Kinship and the Long-Term Persistence of Inequality in Liaoning, China, 1749-2005

We demonstrate that in northeast China before the twentieth century, kin groups played an important role in structuring patterns of inequality. There were substantial differences in the demographic behavior and social attainment of individuals according to kin-group membership even after differences between villages and households were accounted for. There was also considerable continuity in the relative status of kin groups before the twentieth century. More tentatively, there was continuity in the relative status of kin groups from the nineteenth century through the last half of the twentieth century. Our results are based on quantitative analysis of demographic behavior and social attainment of families covered by contemporary survey data that we have linked to a database of historical household registers, the CMGPD-LN. The results confirm the need for studies of stratification to move beyond the current focus on parent-child associations in outcomes to examine the role played by larger kin networks in creating and sustaining patterns of inequality.