pokteated in this way can be peseved o a ong time. It is the onlypote in tha the a stock o egla consmption . This kind opok ( a in a) is te only ood consideed o qaity: it is

seved by hosehods to guests, it is the standad and obligatoyoeing at neas, and it i s sed as payment to eigios ociasand as eimsement o acs o kindness . The a sed to adeit o gain, salt, tea, cotton, and sch, and they wod aso se itto pay back inteest on a oan. In act, sated pok nctioned as akind o cency and is even today consideed a symbo o weah.Fo example, to indicate a hosehod's weath, the vilages point


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o e amoun ob it as. In 19 56 , 30 pecen o e ouse-olds did no own any cows, oses, o mules and moe tan 60

pecen ad no bualo. Today, eac n possesses a leas onebualo and one o moe oses.

CrsSpinning and weaving ax ae tasks tat evey woman is capableo doing. Eac ouseold plans ax in its gaden and someimesin e elds as well. Duing te winte monts, women spendmuc o ei ime spinning and weaving. Te loom is o e mossimple kind, meely a wooden ame. It takes y to sixty wapso make one ski, ity o oty o make one pai o pans, andweny to make a sack. Some ouseolds poduce a modes su-plus at tey tade o gain, te a, sal, bown suga, and suc.Tey geneally make ei own cloting.

Mos ouseolds also know ow to bew bee. Tis skill wasinoduced o te a by te an and e axi. Te villages

know ow to extac oil om qn a wild uit a gowsin e egion. Tis uit is so ae a i is seved only a une-als and o te ew Yea. In eac vi llage, ee ae sill sevealmen wo know ow to weave baskets, ences , and sieves ou obamboo. Capenes ae not a poessional goup as suc buae ae tose wo ave moe building expeience an oes.Tey elp build ouses, cupboads, bences and cess, wicae always vey basic. In geneal, te vill ages epai ei own

ouses.All o te cooking utensil s used by e a oiginaed wi

oe etnic goups. Fo example, ei wooden bowls and iono bonze pots ae an , wile tei vases and eapots ae Tibean.Tei wooden motas and pestles and small stone mills ae aloabicated by te an.

Wile te villages wo live along te soes o Lake Lugu

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subsist mainly by agcultue, they also sh and make thei ownnets and canoes o this pupose.

Caravan TransranThe a began aising hoses and mules in the 19 20s and oga-nized caavans inspied by the Tibetan caavannes. At that time,they wee only invoved in tanspoting mechandise o an,Bai , and axi mechants and wee not diectly invested in thebusiness. The caavans' itineay in the westen pat o Yunnanicluded Xaguan, Dali, and Lijiang in the southwesten pat oSichuan, it included Muli , Kangding, an Xichang, going as fa asTibet and India. Yongning, which had vey itt le to ofe to thecaavan commece, was ony a stop on the way. Given the highcost o tanspotation duing the 1 9 30s and 1 90s, one day otanspot by hose was woth 3 banka (a unit o silve moneyissued by the Yunnan govenment), the equivalent o 15 kios oice. Because o this, moe and moe households wanted hoses,

and some went so fa as to pawn thei land to get them. Duingthe Second Wold Wa, taic aong this oute inceased geatly.Because othe egions wee occupied by the Japanese, the a ca-avan business apidly expanded.

A household that owned many hoses would send two o itsmembes to tanspot the caavan, o it might hie villages to doso. Those who did not own enough hoses would join with othehouseholds and gop thei animals togethe. Most househods

only used thei livesock o the caavans duing the slow agicul-tual season, and only a ew engaged in caavan tanspotationfulltime.

Since thee was no postal sevi ce, the villages would entustthei money to the caavannes and send it whee it was needed:to childen, fo example , studying in monasteies in Lhasa.

Between 19 50 and 1958 , the a caavans again developed ap


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G E N E R A L P E S E N A O N

idly. oweve, tey completely disappeaed duing te campaign te eoe's Comme.

Cmmr and ManarnTe a use to go baefoot. Only afte te aival of a axileate cuie at te beginning of te twentiet centuy did teybegin to wea leate soes. The deman fo soes gew quickly,and five ote axi cuies immigate to Yongning. Becausetey set up tei woksops and stoes in Batsgu, te v illagedesignated a new steet name Cuie Steet, whic, until teend of te 90s, was ome to tity businesses cuies, blacksmits, estauants, shops, silvesmits, hai salons, casinos anopium dens. Because of tis, te town became te cente of teegion. Te soppes on Cuie Steet wee usually people pass-ing tough, Tibetans fo te most pat. Among all of the me -chants on Cuie Steet, not one was a.

Until te 1960s, te a would only wea soes fo te ew

Yea and duing te as wintes. Befoe 956 , te followingaticles, wic came fom neigboing egions and etnic goups ,wee scace matces, pape, pottey, pocelain, tea, salt, cotton,bown suga, staw ats, ion, bonze, and soes. And wile sev-eal foms of silve money, as well as bills fom te ationalistRepublic, wee in ciculation business was mainly conductedthoug bateing.

Th Admin is tration of YonninFom te Yuan dynasty until 956, te Moso and neigboingetnic goups in te Yongning egion wee uled b Moso ciefs.Duing te Ming dynasty, wen tey wee most divi ded, teylied unde ten ciefs. Yunnan Povince incopoate Yoning,Langqu and Lijiang, and Sicuan included Guabie, Goubosu,Zhongsuo, Zuosuo, Yousuo, iansuo , and ousuo. Te cental

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govenment called te indigenous cies s Te st caacten te wod, means indigenous, and te second, s means

cie.In 195 6 te eadquates o te a s was in te Yongning

basin. is teitoy extended om te middle o Lake Lugu to teJingsa Rive and spanned a distance o appoximately 70 kilome-tes fom west to east. Te Wuju monastey and te vi llage oKaxipo make te noten and souten bodes o is teitoyespectively, a distance o appoximately 1 30 kilometes. Tis te-itoy ougly coesponds to twots o wat is now te ing-lang Distict in Yunnan Povince.

Unde te an dynasty, te egion o Yongning was depen-dent on te Yuexi jn (te peectue o Yuexi): 1

Fom 618 to 1 2 79 ding te Tang and Song dynasties, it wasjoined wit te kingdoms o anzao and Dali.

