Sociological Analysis. Clan Forces And Villagers Relations

As the basic organization forms of Chinese country society, the interior structures of village and clan have changed a lot in the transition from traditional society to the modern one, as well as the relationship between them. While villagers' autonomy is a constituent part of the modern political system of China, clan still plays an important role in the life of Chinese country society. Therefore, the matter of orienting and handling of the relationship between villagers' autonomy and clan bears an important theoretical and practical value, and become an important project in the construction of new socialist country, as well as the harmony of country community.The thesis took Shuicun, which is a multi-clan country community located in middle and south of Shandong province as the study object. The village had been involved in the religious affairs since Ming and Qing dynasty, and conflictions concerning contest of land appeared. Till now, especially since the practice of villagers' autonomy, clan power revived clan conflictions reappeared, and deteriorated, which leads to frequent sanguinary conflictions.With the objective of seeking relationship between clan power and villagers' autonomy, the thesis gave a description in terms of the following three aspects, i.e. the history and current situation of Shicun clan phenomenon, clan politics and villagers' autonomy, clan culture and villagers' autonomy. In the thesis, the qualitative method, esp. the field investigation was adopted.From Ming and Qing dynasty till now, Shuicun has evaluated from a single Xing family into a multi one in which Xing, Gao and Men existed together, accordingly, the religious activities experienced great changes, i.e. the squire-governed before the foundation of PRC, the downcast from foundation of PRC to 1980s' , the revive of clan activities which performed such activities as sacrificing, repairing of genealogy, organizing of traditional affairs, contest of the power, etc. In terms of village politics, when clan organization, which functions as a kind of kin community, connects or come into conflict with villagers' autonomy, esp. when policies or measures of the latter influences the benefits of some clan member even the whole clan, clan power would react as soon as possible, and engage itself into the villagers' autonomy activities, so as to impact or change the policies of village community, and to maximum its own benefit. To the contrast, clan power rarely interfere villagers' autonomy politically if policies of the latter had no impact on or damage its benefit. In terms of village culture, clan culture which endows worship of ancestors and ghosts and gods as the main connotation has become the important entertainment and spiritual support. It played a positive role in the harmony of villagers' autonomy, and changes as the development of society, in which the modernization process of clan culture was reveled.Aiming at the above three questions, the AGLL function analysis framework in the structure-function theory of Parsons was used to answer two questions, i.e. the reason of Shuicun's revival and the relationship between clan power and villagers' autonomy. The thesis holds the opinion that clan power exists and plays an important role in different forms, various from different social systems and environments, the existence of clan power had met the need of country society. Meanwhile, from the aspect of clan politics and clan culture, research materials illustrated that clan has both positive and negative effects in villagers' autonomy.Finally, by illustrating the relationship between clan power and villagers' autonomy, the thesis was upgraded, which came into the conclusion that political power is the only one in Chinese authority system, while social authority varies. In the current process of social transition, development and perfect of the rural and urban basic democracy authority system, the suitable leading of clan power to make it meet the need of harmony society and new socialist country, and filling of the vacuum which was left by the state authority are all important factors to satisfy the need of social order, as well as the development of new socialist country.