从婚姻历程看中国传统社会中家庭男权的复杂性

本文考察了1949年建国前中国男权家庭中,父权与夫权的交织作用对夫妇权力关系的影响。其基本方法是跳出性别分析方法的局限,将家庭男权制度置于父系继嗣的体系中去研究,从而揭示已婚妇女在代际和夫妻权力关系方面错综复杂、起伏跌宕的婚姻历程。研究发现,在大家庭里,当父权起主导作用时,年轻夫妻均无权力,婆婆受父权的保护,受父权压迫最大的是家中儿媳。在"反哺"阶段,夫权往往用来保证男方的父母老有所养,而非完全满足男方的私利。夫妻之间,妻子通过生育子嗣和参与家庭事务逐步纳入父系体系,增强了丈夫对她们维系父系家庭的依赖性,在一定程度上抑制了夫权对她们的约束。本文展示了至少在中国部分的父系继嗣家庭中,当夫权遇到父权时,性别与代际权力出现多重性,易变性和内争性,从而造成夫权时强时弱,时有时无,既同父权遥相呼应,又与其发生冲突。因此,中国传统男权家庭中妇女的地位在一生中是变动不定的。中国妇女在父系家庭中的地位也只有放置于纵(父权)横(夫权)两个轴心当中,通观她们的全部生活历史才能完全展示出来。

Understanding the Complexity of Family Patriarchy in a Traditional Chinese Society ——A Marital Life-Course Perspective

Grounded in the patrilineal family system in pre-socialist China,this study explores the intersection between generation-and gender dimensions of family patriarchy in influencing marital power relations.Following a marital life-course methodology,I divided all the informants into four categories according to their marriage life course: those from the dependents of their parents to the reversed dependents,those from the dependents to the independents of the parents,those from the independents to the reversed dependents,and those who remained independent after marriage.Patterns of male dominance in marital relations are found to be incomplete,inconsistent,and even countervailing in the presence of generation patriarchy.Consequently,women’s experience with family patriarchy was mixed over the life course.They were particularly disadvantaged as daughters-in-law,but their lives were improved as they became fully integrated into the patrilineal system through reproduction and their husband’s growing reliance on their contributions to family continuity.This present study may shed light on changing patterns of family patriarchy under state socialism in which family patriarchy was severely assaulted by the state and in recent market reforms where family patriarchy takes on new twists and turns.Some limitations of this study are also discussed in the end of the paper.