| Abstract: | How has the joint family structure—one of the basic institutions of rural organisation in China—been used by families in the transition from rural to urban reality since the early 1980s? During the 1960s and 1970s, the rural people's communes consolidated the role of patrilocal marriage patterns and the shared inheritance and responsibilities of brothers (both hallmarks of the joint family), while in the 1980s and 1990s, the joint family was used to maximise the economic interests of the new entrepreneurial groups in rural China. However, the transition to urban status and life gradually changed the role of sisters among siblings, as existing social patterns gradually eroded and changed meaning. This contribution explores how these macro-level institutional transitions manifest themselves in the social practice and institutional arrangements of a family case study. |