In 1 2 79 te Yuan establised Yongning z (subpeectueo Yongning), managed by Lijiang (te peectue o L-

jiang). Unde te Ming dynasty, in 1 3 8 2 , it was placed unde te au-

toity o Beisen z (te peectue o Beisen). In 1 38 itwas passed ove to te command o eqingjnmnJ (te militay and administative peectue o eqing). In 1396 tbecame dependent on Langcang w jnmn z ss (temilitay an administative pefectue o Langcang). In 106te cout pomoted Yongning z to te level oJ (peec-

tue) and placed it unde te diect autoity o te Yunnangovenment.

Unde te Qing dynasty ( 1 698 19 1 1 ) , te Yongning egion wasplaced unde te Yongbei (te peectue o Yongbe i) .

o Unde te Guomindang Republic, om 19 1 1 to 199 te po-vincial govenment eunited te egion o Yongning wit tato Langqiu to om one distict, wose name, inglang, is


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made up o two caactes om Yongning and two caactesom Langqiu . Tis name is still in use.

Duing the Ming and Qing dynasties , te leade o aJu eldte title zu In Cinese, in tis context, z signies goveno,diecto, o pesident. Zu means goveno o teJu

Te a us was appointed in 106 by te cental govenmentas zu Since then, e as been called si zu by te a. est al o this name, si is a a tem tat means ead, cie,diecto, o pesident. Te expession s zu basically con-sists o a epetit ion tat I tansla te as goveno. In te pesentwok, I use te tem zu to designate the a us te highestcie in te Yongning egion, because it i s te ocial title.

aving aboli sed the local govenment o te Guomindang inthe inglang Distict te Cinese Communist Paty omallyinstalled its own govenment in 19 56 . At te same tme, it put anen to te us egime in te Yongning egion. Tus, a istoycan be boken down, moe o less, into two peiods: te one

beoe 195 6, unde te egime of te us and te one ate 195 6,unde communism. I we stat counting at te beginning o teQing dynasty (te Mancuians) te st peiod lasted 305 yeas( 1 6199 ). In te ollowing pages, I will examine te socialstatiication te political egime, and te landownesip systemin place duing te ist peiod, to contexua lize te a kinsipsystem istoically. I will examine te peiod ate 1956 wen Idiscuss te attitudes o local govenments towad a customs

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C T

Socal Stratification until 1 9 5 6

Ruls of Conduc t

In 1956 , the a wee divided into thee stata: si dzk and wThe z o Yongning set up the ollowing ules o the conducto each statum:

Only the sip wee entitled to wea wool and silk abic, thecolos yellow ed, blue, and black, clothig with eges emboi-

deed in gold thead, and gold jewely. Only sip ns had theight to use ound pillas as the cental suppots o thei mainhouses and tile shingles on thei oos.

The dzk and w had to live in taditional houses with twosqae cental pillas and wea linen cloting and wite o linencoloed skits. The ollowing is an example o an inaction.A woman who eaned e living om a Tibetan caavan woeclothing emboideed with gold thead duing a ai oganized

by a Buddhist monastey. The z wie noticed he, and theoende was punished . The jackets won by the w had to be col-oless. It was obidden o the w woking as sevants in thez esidence to si t o smoke next to te z o to use kitchenutensils that belonged to his amily.

Any si dzk o w who visited the z oice had topostate himse beoe him. Ate having been eceived, i t was

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customary for the visior to leave by backng away while bowingvery low. Everyone who passed in front of the official residence

ha to remove his or her head covering hat if it was a man andscaf if it was a woman and had to keep silent with head bowed .If on horseback he or she was required to dismount. If a sidzka, or w encountered the zu o another chief such as the

uanrn or general administrator while walking he o she had owthdraw to the side of the oad head bowed and give him therightofway.

Each fall the zu began the havest season in his own ields.Everyone else had to wait three days before harvesting. When vil-lagers hunted which was rare they gave a portion, or even all ofthe game to the zu If they killed a stag only the thighs skinan antlers were offere. When they trapped an otter or sew aleopard the skins alone were oered.

pi

The term si literally means chief but it is used iguratively torefer to the highest social stratum. The si stratum was made upoflns escended from the zu family throughout the eras. In 19 56 , it included thirtytwo households. I translate sip as ais-tocracy to desinate it as a social stratum.

In cases of marrage among the si which always involvedvirilocal residence the rule of transmission of social status wasmalelineal . For example the children of a married si man

always belonged to he si stratum no matter what the social sta-tus of his wife. The children of a married sip woman belonged toher husband's stratum. There has been only one case however inwich a si woman marrie a commoner. If cohabitation tookplace in a virilocal esidence which was always the case the rulewas also male lineal. For example the children born to an aris-tocratic man belonged to the si stratum regardless of their

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mother's status. In cases of the visit the children always inheritedtheir mother's status no matter what the stratum of her visitors.

Other combinations that could be logically surmised did notexist in practice for the men and women of the si stratum. Thiscan be explained by he simple fact that si lns always con-trolled the modality of sexual life practiced by their memberswith the result that their descendants did not become dzk or w

The Na used the term n (bone) to refer to the carrier thattransmitted social status among members of the sip But in thiscontext n was rative. This subtle notion is of great impor-tance. This rule of transmission of status has led certain research-ers to believe that the rule of descent in respect to aristocrats i spatrilineal.

Dzeka

The word dzk means the people. This social stratum includedthe majority of Na households. I use the erm mmnrs to desig-

nate the members of this stratum.In 1956, the commoners were distributed throughout 66households. Certain commoner households originally belongedto the si stratum but because of a conict or an estrangementwith the 's family they had been demoted to the rank ofdzk For example there were twelve households that the Nareferred to as sRn a term whose meaning is unknown. Accord-ing to my sources these households were originally descendants

of the 's family and were therefore part of the si stratum.Following a struggle for power with the which the sRnlost the employed the sRn as wardens in the prison.Every New Year's Day when the sRn brought gifts to the to wish him a happy New Year he would throw the gifts on theground in front of them a ritual gesture that expressed the badmemory of an event long ago.


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Anothe example of households that oiginally descended fomthe z famil can be found in the Azo ns fom the village of

Azo which is within the paametes of my investigation. Howeve,hey we sepaated fom the z a long time ago and ae now inhe same social position as the commones. The only tace of theifome s tatus as sip can be found in the ound cental pi lla s inhei main house. No one knows he exact date of this shift in status.

