The practice of accepting a son-in-law into the family in contemporary rural China

Author: Li Shuzhuo, Jin Xiaoyi, (USA) Feldman, (Canada) Li Nan, Zhu Zhuzhu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: During the stage of matrilocal residence, the woman resides in her own clan for an extended period, forming a matrilineal extended family, while the man visits the woman's clan for temporary cohabitation, with their relationship being highly loose. The primary purpose of their union is sexual, and it does not affect the bloodline or economic relationships within the matrilineal family. In contrast, during the stage of virilocal residence, the husband lives with the wife but is not considered a member of her clan. The children do not belong to the father's clan, nor does the father have the obligation to raise them. However, overall, the conditions for human marriage have been largely met, with procedures and rituals becoming increasingly complete, though they are practiced in the form of "men marrying into women's families." In the later stage of promiscuous marriage, dual-bloodline families characterized by dual kinship ties began to emerge relative to single matrilineal bloodlines. This development caused women to leave their own kinship groups, taking on the role of a wife to jointly bear family responsibilities with the man, thereby becoming a fundamental factor in the breakdown of the matrilineal system due to marriage. Human marriage forms began to transition from promiscuous marriage to polygyny or monogamy.
As the role of men in production became increasingly important, their social status gradually rose. The strong desire of men to "preserve and inherit property" demanded the practice of men marrying women, passing property down through the paternal line, which historically determined the inevitability of men marrying into matrilineal clans. Consequently, residential patterns shifted from "matrilocal residence" to "patrilocal residence." Marx once aptly noted: "The germs of patriarchy emerged alongside the promiscuous family, and patriarchy developed as the new family took on more characteristics of monogamy. When wealth began to accumulate and the desire to pass it on to children led to the transition of lineage from the female to the male line, this laid the solid foundation for the establishment of patriarchy." The improvement in productive forces not only brought more wealth but also posed a threat to the old social structure, inevitably leading to the establishment of new marital relationships (Huang Dahong, 1999).
Since the adoption of patrilocal residence, a series of rituals for engagement and marriage gradually formed, along with taboos, such as demanding that wives maintain strict chastity to ensure their children were legitimate, and stipulating that children would follow the father rather than the mother, with wives becoming members of the husband's clan. In terms of property inheritance, children typically inherited from both parents. However, patrilocal residence was still only in its infancy. For instance, the custom of "not settling in the husband's home" (bù luò fū jiā) persisted, where the husband must live with his wife's family, perform labor for several years, or remain there until a child is born and raised, after which the wife may return to live with her husband permanently. This fully reflected the struggle between patriarchy and matriarchy during the transition from promiscuous marriage to monogamy.
Patrilocal residence still retained some matriarchal elements, with more egalitarian gender relations, setting it apart from monogamy. This difference is primarily manifested in three aspects: First, monogamous marriage is far more stable, as the wife is subjected to absolute domination by her husband and deprived of the freedom to divorce. Second, in monogamy, the wife moves to the husband's family upon marriage, eliminating the old custom of "not settling in the husband's home." Third, after monogamy is established, children are completely subordinate to the father and inherit only from him (He Junxin, 1999). P8