男孩偏好作为一种生育文化的生产与再生产

Production and Reproduction of Son Preference as A Reproductive Culture

本文采用实践社会学视角,以吉登斯的结构化理论为基础,利用对一个亲属群体生育实践的访谈数据,从时空两个维度系统地分析了中国农村地区男孩偏好生育文化的生产与再生产机制,在此基础上还探讨了生育政策对男孩偏好文化再生产机制的影响,发现在生育政策背景下,部分农民因为偏离传统的例行性生育路径而陷入"生育困境",并从两个方面引发男孩偏好文化的生产与再生产:1.在生育困境的压力下,一些文化要素伴随生活事件不断的卷入生育实践之中,使得直接遭遇生育困境的行动者在日常生活的互动中领会到男孩的社会意义;2.亲属网络将所有亲属卷入到当事人的生育困境之中,从而引发出对生育实践的集体性反思。正是这些日常的生活事件与亲属网络使得男孩偏好文化在广泛的时空向度上延伸。

Guided by Giddens＇ theory of structuration, this study adopts a practical sociology perspective to analyze the production and reproduction of the culture of preference of sons, using time and space as two perimeters in the observation of and interviews with a family group, so as to identify the effects of fertility policy on the mechanisms of reproducing son preference culture. The study has found that under the rein of fertility policy, some peasants run into ＂fertility predicament＂ because of a departure from the traditional pattern of fertility. Such ＂predicament＂ would give rise to the production and reproduction of son preference culture in two ways： on the one hand, under the stress of fertility predicament, those who encounter fertility predicament would feel the social pressure of having a boy, just when cultural elements unceasingly become entangled with fertility practice through daily living affairs, and on the other hand, relational networks would involve all the kinfolks in the unfolding of fertility predicament, inciting the networks to reflect on current fertility practice. Based on these two ways, the son preference culture stretches in both time and space.