On the othe hand the bs ns of Han oign neve had aconsanguinea elationship to the z family and belonged tothe commone statum. Howeve thanks to thei high position inhe z egime they enjoye he piv ieges of the aistocaticstatum.

Mos commnes live exclusively accoding to the moalityof he visit. The a of this satum said that the ansmission ofstatus occue hough the matenal line.

I have aleay mentioned the ule of status ansmission in amaiage o cohabitation between a dzk and a sip Maiage has

neve occus between a dzk man and a w woman o the otheway aoun. Cohabitation between a dzk and a w will be dis -cussed in the following section.

W

The w beonged to thei maste and woked as sevants eitheinside his home o in his felds. I tanslate the name f this statum as sefdom.

The w coul be tansfeed. Fo example the z childenwee always given seveal w when they move out of the zesidence. The w could be sold one by one o by a household if itwas exclusively made up ofw people. Fo example

1. The Lafu n is w It once belonged to the sip nof Bodzi but had been sod seveal geneations ea lie to the gen-eal administao 's family fo the pice of 2 d of con.


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2 . The Luzo n (aristocratic) in the vi llage of Zhoshi soldat various points three w Among these sa les a person from he

Gezo n was sold for 3 du of corn a person from he Echen was sold for 60 pounds of salt and a person from the Dadzun was sold for a hose 20 bnk and 30 pounds of sal.

The w could be traded by heir masters which often serve tobring the serfs closer to their master's resience.

he stratum was for the mos part made up of two categoriesof people: those who had los thei means of subsistence and criminals. The following is a detailed classicaion of the serfs:

1. The servants of the zu family since the ime of Yamaa. 2. The perperators of serious crimes who after being released

from prison were demoed by he zu and became his servants.3. Those who did no respec he cusoms. For example : (a)

Tuji found herse lf confroned by two ari stocrats engaged in agh and did nothing to stop them. She was demote to the rank

ofw by the zu (b) The Pota n had many sons. Whenthei mother d ied ins tead of carrying her caske out he door aswas customary they lifed it out through he roof which was ransgression. The zu demoted the enire n o he rank ofserf.

. Those sent by their ascendans to the zu because of disobedience.

5. Descendants from other ethnic groups who went o Yong

ning and unable to nd other employment worked in the zuhome as servants in order to survive.

6. Those who unabe to pay a debt wee brough to wok inthe ome of their credior or of the zu For example: (a) TeShadga n from the village of Ago was indebte to a nfrom Dzbo. Because it was unable to pay o the deb Samu oneof he daughters was taken away as a sef. Later Samu had a

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daughter who was sold by her master o the Tsie n (b) TheShudu n was ruined because of its debts. It had twenty mem-

bers all of whom were handed over to he z to become serfs.7. People who were ruined who gave themselves up voluntar-

ily to the z to become serfs in order to survive or turned upon the doorstep of aristocratic ns or wealthy commoners oreven wealthy serfs. The latter two cases however were rare. Forexample: (a) The commoner Tsaita n in the village of LittleLoshu owned wo serfs . (b) Latse a serf became rich during the1930s and then owned several serfs.

8. Those who became increasingly poor and sold members oftheir n as serfs. For example: the impoverished n of Sha-dami from the vil lage of Jiabu sold Hlamu as a w o the mkna religious leader for the price of one cow and 1 d of beans.

In the rst half of the twentieth century some serfns be-came wealthy through commerce the caravan trade in particular.

They acquired significant amounts of land and l ivestock. Therewere even some poor individuals who instead of turning them-selves over to the chiefs became serfs in these newly rich nsFor example :

1. The male members of the Lather n were serfs. At thebegnning of the century the n was very poor. However overthe course of three decades hrough the caravan transports trad -ing in other regions and Yongning usury it became very rich and

ended up owning fty horses and mules and 30000 bnk Dur-ing the 1940s it acquired through purchase and pawning almost1 00 dZ of land and hired four farmhands annually. I t evenbought a house with a tile roof from an aristocrat in Dzbo andkept several people as serfs.

2 . In Loshu the Sozha n owned two serfs.

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Apart from the two bs lns Chen and Shen commonerand seflns owning we is a phenomenon exclusive to the

twentieth century.In 19 56 , 2 80 households had serfs and approximately ten

serfs without homes worked in the 's residence. These 2 80households were of two types those in which only the membersof one sex were serfs and those in which members of both sexeswere serfs . Of the rst type those in which only the male members were serfs were by far the majority.

The servitude of these lns is more or less ancient. For ex-ample in the villages of Batsi Abu Hlijigu Yumi Zhoke andZhoshi there were sixtyseven households in which the membersof one sex or both sexes were sefs. Among these householdsthree claimed to have been w e as far back as Yamaa five claimedto have been so for nine generations two for seven generationstwelve for fve generations seven for four generations nine forthree generations one for two generations and one for one gen-

eration. Tweny seven households knew that their history beganafter Yamaa's era but they did no know the exact dae.

The number of serfs owned by the continua lly gew fornew serfs were always joining his residence Other inuential andrich ns would also receive serfs from ruined ns but thiswas rare.

The majority of serfs were originally commoners. There is onlyone case of serfs who were originally aristocrats the Risi ln in

Zhongshi . The rest o f the serfs came from ln that had beenserfs since the era of Yamaa and from other ethnic groups.

A change in status could only occur by downgrading that isby moving from high to low from the aistocratic to the com -moner stratum or from the commoner to the serf stratum. If aperson committed a cime and was demoted to a w by the he could be redeemed by his ln or could redeem himself as

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long as he lived alone . But once he set up a household the estoation of hi s staus though payment fo hi s cime was no longe

possible.A household in which the male membes o the membes of

both sexes wee sefs and which had two o moe boys couldbuy back one o two of its male childen so they could becomeLamais t monks but it coud neve buy back the oldest son. Thezu set the pice of the puchase which could ange fom 50 tot OO pounds of boned pok.

Whie ae it sometimes happened that a newly ich householdafte much pleading to the zu was ganted pemission to pay asum instead of woking. But even if it pai egula ly its status didnot change. Once it stoppe paying it had to begin woking again .

