Society
Dong clans are known as dou, and are further divided into ji, gong, and households (known as "kitchens"), respectively from largest to smallest in size (Geary 2003:68-69). Village elders were traditionally the village leaders, although the government replaced these elders with village heads from 1911-1949. Dong society was also traditionally matriarchal, as can be evidenced by the cult of the female goddess Sa Sui (Geary 2003:88). Before the advent of the Han Chinese, the Dong had no surnames, instead distinguishing each other by their fathers' names.
Dong common law is known as kuan and is practiced at four different levels (Geary 2003:62).
- Single village
- Several villages
- Single township / entire local rural area
- Multiple townships / large portion of the entire Dong population
Read more about this topic: Dong People
Famous quotes containing the word society:
“I had withdrawn so far within the great ocean of solitude, into which the rivers of society empty, that for the most part, so far as my needs were concerned, only the finest sediment was deposited around me. Beside, there were wafted to me evidences of unexplored and uncultivated continents on the other side.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A few years later, I would have answered, “I never repeat anything.” That is the ritual phrase of society people, by which the gossip is reassured every time.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“He was all for catharsis and purification, he dreamed of an aesthetic consecration that should cleanse society of luxury, the greed of gold and all unloveliness.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)