夥房是客家人聚族而居的社會單位，也是家族賴以生存發展及抵禦外侮的根據地；聚集的夥房形成聚居的村落，因此，夥房是家族的居住單元也是形成聚落的單元。 「夥房」是客家家族的基本單位，夥房內可以細分為一至多個家庭單位，而每一個家庭即構成一個自行運作的經濟單位。在客家人家族夥房之內的個別家庭，並不是處於孤立而疏離的狀態，在夥房裡面的家庭與家庭之間在許多方面，不僅是緊密扣結，而且息息相關。夥房的規模大小是家族經濟與家庭在空間格局上的結合，它可以大到包含十數個甚至數十個家庭單位，它可能超出家族的層次而成為一個群居的宗族，也可能小至只有一、兩個家庭單位，因此，「家庭—家族—宗族」是夥房的社會發展型態。 夥房的意涵包括夥房屋的形制及居住在夥房的各房人，夥房屋是依照人的形體與風水觀來建構，夥房人居住其間須講究宗法倫理序位的安排與空間佈局；夥房人講究祖先崇拜及敬天法地的自然思維，建構天地人祖合一的的宇宙觀。 本研究對於以一個客家村落老庄作為客家夥房的田野研究地，發覺客家夥房外在型態受到時代的演進影響逐漸凋零的現象，尤其是象徵客家夥房核心價值的祖先崇拜祖先至上，受到「神明入堂」的影響祖先牌位漸趨退讓，「壽字聯」被「神像聯」取代就是最明顯的證據。

本文以「嘗會」為研究的主題，並於前面加上「客家」一詞，是希望突顯以客家為主題的論述與特性，藉此來瞭解客家人的文化特徵，故從歷史脈絡看來，研究地區若非屬早期客家人開墾的地方，則未列入研究場域，冀望透過這樣的研究思維，並運用比較研究觀點，呈現出西湖溪流域內客家嘗會之一般與核心的文化特徵。 研究動機除了對客家嘗會的核心文化特徵加以探討外，亦綜合前人對中國傳統社會宗族理論成果之探討，運用於本文之研究；期望透過宗族相關理論的應用，並藉由西湖溪流域嘗會的族產統計分析，以達成研究目的，包含探討的早期宗族分布的情況、有哪些宗族對流域拓墾較具代表性、嘗會與宗族發展甚或對聚落發展的關聯性等；再以西湖溪流域客家嘗會為核心的觀察，探析國家政策與社會變遷對嘗會的挑戰。研究方法上，則採用文獻分析、參與觀察以及深度訪談。在資料處理方面，則運用2009年政府地政機關有關嘗會族產的公務登記資料為基礎，進而以統計方法加以整理、歸納、分析，並與相關文獻分析結果做比較與對話，以進一步提升研究資料分析結果之信度與效度。 研究結果發現客家嘗會可探析客家人早期來台拓墾的宗族發展的脈絡與聚落發展的關聯性，亦可分析出流域內前五大姓氏宗族分別依序為賴、李、彭、劉、邱，並可探討嘗會於客家地方社會發展的意義與特質；而「嘗」所展現的形式上與實質上的意涵，代表著客家人獨特的文化特徵，惟這些客家文化的特殊性，不僅正面臨社會轉型與時代變遷的衝擊，亦面臨著從日治時期政府以來，國家政策前所未有的挑戰。 / This paper takes Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations（嘗會cang hui）as the subject of the study. As the term “cang hui” is used only by the Hakka ethnic group in both mainland China and Taiwan, this study is to explore the characteristics and Hakka people and its culture features. Therefore, in terms of historical context, the region for the research is limited only to Xihu River basin area where early Hakka immigrants settled. Through this kind of study and by comparing various research points of view about cang hui, this paper hopes to present the general and core cultural characteristics of Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations in Xihu River Basin. In addition to exploring the core cultural characteristics of Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations, the study also deals with and applies discussions and findings of previous theories on traditional Chinese society lineage, hoping that through the application of lineage related theory and the statistical analysis of the Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations in Xihu River Basin to attain the research purposes. The purposes are the situation of the early lineage distribution, lineages which are more representative of the development of Xihu River Basin, the relationship between the development of Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations and the development of the lineage, and the relevance of the development of settlement, etc. The Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations in Xihu River Basin is the core observation. In addition, this study discusses further the impact of government policy and social change on the Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations. In terms of research method, we use document analysis, participation in observation and in-depth interviews. About data processing, we use the official registration information of the property of Ancestral Estate Associations owned by the government's land office in 2009 and then adopt suitable statistical methods to sort, summarize, analyze and compare the result of related historical documents to enhance the reliability and validity of the research data analysis results. The study finds that Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations can explore the relationship between the historical context of lineage development and the development of settlements in the early history. We can also use it to find that family names of the top five lineages in the river basin are Lai, Li, Peng, Liu and Chiu. Besides, we can analyze the meaning and characteristics of Hakka Ancestral Estate Associations in Hakka society. While formal and realistic meaning of “Chang”(嘗) represents Hakka people’s unique cultural characteristics, this uniqueness is not only facing the impact of social transformation and the change of the times, but also facing unprecedented challenges by government policy since Japanese Reign.