The zu installed new sefs in his home o close to his homeso that hey would be nea thei place of wok. Those who be-came sefs insie the household lived thee. When a single sefwho came to live in the zu esidence wanted to set up his own

home his o he only choice was cohabitation which had to beocialy declae to the zu

In cases of cohabitation tansmission of status was paallel.Fo example when a male commone cohabited with a femalesef the i sons wee commones and thei daughtes wee sefs.Similaly when a female commone cohabited with a male sefthei daughtes wee commones and thei sons wee sefs. Thechilden bon fom two sefs wee aways sefs.

Geneal ly cohabitaion between a male sef an a female ai s-tocat was not pacti ced by the sip satum but thee ae someexcepions (see p. 37 below). Moeove maiage between amale commone and a female sef is unheadof. In geneal whena commone n considee a maiage o a cohabiation foone of its sons o ineed an adoption it looked to someone foma commone n


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Cohabitation was not an opt ion for the descendants of a nin which the members of both sexes or one of the sexes were

serfs. When the new generation included both a girl and a boythey practiced the mode of the visit exclusively. In the case of thevisit the male escendants of a n in which on ly the malemembers were serfs would always be serfs. The femae descen-dants of a n in which only the female members were serfswould also always be serfs. As for ns in which both sexes wereserfs heir escendants would be serfs forever.

I do not have any information about the rules for determiningthe status of the children of a female serf who lived by herself.

The transmission of status for the children born from cohabitation even if the cohabiants also practiced the modality of thevisit was always parallel. It passed down from mothers to aughters and from maternal uncles to nephews . Under this rule acommoner woman could bring commoner daughters into theworl and noncommoner sons (serfs) ; a serf woman could bear

serf daughters and non serf sons (commoners ). This is an unusualphenomenon!I use the word r here literally since this application of

status transmiss ion has nothing to do with the Na rule of descent.If we dissect ths parallel rule we find that it oes not equal patr-lineal plus matrilineal but results in another equation altogetherone that may be articulated as follows malelineal plus femalelineal.

A n that ha an only chi ld who was a girl or that had onlyboys could prot from this parallel rule since if the members ofboth sexes were serfs it could change the status of the membersof one of the sexes in the next generat ion through cohabitation oraoption. Conversely a ln in which only the members of onesex were serfs coul become a n in which both sexes wereserfs For example

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1 . Five generations ago in the Ran z n in Zhoshi onlythe men were serfs. Since they had no descendants this n

adopted a serf woman from the Siuba n in Zbo. In the nextgeneration the members of both sexes were serfs.

2. he Nadgobizu n in Zhoke was exclusively serf on themale side. Because this n had only boys one of them had tocohabit virilocally with a commoner woman. Therefore in thenext generation only the male descendants were serfs.

3. Both sexes of the Gezo n also in Zhoke were serfs.Gezo (male) cohabited with Dma (female) in whose n onlythe men were serfs. The Gezo n therefore became half serf(the male members) and half commoner (the female member s. )

Given these rules a n in which the members of only onesex were serfs could technicall y become through adoption orcohabitation a non serfn However I was unable to nd any-one who could gve me information about whether or not this had

been forbidden by the z and if any attempts of this nature hadoccurred. In fact i t was not in the best interest of the masters forexclusively serflns to become half serf and commoner nswere reluctant to let one of their members cohabit with a serf.

To maintain the serf population the z from time to time ,gave a female serf to a n that was lacking female descendantsand therefore was at risk of disappearing or he set up two serfstogether so that they could establish a new household.

A female or male serf and her or his descendants always be-longed to the same master. Sometimes cohabiting serfs belongedto two masters the woman to one and the man to another.

As a general rule in ns in which the members of one sexwere serfs the males for example only the eldest son had to workfor the master. he other sons usually worked at home but theirmaster could call for them when he was in need of extra help. A


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n could send the eldest son o a younger son for the perma-nent wok. The rule simply stated that one man had to wok fo

the maste. Lns in which both sexes were sefs had to povideone man and one woman for the master. Sefs began working forthe maste at the age of thirteen and continued until they weeforty seven if they were women and ftyseven if they were menTo cicumvent this ule some households tri ed to put off thepuberty itual fo their childen.

All ns in which the membes of one sex o both sexeswee serfs maintained economic independence . Thei maste scould not take away their popety such as land livestock andgrain.

Some serfs who wee close to the zu wee given adminis -tratve positions which wee often quite lucrative Some evenbecame intimates of the zu and therefore enjoyed a much moreelevated ank in society. Consequently there wee commonerswho coveting such a position voluntaily became serfs in the

zu home Howeve it was not guaranteed that they wouldsucceed in getting what they wee afte. Fo example: the Goan belonged to the commoner social statum as did the Lumein Both wee descended from the aristocatic statum Theascendants of these two ns having seen that certain membesof households in thei lineages had been given postions by thezu became serfs in the zu home hoping that they toowould get a good positon. But judging them incapable the zu

gave one of them the job of aising pigs and the othe one that ofstablehand.

Because there wee always criminals impoverished nsand poo individuals and because sefs emained serfs the serfstratum had a natural tendency to grow. Sources fom various vi l-lages unanimously dated the irst appearance of this stratum inthe era of Yamaa. As for what existed before I can say for certain

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that the formation of he aristocracy came about through a moreor less close kinship relationship to the ' s famil y. But a l-

though the term si means chief not al l of the ls that maeup the stratum were ominant in this society. The commonerstratum consiste oflns that maintaine their legal inepen-ence. The serf stratum was characterize by servitue an a par-tia loss of legal inepenence for both iniviuals an lsThat is every serf ha the uty to work for his master. This is-tinguishe their stratum from the other two social strata whosemembers were free .

We have seen that there are three rules for the transmiss ion ofstatus paternal maternal an parallel. Marrie or cohabitingaristocrats followe the paternal rue while female aristocrats l iv-ing accoring to the moal ity of the visit followe the maternarule. For cohabiting serfs an for serfs born from a cohabitationwho practice the moality of the visit the rule was parallel. Fora commoner male marrie to an aristocratic woman the rule was

paternal . On the othe han accoring to my sources the rulefor commoners practicing the moality of the visi t was maternal .However this di not appear to me quite so obvious . It is truethat the chilren of a commoner woman who receive visits re-maine commoners no matter what the status of the genitor.However if we take into consieration all of the possibilities forthe transmission of staus that applie to commoners this in anof itself is not enough to claim that the rule was maternal . In a

cohabitation between a female commoner an a male serf or be-tween a male commoner an a female serf the commoner womancoul only give birth o commoner girls while the commonerman transmitte his status only to the sons of his female cohabi-tant . This shows that for a commoner l if all of its memberspractice the moality of the visi t the rule for the transmiss ion ofstatus woul be not maternal but parallel.

