Hui Kinship Terms System Research

As a specific term dedicating the kinship of Hui ethnic group, kinship terminology is not only a simple linguistic phenomenon, but also a refection of Hui's social structure, customs and sense of value. Kinship terminology implies the Hui people's cultural characteristics because it was produced under a certain social background.Based on former researches and studies, this paper, using kinship related theories in cultural anthropology, discusses the Hui people's kinship terminology from three aspects:firstly, applying theory of Murdock, an American anthropology raised eight categories to study kinship terminology this paper makes a description to analyze the composition and typology of Hui people. Secondly, comparing different kinship terminology of four study fields, I find that diversities exist in different areas. And finally, I try to make a comparison of kinship terminology between the Hui and the Han people in the same region, through which I make a conclusion that in the same area the overlaps between Hui and Han people are much larger than their differences.Through analysis above, there comes to a whole idea about Hui's kinship terminology, that is, Hui's kinship system and typology show their communality with that of the Han people. It is a kinship terminology of paternity with order between the old and young, differ the treatment from the male and female, and different closure relations inner and outer the family. Based on this, I make a further discussion about main reasons shaping this terminology, which are languages, intermarriages between the Hui and the Han, and the impact of Chinese traditional social structure.With a whole idea of Hui's kinship terminology, I analyze the cultural features of Hui which reflected in its kinship terminology. Differences of it in areas display the regionalism and diversity of the Hui's culture. Otherwise, the similarities and differences of that in the same area symbolized the characteristic shared in the Hui and the Han culture, "sharing the common sense while tolerating the differences of each other". Meantime, I point out that the traits of Hui people's kinship terminology is a cultural expression of Hui people's national identity which reflecting their identification towards cultural diversity.