Who is the head of the family in a large family? Father, grandfather, or grandfather?
The answer may be uncle.
Recently, the Weibo topic "Why is my uncle's status so high" appeared on the hot search, attracting discussion among netizens.
This viewpoint is not unfounded, and the folk of the mainland have widely circulated the sayings "the thunder in the sky, the uncle on the earth", "the heaven and the earth are big, the uncle is the biggest", and "the uncle will not leave the uncle's house for three generations", and the status of the uncle in the people's minds can be seen.
In addition, the "rules" of many families also show the influence of the uncle's "supremacy", such as the first stop of the New Year's greeting must be the uncle's house; When holding some major banquets, "no uncle will not open the banquet", and the uncle will sit at the table. It is even more obvious from the point of view of the title, and some places even directly call the uncle "uncle".
Why is my uncle's status so high?
"The world is big, and my uncle is the biggest"
From ancient times to the present, uncles or relatives are the most respected, and their status is even higher than that of uncles.
The uncle's status is so high, and it is closely related to the "burden" corresponding to this identity.
First, let's talk about the uncle's "obligation" to raise and educate his nephew.
There is no need to explain much about raising, eating and drinking are trivial matters, and some uncles will even buy a house and a car directly. Ye Luming, the second male in the TV series "The Next Stop is Happiness", directly bought an apartment for his niece Cai Minmin.
Of course, the uncles are not soft when it comes to disciplining their nephews (women).
Shi Yan, the actor of the TV series "Camp with Love", faced his niece Qin Shiyue's request that he didn't want to go to work and just wanted to travel abroad to study, he showed no mercy at all, and directly replied with a sentence "The Shi family doesn't raise waste people", breaking the niece's idea of sitting and enjoying her success and not wanting to pay.
In reality, some places even have detailed regulations on what uncles need to discipline their nephews.
Qiang uncles have the right to discipline their nephews, especially if they violate social rules.
In Indonesia, the power of the extended family is in the hands of the uncle, who needs to carefully regulate the behavior of the nephews (women) and teach them traditional rules of behavior.
The same is true of the Trobrians of Melanesia. The uncle represents the discipline and authority within the family, and has direct "management" over the nephews, and the uncle is also obliged to pass on his skills to the nephews, including dancing and singing.
As for the marriage of nephews (women), the role of the uncle is even more important.
In the Lisu people, the marriage of nephews and nieces must be approved by the uncle before the final decision can be made. Before the liberation, in most areas of the Han nationality in North China, Southwest China, Fujian and Guangdong, the marriage of nephews and nieces usually had to invite the eldest uncle to participate, and the famous sociologist and ethnologist Pan Guangdan once made a specific description: In the Han nationality in North China and Jiangnan, a woman must be married by her uncle on the back of a sedan chair. In the countryside of Shegang Town, Hunan, on the night of his nephew's wedding, the uncle would personally go to the nephew's new house to "praise the cave room" to express his blessings to the newlyweds.
When the Pumi people get married, they must sing the folk song "Zhizhijie" (Recognition of Relatives), which sings about recognizing their uncle. When the Maonan people get married, the uncle will set off firecrackers to show a warm welcome when he arrives at the wedding site, and the bride will also send glutinous rice and meat when the uncle returns home.
In addition to red affairs, my uncle can also be said to be "high and powerful" in the handling of white affairs in the family.
When the elderly of the Hani tribe die of illness, they must go to their uncle's house to report the funeral, and then report the funeral in order according to the distance of relatives, and at the same time, the funeral team of the uncle's family is the most respected guest in the funeral and will receive special courtesy. The funeral customs of the Maonan people include the ritual of reporting to the uncle, the first time the uncle is called "reporting the funeral", and the second time the uncle is brought by the nephew to the uncle's house to sacrifice the ghosts of the livestock slaughtered that day, and the uncle is responsible for presiding over the ceremony.
Finally, when it comes to other family affairs, it is often inseparable from the uncle. The uncle usually acts as a "notary public", especially in the division of the family property, and the uncle mainly plays the role of arbitration and supervision.
It can be said that the high status of the uncle is manifested in all aspects.
The Declining "Uncle Power"
The uncle's education and upbringing of the nephew (daughter) and the unique "status" in the nephew's marriage are actually an important manifestation of "uncle's power".
What is Uncle Authority?
The term uncle is derived from the Latin "brother of the mother". The definition of "uncle's power" in the "New Sociological Dictionary" edited by the famous British sociologist Mitchell is: a special relationship between a man and his mother and brother that exists in certain societies. It is sometimes used to describe the authority of a mother's brother over his sister's children in matrilineal societies, and sometimes to describe the doting relationship that exists between maternal uncle and nephew in many societies.