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scenaros the z would be n trouble. We can now see that hsarthmetc was extremely calculatng.

The examnaton above shows that there are four ules for thetransmsson of status paternal maternal male lnea l and female-lneal. Whle the maternal rule s entrely hamonous and n keep-ng wth the logc of ths matrlneal socety the other three rulesappear to be completely oppose to the noton of Na matrlny.Tha three out of four rules do not agree wth the rule of knshpleads me to ask the followng queston why does ths oppostonexst or why s there such complexty concernng the rules of sta-tus transmsson? In other words where do the deas paternalmalelneal and femalel neal come from? The answers to thesequestons can only be found n hstorcal events and my sourceshave gven me an mportant clue the sef stratum rst appearedn the era of Yamaa. But does ther recollecon correspond to hs-torcal fact? If t does who was Yamaa and what happened durnghs egn? The mportance of these questons demands a synthetc

approach one that I wll attempt n chapter 1 2

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C

T h e P o l i t i c a l R e g i m e u n t i l 9 5 6

To give a better understanding of the political regime of the s inYongning I will irst biey describe the policies of the variousdynasties and of the Nationalist Republic in regard to the ethnicminorities in China.

An Ovrvi w of thT Systm in China

Prio to 19 56 , the government policy on ethnic minorities can bedivied into two periods the rst begins in 2 2 1 Bc and ends in 1 2 5 3 , and the second spans the period from 1 2 5 3 until 1956.

rs PrdDuring the rst period which lasted for 1 ,7 years the centralgovenment of each dynasty contnuously implemented a policycalle j m z z The word j means haler m means bit z

means of an z means pol icy. With this metaphoric phrasethe government expressed its mastery over the ethnic minoritiesthrough its chief just as one controls horses and cows by thehea using a halter and a bit.

In practice under all of the dynastie s once a territory wasconquered and its indigenous chiefs had submitted to the courtand recognized it as sovereign the central government would


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bestow on them a hereditary title. I t woud then leave these indigenous chiefs to rue their territories and to reign over their

people as they saw ft without interfering with their socia organization or intervening in their interna affairs. In his way hecenra government' s domination over these peope was ony exercised through the intermediary of the indigenous chiefs.

Under the Qin dynasty (2 2 1 206 B ) the indigenous chiefskept their own tites However under ater dynasties the courtsometimes handed out suppementary Han administrative titles tothe particuary faithfu and obeient without however conferring any rea power on them as they did for the Han chiefs whoheld the same tites.

Under the Tang dynasty (A 61 8907), the emperor Li Shiminmaintained: "Since ancient times the entire world has beievedthat the Zhonghua (the Han) are superior and the yd (ethnicminoritie s) are inferior. I love them all the same' He decreed heestabishment of the prefectures and subprefectures of Jimi in

the regions of the ethnic minoritie s to function as forma administrative regions in which the chiefs were a nat ives and theirpositions passed down through heredity.

In 1 2 5 3 , the court of the Song dynasty (A 9601279), inuence by he ang instiuted a reguation on the transfer of power.When an aging us considered stepping down the minor chiefsof his ethnic group together with the chiefs of neighboring ethnicgroups were now required to present their request for an heir

unanimousy to the court which would then give the imperiaorder to grant the request . This marks the beginning of the central government's seizue of power.

T Snd rdUnike in the rs t period when ethnic minorities were governedexcusivey by their own chiefs in the second period ( 1 2 5 3 1956 ),


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not always applied in the same way in dierent reions . The poli cies rapidly affected central China whereas they were less rigor

ously implemented or simply ineffectual in remote and isolatedareas.

After seeing the Mongols frequently resort to force to conquerethnicmnority regions the Ming dynasty ( 1 36 81 644) trieda dierent tack. Basing its pol ici es on favors to the native chiefsand governing by deterrence, it was able to subjugate the ethnicminorities peacefuly. Once it had pacied the ethnic mnoritiesit instigated a series of new regulations. For example it appointedonly the leaders of the ethnic groups as chiefs and gave themsalaries. These chiefs could be promoted to a higher positon allthe way up to minister if they excelled in carying out theirresponsibilities. They therefore had the opportunity to becomemagistrates. To rule more effectively the Ming dynasty appliedstrict rules. For example if a native chief transgressed court regu-lations he was punished n the same manner as a Han mandarin

demotion or suspension of his position deportation and con-demnation to death. The rules under the Yuan in the same cir-cumstances had been less strict when a native chief had committed a crime he was punished but maintained his position.

In the middle of this dynastic per iod the court init ated anew policy called a (the replacement of a native chief bya magistrate ) for when a native chief committed the crimes ofusurpation launching an attack on a neighboring ethnic group or

failing to provide an heir. This policy created repeated rebellionsamong the ethnic minorities when it was applied. For examplethe governor of the two Guang (Guangdong and Guangxi) stated"The installation of magistrates [in the regions of ethnic minorities] is merely a nominal and empty gesture. Before the nativesgave us 3 thousand soldi ers every year to have at our disposal.Since the implementation of thi s policy the provincial govern

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ment has had to provide several thousand soldiers every year inorder to protect itself from native revolts.

As a result of th e severe consequences of this policy the courthad to reinsall native chiefs in certain regions and to take anothermeasure caled znjn zmn (the mult iplication of nativechiefs) . Under this policy more minor native chiefs were namedin regions control led by powerful s in an eort to weaken heirpower. In other words it was a policy of divide and conquer.

The Qing dynasty (16441911) was founded by an ethnicminori ty the Manchurians. To control the other ethnic groupsand protect itself from them i t institu ted an extreme poli cyaccording to which it was no longer possible for a native chief tobecome a magistrate. The salary system was replaced by officialland for the native chief also referred to as the "land accompany -ing th e seal . To curb the native chiefs' power the new dynastytook severe measures

1. It recongured borders to obstruct the expansion of native

chiefs.2. It set up surveilance posts at points of passage and forbade

naive chiefs and member s of their ethnic groups from leavingtheir region without permission from the authorities. A nativechief who transgressed this rule would be stripped of his power; acommon native in the same situation would receive eighty blowsfrom a club on the buttocks.

