Power and Justice: Dispute Resolution and Plural Authority in Rural Societies

Author: Zhao Xudong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: This book conducts an ethnographic field study on an ordinary village in North China from the perspective of legal anthropology. The author attempts to delve into the "pluralism" of authority in rural society and the establishment process and conditions of various forms of authority. Additionally, the author seeks to find a pathway for communication and harmonious operation between national law and the "customary concepts" of local communities. Zhao Xudong was born in 1965 in Chengde City, Hebei Province, with ancestral roots in Tonglu County, Zhejiang Province. In 1992, he graduated from Hebei Normal University with a master's degree in psychology, and in 1998, he obtained a Ph.D. in law from the Sociology Department of Peking University, with a research focus on social anthropology. He is currently employed at the Sociology Department of Peking University and the Institute of Anthropology at Peking University, while also serving as a visiting scholar at the History Department of Nankai University. He has published over twenty research papers.
Excerpt: In 1989, a case of a son failing to support his mother occurred in the village. The elderly woman was named Zhang Jingmei, and she was seventy years old at the time, with her husband already deceased. She had three sons: the eldest, Li Siren, had moved to Gudatou Village, three kilometers northwest of Li Village, to establish a household. The second and third sons, Li Enjiang and Li Sihai, both lived in Li Village. The mother orally presented the following complaint to the Fanzhuang Court:
"I have three sons. The eldest, Siren, moved to Gudatou Village to establish a household. The other two, Enjiang and Sihai, live in Li Village and have divided our two elderly parents' property between them, including farmland and pear trees. However, after the division, they refuse to support us. Their father died of exposure in Sihai's newly built, cold house on November 19th of last year. They have also treated me terribly, and around the time of the New Year, they even prevented me from returning home. My eldest son couldn't stand it and went to someone else's house in Li Village to bring me back, where I stayed in his own home in Gudatou Village. In the meantime, my second son, Enjiang, visited me twice at my brother's place. But now, I have been away for more than half a year, and Sihai still refuses to let me enter his home. My eldest son has repeatedly gone to Li Village to persuade them with words of kindness, and I have also spoken to them at length, but to no avail. In light of my unbearable suffering, I have no choice but to file a complaint against Sihai and his brother. Regarding the despicable behavior of these two ungrateful sons—refusing to provide for me while alive and failing to bury me when I die—I have the following demands: (1) They must pay support fees, as they were personally raised by our two parents; (2) They must return the property they took from us, or else build two rooms for me in Gudatou Village; (3) The pear trees we own generate 3,000 yuan annually, and they should pay at least 2,000 yuan to me, based on the lower-middle level in Li Village. If this is not feasible, then the trees should be returned to my name, and all the money collected since the division should be fully refunded to me. No other demands."