A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China

by Cai Hua, Asti Hustvedt (Translator)

Overview

The Na of China, farmers in the Himalayan region, live without the institution of marriage. Na brothers and sisters live together their entire lives, raising the women’s children. Since, like other societies, the Na respect the incest prohibition, they practice a system of furtive or conspicuous night visits during which a man goes to a woman’s home.

In addition to spending long periods of time with the Na, Cai Hua has analyzed numerous historical Chinese documents. He presents us with a lucid, fascinating monograph that shows how a society can function without fathers or husbands. In light of Na ethnography, he leads the reader toward a new reflection on the nature of marriage and family — long the objects of circular reasoning in sociological analyses.

Since the inception of humankind’s interest in the diversity of its cultures, this is the first time an anthropologist has encountered a society whose structure differs totally from that of other societies throughout the rest of the world. This discovery is likely to provoke fundamental changes in the way we look at social life and human behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781890951139
Publisher:	Zone Books
Publication date:	05/09/2008
Series:	Zone Books
Pages:	506
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Cai Hua is Director of the Center for Anthropological and Folkloric Studies at the Peking University.

What People are Saying About This

Rodney Needham

Dr. Cai Hua's revelatory work is replete with invaluable ethnographic findings and human value.

Endorsement

Dr. Cai Hua's revelatory work is replete with invaluable ethnographic findings and human value.

—Rodney Needham, Oxford University

From the Publisher

“Dr. Cai Hua has done Western anthropology a great service by making it acquainted with one of those few societies in Asia (and Africa as well) who deny or belittle the roles of father and husband in their social system. Thanks to him, the Na now have their place in anthropological literature.”— Claude Lévi-Strauss, Collège de France

Editorial Reviews

"Cai’s work is an important contribution not just to China studies but to theoretical anthropology…. [His] monograph is a sober, ethnographically well-informed, and sensitive portrayal of one people’s way of organizing the intimacies of their domestic lives."

China Review International

Marriage is the foundation of all societies, anthropologists have claimed. Yet the Na, an ethnic minority living in China's Himalayan foothills, have enjoyed a successful culture without it. The Na are a truly matrilineal society: heterosexual activity occurs by mutual consent and mostly through the custom of the secret nocturnal "visit"; men and women are free to have multiple partners and to initiate or break off relationships when they please. Children are raised by their mother's family, with the biological father playing no role whatsoever. Cai Hua, director of research at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences in China, lived among the Na for extended periods during the 1980s and 1990s and gathered comprehensive data on their history, religion, economic practices and social customs in particular, kinship systems. The resulting description and analysis, originally presented as his master's thesis, introduces a fascinating culture for whom "sexuality is not a piece of merchandise but a purely sentimental and amorous matter that implies no mutual constraints." (Hua does not mention whether homosexual activity is similarly tolerated.) Na men and women generally report high satisfaction with their sex lives. As in other cultures, though, physically unattractive, disabled and older individuals have few (if any) romantic options; high rates of sexually transmitted diseases also occur. This painstakingly researched book will provide social scientists with much useful information and will raise major questions about accepted views of family relationships and gender roles. Its dry prose, clinical tone and exhaustive scope, however, may prove daunting for general readers. (May 1) Forecast: Touted as a groundbreaking study, this book is clearly intended for specialists. Though thoroughly researched and meticulously presented, it lacks the kind of readability that could have made it a 21st-century Coming of Age in Samoa. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cai (anthropology, College de France) has explored a truly unique society: the Na, a minority group of approximately 12,000 living in Southwest China near the Burmese border. A matrilineal society, Na families consist of sisters and brothers, along with other consanguineous members, living together and raising the sisters' children, who result from the night visits of various male lovers. The lovers have no connection with the family, have no responsibilities, and do not acknowledge their fatherhood; the children, in turn, do not know their fathers. Cohabitation, whereby a woman or man joins a family, or marriage occur only under extremely unusual circumstances. Communist efforts to bring the Na into mainstream values met with failure and laughable results. Cai has a dry and plodding scholarly tone with much repetition, but the book still makes for fascinating reading. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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