3. In certain regions it named sons other than the eldest to

succeed the s so as to weaken the power of this posit ion.4. It named magistrates in certain regons where a s already

existed.

In other respects the Qing dynasty more or less maintained theMing dynasty regulations .

In 1726 the Qing court launched a massive nationa campaign


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Unde the Qing dynasty and until the Guomindang ea thetasks that the cental govenment assigned to the included

contolling the ethnic goups of the egion collecting taxes andtansoting them to the authoities aesting thieves and ban-dits and sending the local amy on expediions odeed by thehighe govenment .

he was endowed with political powe. He had at his dis-posal an administation whose hieachy was as follows highest Na goveno in he Yongning egion; genealadministato; bas assistant to the geneal administato; ands secetaies .

he achitectue of the 's esidence was typicaly Han andincluded a house fo the 's family and sevants the soce two stoehouses fo gain a stable and a pison. Accodingto oal tadition the 's esidence moved thoughout histoyand has been located success ivey in the following villages Kaiti Azo, ozhi, Ago, Bodzi and Zhoshi. In 19 56 , it was in Zhoshi. I do

not know the easons fo these changes in location no how ongit was in Zhoshi. Even today, thee ae taces of these moves in theaistocatic and sefns in al of these vilages and thei su-oundings with the exception of the vilage of Ago. Fo example,all of the Azo ns in Azo oiginated with the ' s famil y,while in the neighboing village, the six Ragi ns ae al sefs

Detai led infomation about the milita y oganization of theYongning egion does not exist . Duing the Guomindang ea the

had appoximately ten young sef men as bodyguads. In the1920s an amy of 170 sodies ecuited fom the commones wasfomed. he soldies funished thei own povisions while theiams wee issued by the govement of the Yongbei Disict. Undehe diect command of the the main pat of the amy wasstationed in Yongning and a smale bigade was in Baeqiao oguad the stoehouses of gain. his foce was disbanded in 1928 .


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Then in 1942 following a directive from the Ninglang Districtgovernment another army of one hundred soldiers was formed

in the same manner as before. In 1948 it too was disbanded.As supreme chief of the region the zu had legal power. If

someone i nflicted bodily harm on another person in a brawlfor example he would order tha t the offender be bea ten with awooden board in the Chinese manner. He also judged criminals.Generally he would rst incarcerate those who committed seri-ous crimes such as murder placing them under surveillance byunarmed guards. After being sentenced the crimnals were placedin stocks and paraded through the vi lages. Then if their nswere unable to redeem them the zu would demote them tothe status of serfs and put them to work for his family. The rightto sentence a crimnal to death did not come under his jurisdic -tion however. A vctims family could lodge a complaint againstthe murderer with the higher governments which did have thepower to impose the death penalty. Several requests of this nature

were presented but the famili es lodging the complaints werealways outsiders. In general the Na are unaware that accordingto Han law they are entitled to lodge such a complaint.

The central goernment arbitrated conflicts between the Nain the Yongning region and their neighbors . For example according to Han texts and Chinese genealogy of the zu the Yongningregion underwent a period of unrest between 14 17 and 143 8that was provoked by the Na s living in Sichuan Province.

Pusan the third chief in the genealogical lis t of the zu s familywas assassinated by the Na chief of Zuosuo. In 14 2 3 Pusan'sbrother Nanba succeeded him whi le the region continued to beinvaded by these neighbors. In 14 3 8 with the approva of theemperor a magistrate was installed in Yongshen to conrol theentire region. Ever since the situation between Na groups hasbeen calm.


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Chinese for the local or central government to teach Chinese tothe zu s sons and to serve as interpreter for the zu and gov-

ernment ocials.The zu also assigned other positions such as the steward

who managed the administrations daily spending and the inven-tory control of crops from the admin istration s land as well asfrom the zu private poperty and the irigation supervisorwho was in charge of wate distribution during the sowing period.

Th Division of th Yongni ng Rgio n in to Two Zons

The zu divided the Yongning region into two parts: the centralzone which covered almost the entire Yongning basin except forthe villages located beyond Walabi to the notheast and the out-lying zone which was connected with the rest of the region .

In the central zone under the authority of the general admin-istrator and his assistants there were nine rm This post alsohad a Han name uu which means head of the goup. Each

rm was in charge of the villages surrounding his own residence.(I refer to this kind of ensemble of villages as a village grouping)For example:

1. The rm of the ve border villages within my parametersof research was a member of the Raimi n living in the vil lageof Raimi.

2 A member of the Aisha n who lived in the vil lage ofHliwalo was given the position ofrm and was in charge of six

villages: Lalo Ami Amio H liwalo Jabu and Gasa .

The rm job was to collect taxes including various taxesfrom the ns of his vi llage gouping and to serve as an arbitra-tor and reconciler during conflicts between villagers. The posi-tion was inherited. When the n of a rm did not have a maleadut one of its female members could take over. Each rm e


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ceived a parcel of land (approximately 5 dZ) as payment for hisservices. Most of the rm were commoners with the exception

of a few who were serfs.The outlying zone was much larger than the central zone. Its

opuation however was less dense and very dispersed. Unlikethe central zone the outlying zone was divided into twenty fourjurisdictions each of which was directly governed by a nrnThis Han term can be translated as the chief of the jurisdiction.Each nrn had an assistant called a zz

The z the general administrator and A Zicai each managed two jurisdictions. There were therefore twentyone nrnin all at the head of these twentyfour jurisdictions . Among themwere twelve aristocrats (two of them women) seven commoners and two serfs.

Under the nrn the z also place nine rm as wel asone dz (a village chief ) in each village with the exception ofthose that already had a rm living there. The rm in the outly

ng zone had the same responsibilities and enjoyed the same priv-leges as those in the central zone.

n 1 9 1 2 the z instaled three zn in the centrazone in posit ions that were superior to the rm and three in theoutying zone. Znu a Chinese term means the head of agrop of heas. Each zn was in charge of two three orfour vil lage groupings. They served as intermediaries between thegenera administrator an the rm I translate znu as chief

of te regrouing of villages. When a zn did not performhis job satisfactorily the z relieved him of his command andrepace him.

n the outlying zone it was up to the nrn accompaniedby the bs to colect taxes and bring them to the z Theyalso served as arbitrators in disputes that the rm had been unable to settle. They were paid in grain and other goods in their


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jursdct on To ncrease ther prvleges the z decreased theamount of trbutes they were requred to pay.