According to scholars' research, the phenomenon of "uncle power" originated in the matriarchal society of primitive times, and is an appendage or derivative of matriarchy. In a long matriarchal society, the special form of marriage made it impossible for the child to identify the biological father, and the child lived with the mother, which led to the phenomenon of "knowing only the mother, but not the father".
In matrilineal families, the members are mainly maternal grandmothers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and siblings (including aunts and cousins), and uncles are men within the clan and are naturally considered the most powerful beings. And because the uncle got along with his sisters and mother day and night in the clan, cared for each other, established a close relationship, and at the same time everyone worked together and formed a common economic relationship, so the uncle was closer to his clan and more trustworthy than the husbands of the sisters.
So a large part of the power of the clan was in the hands of the uncle, and many of the functions of the father in our family belonged to the uncle at that time, and the uncle was like a "patriarch", not only to help manage the affairs of the family, but also to discipline the children seriously and strictly, to teach production skills, and the uncle had greater and broader responsibilities and powers than the father to the nephew.
However, the "uncle's power" has not always been inherited and developed.
Scholar Kuang Dong proposed in the article "A Preliminary Study on the Generation, Development and Disappearance of Uncle Power" that after entering the patrilineal society, with the establishment of the patrilineal family, the father assumed the obligation and responsibility for the upbringing of his biological next generation, and let his children inherit the property, the uncle's power was virtually greatly weakened, and there was a trend of decline.
Source: References[8]
Kwong Tung also pointed out that the patriarchal power was strengthened by the husband-based family, and the uncle's power was gradually weakened. Every husband is required to fulfill his responsibilities to his wife and children, and except in a few cases, the uncle is no longer required to take care of his mother's family and raise and educate his nephew, thus losing his uncle's rights as an uncle.
So since maternal power was born in a matriarchal society, why can we still see its shadow now?
In his article "Research on the Patriarchal Power System" published in Guangxi Ethnic Studies in 1987, scholar Song Xuan pointed out that it is no accident that the uncle power still has a certain vitality.
First of all, the uncle's authority does not represent the individual, but on behalf of the woman's clan or family, and if the uncle is neglected, it will damage the face of the woman's clan or family, and in serious cases, it will expand the situation and cause disputes between clans. Secondly, patriarchy developed in matrilineal, and there was a period when the two coexisted with each other. Third, there is consistency between maternal authority and paternal authority, after all, a male can have both father and uncle identities.
So, in addition to this, are there any other reasons to "help" Uncle Quan?
The French anthropologist Lévi-Strauss employs a structuralist approach, treating kinship as a structure for a series of discussions and studies. In his Reflections on the Atom of Kinship, he wrote: "A truly fundamental structure of kinship consists of a husband, a wife, a child, and a representative of the wife's mother's family. ”
It should be noted that the "representative" here cannot be designated at will, but refers specifically to the uncle.
In other words, father, mother, uncle and child are the four basic elements of kinship structure, on the basis of which four corresponding kinship relationships are formed: husband and wife, siblings, parents and children, and uncle and nephew. Other networks of kinship, such as aunts, nephews, cousins, and cousins, have evolved from the most basic "kinship atomic structure".
It is not difficult to see that the uncle belongs to the basic element of the kinship structure, and has thrown other relatives out of the ranking. Therefore, the reason why the status of the folk uncle is so high is inseparable from the position of this identity in the kinship structure.
When Erlang God reported his home, he said "I am the nephew of the Jade Emperor"|Source: Screenshot of film and television dramas
Today, although the behavior of "respecting the uncle" is not as good as before, the idea of "the uncle is great" is still retained, and it is not surprising that many oral proverbs and customs still have the meaning of respecting the uncle.
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[3] Song Xuan. Guangxi Ethnic Studies,1987(01):82-88.
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[6] An Ning, Yu Yuhe, Liu Zhisong. An Investigation of the "Elder Brother's Image" in Ethnic Customary Law: A Case Study of the Habits of Some Ethnic Minorities in the Mainland[J].Journal of Gansu University of Political Science and Law,2006(03):12-18.)
[7] Li Hengmei. On the Respect and Inhibition of Uncle Power in Ancient China[J].Qilu Academic Journal,1992(04):56-59.
[8] Peng Zhaorong. On the restrictive role of "uncle's power" in the marriage of ethnic minorities in southwest China[J].Guizhou Ethnic Studies,1989(02):92-98.)
Author: Min Min Zhang Yi Editor: Tennessee Duty Editor: Min Min