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Palgrave Macmillan

Filial Obsessions

Chinese Patriliny and Its Discontents

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. P. Steven Sangren

    1. Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

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  • Complicates the long-standing disciplinary assumption that social or collective phenomena cannot be explained with reference to psychology or individual desire
  • Demonstrates that understudied elements—such as fantasy—play a crucial role in the logic of Chinese patrilineal institutions
  • Advances anthropology’s longstanding mandate to connect cultural differences to commonalities of human experience

Part of the book series: Culture, Mind, and Society (CMAS)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Preface and Overview

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 1-12

  3. Popular Religion, a Chinese Superboy, and “The Investiture of the Gods”

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 13-55

  4. “Filial Piety” and Cultural Difference

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 57-80

  5. Spirit Possession, Family Issues, and the Revelation of Gods’ Biographies

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 81-131

  6. Filial Piety: Fathers, Real and Ideal

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 133-166

  7. The Social Production of Desire

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 167-216

  8. Ancestor Worship, the Confucian Father, and Filial Piety

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 217-240

  9. Women as Outsiders: Princesses, Defilement, and Buddhist Salvation

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 241-282

  10. Woman as Symptom: Beyond Gender?

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 283-327

  11. A Concluding Manifesto: Culture and Desire

    • P. Steven Sangren
    Pages 329-343

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 345-381
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Keywords

About this book

This book employs a broad analysis of Chinese patriliny to propose a distinctive theoretical conceptualization of the role of desire in culture. It utilizes a unique synthesis of Marxian and psychoanalytic insights in arguing that Chinese patriliny is best understood as, simultaneously, “a mode of production of desire” and as “instituted fantasy.” The argument advances through discussions and analyses of kinship, family, gender, filial piety, ritual, and (especially) mythic narratives. In each of these domains, P. Steven Sangren addresses the complex sentiments and ambivalences associated with filial relations. Unlike most earlier studies which approach Chinese patriliny and filial piety as irreducible markers of cultural difference, Sangren argues that Chinese patriliny is better approached as a topic of critical inquiry in its own right. 

Reviews

“Steven Sangren’s book Filial Obsessions is a transformative intervention into the study of filial piety in the Chinese context … and densely packed theoretically informed thinking about desire, childhood development, fantasy, alienation, subjecthood or subjectivity, intergenerational relationships, relations between the terrestrial and celestial realms, ritual, gods, and adherence to the rule of law and decorum. … This is an important discussion of the subject that all scholars interested in the anthropology of Chinese societies must read.” (Christopher Lupke, China Review International, Vol. 23 (03). 2016)​ “This book shows anthropological thinking at its very best. P. Steven Sangren engages with broad theoretical issues, including the complex relationship of culture to desire. But he does so by examining a highly particular set of Chinese cultural artefacts, including the remarkable—in some respects, disturbing—story of the boy-god Nezha.” (Charles Stafford, Professor of Anthropology, Asia Research Center, the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)

“Sangren’s theoretically innovative book revises Chinese filial piety from timeless cultural essence into a dynamic social configuration embodying a logic of desire. It becomes part of an active, constructive ‘patriliny,’ one that organizes gender identities, ancestor worship, and family dynamics, while appealing to the Chinese imagination as what he calls ‘an instituted fantasy.’ This work embraces and advances anthropology’s commitment to illuminating cultural differences in the context of commonalities of human experiences.” (Angela Zito, Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies, New York University, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

    P. Steven Sangren

About the author

P. Steven Sangren is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cornell University, USA. His work focuses on Chinese culture and society—especially gender, religion, and mythic narrative. 

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