In the outlyng zone some of the vllages only had householdsof other ethnc backgrounds . In these cases the z would ap-pont an nuental person as the kzn9 a Han term that meanschef of nhabtants of foregn orgns. Lke the m they wereeach n charge of several vllages. Wth the excepton of the vl-lages n whch a kzn resded the z would nstall a chefcalled as (meanng head of a small group n Han) n eachvllage.

Fgure 3 . 1 llustrate s the admnstratve and poltcal herarchywthn the z admnstraton n both the central and outlyngzones.

on e

one nd one shiadministration o centl zone outying zone

he zhuthee

(N vges)

nine rimi(N viges)

nine rimihdzi

three

(viges of foreigers)

Figu . 1 . Yongning u: Political oganization un th hiu

h raditi ona l Rights of Common rs

When the behavor of the z the general admnstrator or thenrn dd not conform to custom the commoners had the rghtto revolt. Tradtonally however only the Pum commoners hadthe rght to start a rebellon .9 The person who launched the revoltwould pass out small wooden boards to the vllagers on eachboard was attached a woolen cord whose end branched out ntoseveral threads. Each thread contaned a knot that represented

4


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was symbolically reduced to the rank of the common man andhe society seemed at least temporarily egalitarian

What is more the resolution process was always the same nomater which governor was subjected to the rebellion. This cus-tom suggests that a governor's abuse of power challenged no thereationship beween himself and a group of commoners bu theentire socia order. In other words when a governor did not fol -low social consensus recourse to force by the commoners waslegitimate and because of this he zu id not have a monopolyon the use of force. This right of the commoners served to over-come a crisis to reinstate social consensus and to get ociey run-ning again. It mainta ined equilibr ium in the sociey.

Between the governors and the commoners was a third socialgroup he am With the exception of the zu he am wase ony position in te entire political hierarchy tat had both aNa name and a Han name (uu); other positions had only aHan name. Second except for the zu only the am received

and as payment for heir job. Third as s he case for the zuhs position was hereditary.The most important par of the am role was i s doube

aspec he represented the zu in t imes of peace and representede commoners during a rebellion. The am was the leader ofhis village grouping and the inerlocutor beween vi llages. Hefocused dissension organized he rebellon an negoiated withhe zu No matter what happened the zu could take no ac-

ion against him since his posiion was hereditary. Thus he oscil-laed between two social roles the dominator and he dominated.e duality of ths posiion joined togeter the governing groupand the common people in Na society. The zu would appearuring a crsis as an arbitrator with authority rather than power.herefore he was no customarily endowed with absolute powerover his subjects .


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This social structure was very effective and the solution forrebellion highly ritualized. The double nature of the am posi-

tion and the arbitrating role of the z reveal a mechanism thatdiffers greatly from that of the despotic central government. Thisraises the following quest ion : I s this the remnant of an ancientprocedure that the Na have managed to retain from the days be-fore the ascendancy of the imperial court of China?

An answer to this question might lie in the two types of lawsthat coexiste in their olitical life: laws established by the cen-tral government and laws originating from custom. While imple -menting the central government 's laws the z also followedlaws based on custom. On the level of judiciary power the situa-tion was analogous . Take a murerer for example. The govern-mental court of the district would undoubtedly condemn him todeath while he z even in the worst case imaginable wouldonly demote him to the rank of a serf.

We have seen that polit ical life in this society was conditioned

by hree social groups the governors the commoners and theam It was based on a conception of equality when it came tothe use of force between dominators and dominated; the legiti-macy of the z power rested jointly on his nomination by thecourt (or the death of a redecessor when it was a matter of suc-cession) and social consent two opposing institutions in that oneis despotic and the other egalitarian. Since the z as the holderof executive power observed both governmental and customary

laws the political structure only truly revealed itself in times oftransition between peace and cris is and therefore can only begrsped in this dynamism.

This analysis leads to the conclusion that by applying its legis-lation to Na society the central Chinese government transmittedits despotic conceptions to the Na. But rather than replacing theNa's traditional political ideas these conceptions combined with


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them. In the political realm the Na retained a certain degree ofautonomy. In other words they did not transform into a com-

pletely despo ic society the way the Han did .Finally on the issue of political organization several questions

remain When did the ascendancy of the central government ofChina reach Na society? Was the z imitating the ways of thecourt when he gave land to he am as a salary and made theirposition hereditary or was this directly stipulated by the centralgovernment? In fact it would be interesting to know what kind ofpoli tica l regime the N a had before the ascendancy of the centralgovernment. However about this I have not to date found anyinformation either in the eld or in the Chinese texts .

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inali enable the central government strict ly forbade the sale ofadministration land in ethnicminority regions.

Using a rotation and a fallowing system the z cultivatedDekkan wheat corn whea and oas. Every year the Dekkanwheat elds needed to be plowed four imes the cornields twiceand the wheat and oat elds once. Each n that owned taxableland in the Yonning basin was obligated to plow these elds . Thisduty appl ied to al l three social strata including the family of theadministrator. Only the z fami ly and the few ns hat hadseparated from it wo generaions earlier or less were exempt fromthis obligation.

Each household was assied a lot whose location and surfacearea were xed to plow on the public property. To fulfill this taskthe rich si ns sent their serfs. Households without cattle orthose living too far from the eld could pay others or exchangeservices with them to do he work. But paying the z direclyto escape this service was not allowed.

Once he plowing was finished he responsibilit y of culti -vating these elds fell on he internal dzka (those living in theYongning basin) who were divided ino hree groups. The rstgroup was made up of thiry households which were required towork for ninety days. The second group included nineteen house-holds which worked less than forty days. The third group oftwentyseven households worked less than ten days. Oral tradi-tion has i t that the differentiation between the first two goups

was established according o the surface area of land hat theyoriginally held. The third group was most ly made up ofnsthat had originated in the family of he z but were now con-sidered commoners. The Azo ns in Azo and the Ata ns inHliwalo are examples of this. According to one tradition thesens estranged from the z family were initially no requiredto work in the elds. At some poin however the z decided


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amount for the rent and recorded it on the lease. The families ofother ethnic groups felt that once the lease was concluded they

would be able to harvest more since ther share of the cropswould depend so lely on their eorts. Na arstocrats insisted on asecurity deposit from recently immigrated ns of other ethnicgroups . I f they were unable to pay the security deposit their rentwould be raised to an amount approximaely equivalent to 5 0percent of the harvest. The rent was usually paid in grain. Onlythe merchants and craftsmen who rented small patches of land toplan vegetables paid wth money. Their leases were much moreexpensive.

