Search

The present paper summarizes papers given at the 8th International Family Research Seminar in Oslo, Norway, 1963, which describe and explain differential frequencies of those decisions to marry which result in teenage marriage. Sociological analysis of marriage usually points out that age at marriage varies with the type of society and, therefore, reflects the stage of industrialization and urbanization. The lowest ages at marriage are generally found in peasant agricultural countries, such as India and China. During the rapid growth phase of urban industrial nations, age at marriage apparently rises, but later the age at marriage once again turns downward, though not rapidly. One way of viewing trends of teenage marriage is in terms of the percentage of males and females under 20 years of age involved in marriages contracted. During 1961, in 6% of all marriages contracted in Yugoslavia one or both spouses were under the age of 18. However, in such marriages the wife was under 18 years of age in 91 % of the cases, the husband in only 9 %. From 1953-1961 there was a gradual decrease in the percentage married under 18 years from 6.6 % to 6.0 %.

The purpose of this study is to try to clarify the conditions of the family in present-day China, more precisely the changes it has undergone since the establishment of the Communist regime in 1949. Because of the lack of a sufficient variety of material resulting from the prevailing political situation, the part of this study that concerns present day China is largely based upon an analysis of documents published by the Chinese Communists; wherever possible people have tried to supplement these sources with accounts by visitors from outside. Thus, pending more detailed information on the subject of the family in Communist China, this investigation necessarily becomes provisional in character. Its lasting value may lie, we hope, in the attempts it makes, on the one hand to view the family as a constituent part of society and as such to assess its significance for the total social fabric, and on the other hand to consider the present transformation of the family against the background of the family in the traditional Chinese society.

The article discusses China's anthropology and policy towards minorities. Of the 583 million Chinese population as in 1954, within China 547.5 million belong to the Han nationality, while 35.5. belong to various minorities. The Chinese officially counted with some 60 minority groups. The Communist regime's policy towards the minorities had dual goal: in part to preserve and to strengthen the political unity of the country, in part to transform the entire China-included the regions of the minorities-into a modern industrialized society, and, of course, on a state-capitalistic basis. All minorities shall have the right to develop their own spoken or written languages, to preserve or reform their traditions, customs and religious belief. The Central Government shall help the minorities in their political, economical, cultural and pedagogical work of construction. The Chinese anthropologists stress out that there is a final goal superior to all the other ones, and it is the task of politics to coordinate the movements towards the realization of this goal, which is, then, defined as the complete political, social and economical equality between all Chinese.