Clan Associations of Chinese Immigrants in Cuba in the Early Twentieth Century (On the Problem of the Structure and Function of Traditional Social Institutions in an Ethnically Alien Environment)

Abstract

One of the principal means of resisting the unfavorable conditions in which various immigrant groups generally found themselves in countries of the New World was the striving of such settlers to combine to defend their essential rights and interests. The establishment of more or less closed communities on an ethnic basis was an important factor inhibiting the assimilation of immigrants. Study of the concrete forms of existence of these communities is of considerable interest in terms of understanding the traditional social organization of immigrants (it is known that it is precisely in small groups isolated from the basic ethnic massif that vestigial forms of traditional culture are often preserved longer). On the other hand, a certain transformation of preexisting social institutions and their adaptation to new conditions is inevitable in a different ethnic cultural milieu.