I wil l now look at the propery of the three social strata andthe means of production.

Land O wnd by Aristocratic LgThe land owned by the 's family was called . As opposedto means internal ( means land) . I translate this word as

private land. In 1956 the also in the Yongning basin was1 1 3 dZ divided into twentyone plots .

The put ten serfns in charge of plowing this land .He alloca ted tools an one buffalo to each of them as wel l as1 dZ of land with which to feed the buffalo. When a buffalobecame too weak to work the would replace i t. Once an gave the bualo' s hide to the it was entit led to keepthe meat. An kw (the person in charge of the bualo) was ap-

pointed to oversee the animal s' conditions.In 19 56 the cultivation of the with the exception of the

plowing was as signed to forty two s erfs (thirty five men andseven women) who came from thirtysix ns The men workedin the elds and the women ground the grain prepared the mealsan fabricated large linen sacks. These serfs were permitted toreturn home to work only one day out of four.


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The plowing of the kr was managed by the steward of the's family. Under his directon two kw and ten wm

were appointed. The cultivation of this land was much more elaborate than that of the The manure was furnished by the 'sresidence and if there was not enough the steward would sendserf women to fetch more from the villagers who were not al-lowed to refuse . The production generated by the kr greatlyexceeded that of the even though its surface area was lessthan half the size of the In 195 6, for example the gain havestfrom the weighed 80 .5 dn while that of the kr weighed96 dn

Two storehouses on the 's property stored the harvestedgain from the and the kr separately. The sold grain tooher ethnic goups other regions and to the caravans.

The 's oldest son as te ocial heir inherited the bulkof the kr His brothers and sisters each received a part of thisand as wel as several serfs when they left home. A Mingzhu was

named the last when he had already left the 's residenceand had receved 1 5 dZ of land as the third son . Designatedte successor of his older brothe he cont inued to manage thsparcel of and separately renting out 29 .5 dZ of it. The totalproduction of this land in 19 56 was 62 dn

The also owned property in the outlying zone from whchhe collected in 1 95 6, 3 50 dn n rent. Moreover as a nrn the beneted from other revenue.

When an arstocratc n expired or was without a workforce the had the ght to seize its land. For exampe the took Dashi the only suvving member of the Adgi lnnto his home and ook her land (about 0 dZ) When Dashieached adulthood and left the 's residence she receved ony6 dZ of land.

Arstocratic ns that had ecently separated from the 's


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1 . The aristocratic ons in Bodzi were once a long time agopart of the on of Sona the 's younger brothe. Sona

received several hundred dZ of land when he left home. DuringGetso's generation the on was split into three householdsand its l and was divided into three pats. Later other separationsoccurre and therefore more div iding up of the land . In ust vegenerations the thee ons Dashi Gzo and Luzo had soldtheir land piece by piece either to other aristocratic ons or tothe Lamaist monastery. At the same time they were also sellingtheir serfs. It was from one of these ons that the pur-chased Dindgu one of hi s family 's serfs.

In the beginning of 1950 among the thirteen aristocratic onsin Bodzi that had descended from Sona only the Naji owned aserf and the Tamu bought a serf from another ethnic group. Mostof these ons were ruined In fact so much so that the Na gavethem the nickname "poor sip Nonetheless they continued toenoy certain privileges. For example in spite of the ons

decline the common folk were still equired to dismount fromtheir horses when they passed in front of their houses .

2. In Zhongsh the Jishi on had only 6.5 dZ of land andthe Dzuma on had only 3. However in that same village theGzo on had no property at all and became sharecroppers.

3. The Risi on in Zhongshi sold off its land piece by pieceto the Chen bs Three generations ago it nally sold o its lastpiece of land. Without a means of subsistence, the entire 9n

went to the 's res idence and offeed themselves as serfs .

For ons that had only a few o no se rfs the work in theelds was done in part or completely by their own members .

If an aristocrat committed a crime his n land and serfscould be taken away by the . For example Naji from Batikilled a villager in a ght. The conscated his land and serfs.


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2 . That a household that had falen to the rank of serf was ableto keep its nontaxable land testies to the flexibility of the 's

management and to the exibility of the system of social strati-cation.

3. In this society no matter what their status the ns alowned materia goods. Serfns even whie they could be soldby their master enjoyed economic independence. Thus all of thehousehods with the exception of the 's had the possibilityto become rich as well as poor. Certain aristocratic ns lost apart indeed sometimes all of their means of production andserfs. On the other han certain commoner and serfns be -came rich and owned not only a great deal of land but also serfs.We can see by this that the status of a n neither guaranteedits economic circumstances nor prevented it from degradation.Therefore each household's economic leve can be disassociatedfrom its sta tus. This suggests that on an economic and judiciallevel this socie ty maintaned an aspect of equality.

As this secion comes to a close I will simply state that untilthe Ming dynasty on issues of landownership the administrativerules of the central Chnese government were not fully impe mented in the Yongning regon. Only later with the Qing dynastydid the influence of the central government reach the Na. Theinstitution of public an private property and of taxes marked thecentral government's increased control of the Na .


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the scriptures of the daba: t one tme the daba had their canonswritten on pigskin. One day while traveling the masters were

hungry. Since they had noting to eat they cooked and ate theirbooks. Ever since then they have had no scriture'

During their rituals the daba use a hat and hold a small squaresaff approximately 30 centimeters long and 2 . 5 centimeerswide. On the four surfaces of the sa are engraved drawings of aman a woman a steer a horse a goat a pig a dog a tiger a leop-ard a lion a deer a sh a flower some grass and a tree.

The daba recite prayers for the following ri tuals: 1l . bu si n n the annual ritual of offerings to the ancestors .

During thi s ritual a daba familiar with the ancestors of a lineagerecites their names so that they will come back and share in theNa New Year's Day feast. This ritual was abolished in 1958 therst year of the People's Commune period. Today it is only prac-ticed in some very remoe villages.

2. dZI d the ritual for sending the souls of the dead to the

place where their ancestors reside.3 . na du bu te annual ritual for chasing away impurities. This

ritual only took place in the zu residence. It was conducted inthe place

Documents

Cai Hua - A Society Without Fathers or Husbands