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This landmark study of Zengbu, a Cantonese community, is the first comprehensive analysis of a rural Chinese society by foreign anthropologists since the Revolution of 1949. The authors examine the revolutionary experiences of Zengbu's peasant villagers and document the rapid changeover from Maoist to post-Maoist China. In particular, they seek to explain the persistence of the deep structure of Chinese culture through thirty years of revolutionary praxis. A video documentary, produced by the Potters and Tom Luehrsen, Zengbu After Mao, is available from New Dimension Media. For video purchase or rental information contact New Dimension Media, 85895 Lorane Highway, Eugene, Oregon 97405.
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China's peasants China's peasants The anthropology of a revolution by Sulamith Heins Potter Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley and Jack M. Potter Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York Port Chester Melbourne Sydney Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 32 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1990 First published 1990 British Library cataloguing in publication data Potter, Sulamith Heins China's peasants: the anthropology of a revolution 1. China. Guangdong. Villages. Social change, 1949-1985 1. Title 11. Potter, Jack M. 307.7V095127 Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data applied for ISBN o 521 35521 4 hard covers ISBN o521 35787 x paperback Transferred to digital printing 2000 CE To Elizabeth and Noah Contents List of illustrations List of tables Preface Notes on the text 1 2 3 4 5 The old "feudal" order: Zengbu before Liberation Establishing the new order The ordeal of collectivization The Cultural Revolution Maoist society: the production team PaZe vm x xi xiv i 36 59 83 94 6 Maoist society: the brigade 7 Maoist society: the commune 129 143 8 Impatient aspirations: transition to the post-Mao period 158 9 10 11 12 13 The cultural construction of emotion in rural Chinese social life Marriage, household, and family form Chinese birth planning: a cultural account Lineage and collective: structure and praxis Party organization 180 196 225 251 270 14 The party ethic: a devotion born of distress and enthusiasm 15 A caste-like system of social stratification: the position of peasants in modern China's social order 283 296 16 The Chinese peasants and the world capitalist system 17 The crystallization of post-Mao society: Zengbu in 1985 313 327 References Index 340 348 Illustrations Photographs 1 Lane of Lu's Home village, 1979 Page xii 2 A branch ancestral hall 53 3 A production team warehouse and rice-drying ground, Lu's Home village, 1979 95 4 Zengbu brigade headquarters, 1979 130 5 Brigade office, 1979, with one of Zengbu's most experienced cadres 130 6 Chashan State Grain and Oil Purchasing Organization 145 7 Modern, post-Maoist altar 224 8 Lao Ye and the brigade birth control team, 1985 234 9 Rebuilt Sandhill ancestral tomb, 1985 258 10 Zengbu lineage dragon boats, 198 5, showing the levee built along the river 259 11 Chashan Commune Communist Party headquarters, 1979 271 12 Secretary Lu, of Lu's Home village, head of the Zengbu Brigade Communist Party Branch 275 13 Brigade cadres in headquarters'courtyard, 198