A Society Without Fathers or Husbands - The Na of China

Zusatztext "Cai’s work is an important contribution not just to China studies but to theoretical anthropology…. [His] monograph is a sober, ethnographically well-informed, and sensitive portrayal of one people’s way of organizing the intimacies of their domestic lives." Zusammenfassung The Na of China, farmers in the Himalayan region, live without the institution of marriage. Na brothers and sisters live together their entire lives, raising the women’s children. Since, like other societies, the Na respect the incest prohibition, they practice a system of furtive or conspicuous night visits during which a man goes to a woman’s home. In addition to spending long periods of time with the Na, Cai Hua has analyzed numerous historical Chinese documents. He presents us with a lucid, fascinating monograph that shows how a society can function without fathers or husbands. In light of Na ethnography, he leads the reader toward a new reflection on the nature of marriage and family — long the objects of circular reasoning in sociological analyses. Since the inception of humankind’s interest in the diversity of its cultures, this is the first time an anthropologist has encountered a society whose structure differs totally from that of other societies throughout the rest of the world. This discovery is likely to provoke fundamental changes in the way we look at social life and human behavior.

About the author

Cai Hua
Translated by Asti Hustvedt

Product details

• Authors: Cai Hua, Cai/ Hustvedt Hua
• Assisted by: Asti Hustvedt (Translation)
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2008
• EAN: 9781890951139
• ISBN: 978-1-890951-13-9
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 230 mm x 38 mm
• Series: Zone Books; A Society without Fathers or Husbands; The MIT Press; The MIT Press; Zone Books
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories