[lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:17:40 -0400
" the
> land is passed on to a single heir, typically the oldest son, and
> other children must either depend on the heir's generosity or, more
> commonly, go off and fend for themselves, the Japanese case. ...
 (3) feeds an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude that
> creates the apparent paradox of enduring households coupled with
> relatively thin and shallow kinship relations."

This is exactly what the movie put forth.  It's curious that the Japanese
are touted for their material progress when on a human level they are very
unhappy, isolated people. 






> [Original Message]
> From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 4/18/2006 11:14:59 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India
>
> On 4/19/06, Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I wonder how much of family taking care of the elderly is mythology.  I
saw
> > Tokyo Story on Saturday, 1953 movie, Japanese.  It was one of those
nothing
> > happens movies but it was quite the study in Japanese family life.  I
was
> > surprised.  In 1953, and I suspect it's worse now, there was a big
> > disconnect between generations and not much bonding within families. 
The
> > parents in the movie lived long distances away from their grown
children,
> > and did not know their grandchildren.  The parents go to visit their
grown
> > children, and they are treated politely, lots of bowing, but clearly
they
> > are a burden.
>
> Finally, a topic on which I can offer some useful information! Be
> warned that what I'm about to say is far from definitive. It is hard,
> infact, to imagine how anyone's opinion could be definitive in a world
> as complex and as rapidly changing as the one we we inhabit. Still,
> while doing a Ph.D. in social anthropology I learned a lot about this
> topic and have kept up sporadically ever since.
>
> First, a global perspective: For most of human history, the majority
> of human beings have been peasants or the lords, masters or priests to
> whom they paid taxes. For both groups obtaining, holding and passing
> on land has been family priority No. 1. What we are likely to think of
> as "traditional family values" reflects this situation, in which the
> basic social contract between parents and children is, on the one
> hand, we raise you and give you the property you need to survive and
> carry on the family line; on the other, the children's position, we
> owe you and promise to take care of you in your old age.
>
> From this perspective, the critical consequence of modernization has
> been the shift for the bulk of urban populations to paid
> employment--jobs--instead of real estate as the primary source of
> livelihood. Add that in most cases the jobs in question cannot be
> handed down from parents to children, and the social contract
> described above breaks down. Parents can raise and educate their
> children; but adult kids are actively encouraged to move out, to find
> their own jobs, to become independent. Culture lags; we continue to
> say that children should love and care for their parents, but the
> economics of modern life and the values of consumer driven economies
> that focus on personal gratification no longer support these values.
>
> That said, to understand how this generic process works out in
> particular times and places, it helps to dig into the details of the
> traditional family values in question. A number of interesting
> variations predictably reflect the ways in which family property was
> or was not divided among the children under the old
> peasant-agriculture-based economic regime. Consider, for example,
> three possibilities: (1) land is divided equally among sons and
> daughters, a practice common in Southeast Asia; (2) land is divided
> equally among sons--daughters must marry out, with their share, if
> any, becoming a dowry, the traditional pattern in China; and (3) the
> land is passed on to a single heir, typically the oldest son, and
> other children must either depend on the heir's generosity or, more
> commonly, go off and fend for themselves, the Japanese case. (1) is
> associated with bilateral kinship (treating relatives on both sides
> equally) and a relatively strong position for women. (2) results in
> recurring fragmentation of family assets but sustains strong networks
> of largely patrilineal, lineage and clan relationships like those for
> which overseas Chinese business families are famous. As daughters and
> brides, women are in a weak position. As mothers and grandmothers they
> can become formidable through the control they exert over sons and
> grandsons. (3) feeds an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude that
> creates the apparent paradox of enduring households coupled with
> relatively thin and shallow kinship relations.
>
> Adding to the complexity is, of course, the fact that material wealth,
> in real estate or other forms, is a magnet that holds families
> together. Conversely poverty eliminates the magnet, driving family
> distintegration.
>
> And one further caution: In all of these societies, but especially so
> in China, the folklore that surrounds traditional family values is
> filled with tales of ancestors who, while poor, worked hard, overcame
> their poverty, and created the estates that make maintaining kinship
> ties worthwhile. The same folklore is also filled with tales of
> wasters, typically sons, who grow up wealthy and soft, turn to sex,
> drugs and other enjoyments, and destroy what their ancestors built.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>
> --
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd.
> 55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
> Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN
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[lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

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