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9 Chinese Lineage as a Cultural Network
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
When the Singapore members of the Ke lineage visit their ancestral home in search of ancestral and cultural ‘roots’, they inevitably feel a renewed sense of lineage identity. They are forced, whether they like it or not, to acknowledge the existence of the other branches of the lineage. This is even the case for the generations of Singapore-born Ke lineage members as the various degrees of kinship relations unfold before their eyes. They are asked to acknowledge the extended kinship and lineage circle. Some of the youngest generation may be surprised by the details of their relationships, while others, perhaps older, may have understood more prior to their visit. However, coming to grips with their kinship and lineage structures are emotional affairs for many, and while some are delighted to do so, many resist. At any rate, the Singapore lineage members inevitably establish a web of social relationships that links them into new, or revived, socio-cultural and socio-economic networks. These networks enable a moral economy to become operationalized, thereby enabling the Ke lineage members in their ancestral village to tap into moral and social capital according to new meanings given to the lineage structure. The operation of this moral economy can be understood as an attempt by the Singapore Chinese to recompense for their inattention to their ancestral homes and villages, and to allay their guilt over their failure to discharge social and economic duties to their immediate kin and to the lineage in general. On the other hand, the ability of the village kin to extract social capital out of their Singapore counterparts demonstrates the intricate nature of the production of social capital. Why does the lineage structure continue to be of primary significance among the Ke lineage in Singapore? To what extent is this an aberration within 9 Chinese Lineage as a Cultural Network: A Model Kuah_09_ch09.indd 217 11/11/2010 11:45 AM 218 Rebuilding the Ancestral Village the wider Chinese community? How does the lineage structure operate in contemporary Chinese societies? Has the way it operates changed according to contemporary situations? How do various groups of Chinese of the same ancestry, but separated by history and geography, perceive the lineage structure? How do they attempt to reintegrate themselves into a common ancestral lineage structure? How can we best conceptualize the modern lineage structure as a social institution or as a system of networks? What is its structure and membership composition, and what are the roles and linkages among its members? This chapter argues that the contemporary operation of the Ke Lineage is not an aberration but is similar to that of other lineages in Singapore and Southeast Asia, where there continue to be strong ties with ancestral villages. However, this operation requires a reconceptualization of the Chinese lineage as a cultural network in contemporary society. Lineage Formation The term ‘lineage’ has been interpreted by various scholars in their attempts to understand wider kinship organization. The social anthropologists EvansPritchard and Fortes (1970) focused much of their scholarly work on understanding lineage as an important form of social organization, basing their understandings on studies of African tribal societies. Other studies followed. Maurice Freedman was the first anthropologist to focus on the study of Chinese lineage structure in two Southeastern Chinese provinces, Fujian and Guangdong. Freedman saw land as the most important element motivating the formation of single-lineage villages. ‘The centrality of the ownership of land is so important that where there is enough land, a nucleus of agnates strive to build themselves up to form a large homogeneous settlement. If to begin with they must share a territory with members of one or more lineages, they will await their opportunity to dominate and eventually drive out their neighbours. Land, which constitutes the most important material focus of any agnatically constituted group, determines the status of a lineage within a village vis-à-vis lineages in other villages’ (Freedman, 1966: 8). Thus the powerful and wealthy lineages were those that occupied the most fertile stretches of land (Freedman, 1966: 12). Freedman further argued that what constituted a lineage was the corporate group of agnates living in one settlement, or in a tight cluster of settlements. He termed this a ‘localized lineage’ (Freeman 1966: 20). The grouping of a localized lineage with other local lineages was often based on an agnatically defined common ancestor. The central focus of this whole unit was the ancestral hall or another piece of property (Freeman 1966: 21). Kuah_09_ch09.indd 218...