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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6634 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Guo, Xiaolin |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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