In the Name of Modernization: How has the Concept of “Family” been Reshaped among Evenki Hunters under the State Power of China?

Abstract

This paper investigates the ways in which the concept of “family” was reshaped, during the process of modern capitalization, among Evenki hunters under the state power of China from the seventeenth century onward. By doing so, it attempts to illustrate two things: one is to depict the trajectory how the Evenki traditional family commune system was regulated into the state power of the Qing Dynasty and modern nation-state of China; second, it aims to argue further that, contrary to the general understanding that regards the practice of socialism in 1950s China as an attempt to de-capitalize private property of the family, in Evenki society, it is through the practice of socialism that the concept of private property was established. The fieldwork was conducted between 2015 and 2016 in Giden village, the only hunting tribe within the Evenki Autonomous Banner/Country, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, in north-eastern China. Through articulating historical documents and a field survey of 24 veteran hunters, this paper attempts to develop an understanding of how traditional Evenki culture was engaged with the practice of modernization under state power and then changed the formation of family in family commune society.