“无媒不婚”:家庭策略下的农村打工青年婚配模式研究

“No Matchmaker No Marriage”:Research for the Matrimony Model of Rural Youth through Family Strategy

以"媒人"在整个婚配过程中的工作流程,即搜集信息—传递信息—见证婚姻的过程为切入点,考察了豫北农村打工青年的婚配模式及其特征。研究发现,打工青年的婚配模式具有传统的"形式",即"无媒不婚"的特征,但这种婚配模式却拥有新的"内容",即它是在男性打工青年遭遇择偶困境的情况下,作为行动主体的农民家庭动员多方面资源做出的策略性反应的结果,其逻辑无关乎个人自主性增减的问题,而在于村庄社会结构变迁与家庭及其成员策略性应对之间的交互影响。由此回应了青年婚姻研究中的"浪漫革命"命题,同时也加深了对中国人家庭性质的理解。

This paper analyses the matrimony model and its characteristics of rural youth in northern Henan province from the point of the matchmakers＇ process workflow which consists of collecting infor mation, exchange information and witness the marriage based on field survey experience. The study found that, the matrimony model of rural youth has the traditional form, namely, the characteristic called ＂no matchmaker no marriage＂ reflected through the whole process of the matrimony model, but it has new content. This paper reveals its unique operational logic. In particular, such characteristics are the results acted by the peasant family in the background of the male youths＇ spouse-selection plight appeared in the village. The logic of the change in matrimony patterns of rural youth has nothing with the increase or de- crease in personal independence, but in the interaction effects between the change of social structure in the village and the family and its members. Thus to respond to the proposition of ＂the romantic revolution＂, meanwhile, this study also deepens the understanding of the properties of the Chinese family.