A CHINESE PHRASE IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

This article traces the social anthropology of China. Since the 1930s a number of Chinese, British and American anthropologists have tried to study Chinese society. The anthropologists working on Chinese themes since about 1950 have wanted to catch some of the things which a miniaturizing method must let slip. Had China not gone Communist they might still today have been piling up samples of local communities, the ethnographic map of China would have had many more flags in it, but the anthropologists would probably have been no nearer that understanding of Chinese society. The most suitable unit of study is the village, both because most Chinese lived in villages and because it is possible for one or two field workers to make a fairly detailed study in a year or so. The best way to begin the study of Chinese social structure is to select a very small social area, examine it meticulously, compare it with other specimens studied in the same manner, and then proceed to draw generalizations.