The House of Lim

length

two years

politics

state; underground gang activity; influenced how people got money

subsistence and economy

farming and cement factory

social structure

financial class; the bigger your family size, the more respected you were

location

Peihotein, a small country village in Northern Taiwan; stayed with the Lim family

marriage practices

adopt daughters to raise as wives for sons); wife of eldest son has some control over family; monogamy; matchmaker found a spouse for the son; some arranged from birth; patrilocal

domestic space

altar when you walked in; shared house; wings of house for family members

religion

ancestral religion; believed in ancestral spirit; son take care of spirits; folk beliefs

globalization

as a colony, their allegiance switched from Japanese to Chinese

interviews

interviewed family and friends; had her assistant help translate; however, she recalled information from memory without note-taking; learned story of Lim Han-ci and Lim Hue-lieng 's life from his children, grandchildren, and friends and contemporaries; learned about living family members by talking to them and their neighbors

argument

it is very difficult for Chinese families to live up to the idea of the joint family and it creates many strains within the family that will lead to its division; also provide a portrait of a Northern Taiwan village

participant observation

lived in the Lim's household with 2 generations of their family; as a result she observed the natural behaviors of family members; maintained objectivity during quarrels or factions; gathered information from the Lim family as well as their neighbors; studied culture's agriculture, business, religion, youth, kinship, sex, and family

opinion

living with family; proximity, anecdotes, personal relationships and detail; however, focusing on one family makes generalizations about a culture impossible; also difficulty of language barrier and lack of note taking

descent groups

patrilineal; first born son leads the family; all must obey parents

family roles

sons were preferred (women were not considered true members of the family until they gave birth to son); women had no jobs (unless they were widowed and became a prostitute); men ran business (cement factory that men ran)

types of families

starts as extended but becomes joint when grandparent dies