| Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China Contributor(s): Faure, David (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0804753180 ISBN-13: 9780804753180 Publisher: Stanford University Press OUR PRICE: $66.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2007 Annotation: This book summarizes twenty years of the author's work in historical anthropology and documents his argument that in China, ritual provided the social glue that law provided in the West. The book offers a readable history of the special lineage institutions for which south China has been noted and argues that these institutions fostered the mechanisms that enabled south China to be absorbed into the imperial Chinese state-- first, by introducing rituals that were acceptable to the state, and second, by providing mechanisms that made group ownership of property feasible and hence made it possible to pool capital for land reclamation projects important to the state. Just as taxation, defense, and recognition came together with the emergence of powerful lineages in the sixteenth century, their disintegration in the late nineteenth century signaled the beginnings of a new Chinese state. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - China - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 306.095 |
| LCCN: 2006009696 |
| Physical Information: 1.25" H x 6.35" W x 9.27" (1.68 lbs) 480 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Chinese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book brings to life a thousand years of history on the Pearl River delta and provides rich documentation for the author's argument that in China ritual played the role of law in the West, serving as the glue that bound society together. |