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Growing Old with Daughters: Aging, Care, and Change in the Matrilocal Family System in Rural Tibet

Wang, Jing
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case152848984716511

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Anthropology.
Based on 18 months of fieldwork conducted in Dekyi, a matrilocal village in Phenpo County in Tibet Autonomous Region, China, this dissertation ethnographically examines the aging experiences of the elderly in the matrilocal family system amidst rapid socioeconomic transformation. This dissertation is one of the first few studies that present data on the matrilocal family system in Tibet. Despite the socioeconomic changes that tended to erode the care the elderly in patrilocal areas receive, the elderly in Dekyi have been spared some of the negative impacts induced by such changes. Especially revealing was that while only half of the Dekyi elderly had control over economic resources, all of the elderly were satisfied with the care they received from their co-residing children and children-in-law and were content with their situations. Villagers claimed that their fortunate lots were precisely due to their matrilocal practice in which they kept their daughters at home instead of sons. As a result of the matrilocal practice, the elderly would receive care from their own daughters, who were considered to be more caring than sons and daughters-in-law. The data collected lent support to this claim, but also revealed a more complex picture. That is, daughters' desired care was made possible through the protective mechanisms of the matrilocal family system that tended to foster women-headed and conflicts-free households. On the one hand, as household heads, the daughters controlled household income, which gave them economic power to provide for their parents materially and financially. On the other hand, the matrilocal households tended to have fewer family conflicts than the patrilocal households did due to the less pronounced parent- and son-in-law conflicts. As a result, the elderly in matrilocal households experienced harmony and security, which were essential to their psychological well-being. Moreover, friendly family relations enabled both daughters and sons-in-law to provide eldercare unaffected by negative emotions.
Melvyen Goldstein (Committee Chair)
Vanessa Hildebrand (Committee Member)
Lihong Shi (Committee Member)
Peter Yang (Committee Member)
233 p.
Cultural Anthropology
aging, eldercare, matrilocal family system, intergenerational relations, filial piety, psychological health, rural Tibet, China

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, J. (2018). Growing Old with Daughters: Aging, Care, and Change in the Matrilocal Family System in Rural Tibet [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case152848984716511

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Jing. Growing Old with Daughters: Aging, Care, and Change in the Matrilocal Family System in Rural Tibet. 2018. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case152848984716511.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Jing. "Growing Old with Daughters: Aging, Care, and Change in the Matrilocal Family System in Rural Tibet." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case152848984716511

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.