Women and the family in rural Taiwan

Studies of Chinese society commonly emphasizze men's roles and functions, a not unreasonable approach to a society with patrilineal kinship structure. But this emphasis has left many important gaps in our knowledge of Chinese life. This study seeks to fill some of these gaps by examining the ways rural Taiwanese women manipulate men and each other in the pursuit of their personal goals. The source of a woman's power, her home in a social structure dominated by men, is what the author calls the uterine family, a de facto social unity consisting of a mother and her children. The first four chapters are devoted to general background material: a brief historical sketch of Taiwan and a description fo the settings in which the author's observations were made; the history of a particular family; the relation of Chinese women to the Chinese kinship system; and the interrelationships among women in the community. The remaining ten chapters take up in detail the successive stages of the Taiwanese woman's life cycle: infancy, childhood, engagement, marriage, motherhood, and old age. Throught the book the author presents detailed information on such topics as marriage negotiations, childbirth, child training practices, and the organization of women's groups. Frontmatter 1 Some History and Some Geography (page 1) 2 The Ongs of Peihotien (page 14) 3 Uterine Families and the Women's Community (page 32) 4 Friends and Neighbors (page 42) 5 Little Girls (page 53) 6 Older Girls (page 80) 7 Engagement (page 100) 8 Marriage (page 128) 9 Waiting (page 142) 10 Taking Charge (page 158) 11 Girls Who Marry Their Brothers (page 171) 12 Girls Who Have No Brothers (page 191) 13 Filial Daughters (page 205) 14 The Rewards of Old Age (page 215) Index (page 231) Social and cultural anthropology study of rural women and the family in Taiwan, China - covers marriage traditions, childrenhood, the education of women, old age, the social role of women in the rural community, etc. Illustrations