中国农村亲属关系的变化——对几个家族走亲戚状况的研究

亲属关系作为中国社会极为重要的一种社会关系和社会资源,与每个人息息相关,并承载着诸多社会功能。传统的亲属关系有自己的形态和范围,而在时代的变换之下,工业化和城市化以及相伴随而来的社会诸方面的变迁影响着人们生活的方方面面,传统亲属关系的功能作用和存在形态及在人们生活中的定位也相应地发生改变。关心这其中的"变"与"不变"能使我们对今天中国,尤其是对处在变革中的广大农村的亲属关系有一定的把握,对分析今日中国农村的很多问题有一定的帮助。本文以中国农村"走亲戚"状况的调查为切入点,主要采用个案研究的方法对一个村庄中几户人家的走亲戚状况予以调查,了解人们对亲属关系的态度变化,亲戚之间关系的强弱,亲属关系作为社会资源的功效等等。以吉登斯的社会学理论作为解释框架和研究视角,分析亲属关系变化的社会基础以及人们对维系亲属关系的自主选择,并对未来中国农村亲属关系的走向进行了预测。

The Kinship Variation in Rural China--A study of the convention of visiting relatives in rural families

The kinship,one of the most important social relationship and resources in Chinese society,is closely relevant to everyone,and bears various social functions.In the era of transformation,the traditional pattern and scope of kinship have been changing greatly in the trend of industrialization,urbanization and other accompanying social changes,which may affect all aspects of people’s lives,thus the existence and function of the kinship and the niche of people living varying accordingly.The knowledge of the variations as they are contributes to our understanding of China today,especially of the rural issues and the rural kinship in the transformation to a certain degree.This paper takes the investigation of visiting relatives in China’s rural families as the pointcut and argues that this convention is a bridge connecting relatives,which reflects a pattern of the kinship in one respect.With the case study of visiting relatives of some families in a village,the paper explores people’s different attitudes towards the kinship,the strength of the relationship among relatives,the function of the kinship as a social resources,etc.Based on Giddens’s sociological theory as an interpretive framework and research perspective,it also analyzes the social foundation of the kinship variation and people’s option to maintain the kinship in order to predict the orientation of China’s rural kinship in the future.