2014 Volume 79 Issue 3 Pages 305-327
In this paper, I propose that the mother/daughter relationship is constituted through material objects in the patrilineal kinship system, especially after the daughter's separation from her natal family. The case study presented in this paper deals with Miao women and their ethnic costumes in southwest China, as well as focusing on changes that have taken place since the 1990's regarding a bride's move from the natal to marital house. This paper also considers a woman's changing affiliation from the natal to marital family in marriages with a patrilocal residence. In conclusion, I suggest that mother/daughter relationships, mediated by clothes among the Miao, can be characterized as "sympathetic" ties, which are defined as the ties between a parent and child who are separated from each other but are formed by the notion of sharing body parts or a soul, which can be understood as a relationship of "sympathetic magic" (Akitoshi Shimizu) . However, I also suggest that "sympathetic" relationships are formed not only by composite parts of a person, but also by such material objects as the mother's handcrafted costumes. Until the 1980's, the Miao maintained a custom, zuo jia, in which a bride continued to live in her natal house, even after her wedding, until pregnancy or maturity. During that period, the status of the bride was liminal, and her affiliation was ambiguous. After living in the natal house for a few years, a bride would start to live in her marital house with her costumes, typically indicating the start of her affiliation with her marital family. In the field site, L. village, zuo jia has not been practiced among the Miao since the 1990's. Nowadays, the bride's residence in her husband's house and her pregnancy begin immediately after her wedding. The major change since the 1990's is that a married woman keeps her costumes with her mother in her natal house until her mother's death or her own second childbirth. As a reason for this change, the mothers cite the fear that their daughters' marital family might rob them of their (or their daughters') costumes, with the purpose of keeping the daughters in the marital house and thereby preventing divorce. Although there are few cases where that has actually happened, that reason is commonly mentioned in L. village. To understand this further, we must trace the historical changes in the value of the costumes. From the time of the previous Republic of China to the 1970's, most Miao women wore their ethnic costumes every day, but after the 1980's, China's economic reforms and development, together with changes in the form of farm management, led to the popularity of a more elaborate type of women's jacket that is worn only during rituals and festivals. At the same time, Han-style clothes began to penetrate and substitute for the Miao's everyday clothes. Due to such changes, the costumes owned by many Miao today have become prestige goods. The increased value of costumes for many Miao has had an effect on the daughter's or the daughter-in-law's affiliation. It is important to stress that most costumes in the natal house today are produced by the mother. Since the 1990's, most village women have been educated in junior high school, after which they leave for work in China's coastal area. That has meant that they have no time to learn to make costumes until they get pregnant. Now, increasingly, mothers make costumes for their daughters. Although Miao women refer to the costumes in the natal house as "the daughter's," the mothers also say that the clothes have not been handed over to their daughters yet. The costumes' ownership is thus ambiguous at this point. I asked some women, aged between 20 and 50, why they keep their costumes in their natal houses. From their
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