Chinese Family Law and Social Change in Historical and Comparative Perspective. Edited by David C. Buxbaum. Seattle: University of Washington Press (Asian Law Series No. 3), 1978. viii, 553 pp. Notes, Tables, Bibliography, Glossary, Index. $20.00.

Abstract

Although and social is a current topic of scholarly discussion, little research has been undertaken on the role of family law as an instrument of social change. This multidisciplinary volume now makes available recent research conducted in this field. The first section includes an examination of the standards and rules for marriage during Han times, and of divorce in traditional Chinese law. The second section, devoted to family partition procedures, discusses the nature of family property in traditional China; the results of a field investigation on ancestral sacrifice in Manchuria; and the partition of family property in villages in southern Taiwan and in Tibet. The third section, dealing only with Taiwan, examines marriage in rural areas, summarizes field research on rural to urban migration, and looks at modernization and household composition. An investigation of marriage and divorce in the People's Republic of China, and comparisons of developments in marriage law in the USSR and in the People's Republic of China are dealt with in the fourth section. In the fifth section the authors indicate some factors that influence the relationship of law and social change in India and Indonesia.