Thesis (M.A.)--Zhongguo wen hua da xue, 1980. / Cover title. Reproduced from ms. copy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-325).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 595-624).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [456]-459).

This is an anthropological study of peasant economy and culture, derived from field research on patterns of social organization and production of two ethnically different rural communities (Han and Mosuo) in northwest Yunnan, China. Its aim is to explore the local contexts for understanding the changes that recent economic reforms have brought to peasant life, and the cultural as well as ecological factors that constrain peasant economic activities. Current economic reforms have been accompanied by institutional changes, of which the most important for this research is the change in political relations between local and central governments. The expansion of local autonomy has had significant implications for the management of resources. The study shows that the behavior of the two local governments has had remarkably different economic consequences. The most noteworthy policy change in the economic reforms affecting rural society has been the implementation of the household responsibility system which brought down the twenty-year old collective system and has since altered the economic landscape of the countryside. This study emphasizes how kinship systems affect the form of household organization in both Han and Mosuo communities, and how existing social relationships are manifest in economic activities. "Rice Ears" and "Cattle Tails" are images drawing attention to the culturally salient differences in the patterns of production of the two communities. Rice ears constitute a cultural image of subsistence security in the Han community; and cattle tails constitute a cultural image of prosperity and development in the Mosuo community. Apart from the ecological factors which give rise to the particular patterns of livelihood in each community, cultural values associated the particular pattern of production account for many of the economic choices of the peasants and the persistence of economic forms. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This Dissertation examines Sichuan students' attitude toward modern education in the transitional times. The text describes the intrinsic crisis of the civil service examination system in the late nineteenth century, the establishment of the new school system in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the birth of the first generation of the new political elite in Sichuan after the 1911 Revolution. It highlights the students' participation in the educational reform from their motives of career-seeking and social mobility rather than from their political sentiments such as radicalism, nationalism, and modernization. The study argues that without fundamental social and economic change, educational reform in inland China did not cause a substantial change in the students' traditional attitude towards education. The new school system, substituting for the abolished civil service examination system, functioned as a new ladder of success or a new elite recruiting mechanism for the students. The study suggests that statistical growth did not mean modernity. Tradition played an important role in inland China's modernization movements in the twentieth century by shaping the ways that were used to pursue the aims of the movements and the motives of the people who participate in the movements. Extensive primary documents - ranging from government decrees to local gazetteers - are employed in the study, and attention is paid to the similarities and contrasts between Sichuan and the coastal provinces. Quite a number of tables and a comprehensive bibliography are also included. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy