Patterns of Social Alignment : A Case Study of Hakka Association in Singapore
These quotations pinpoint one of the main factors contributing to the successful settlement of Chinese communities in different parts of the world: their capacity to form various types of associations for mutual help. Chinese associations have long been cemmon wherever their formation and continued existence are not restricted.i) From the founding of modern Singapore in 1819, many associations were established and have continued to survive until today, while an unknown number have disappeared. Several general theories have been offered fo explain this proliferation. Freedman [1960] suggested that the increased scale and complexity of
Chinese secret societies in Malaya : a survey of the Triad Society from 1800 to 1900
The effect of brother rivalry on the breakdown of patrilineages among the Toba Batak, once alternative modes of affiliation like territorial groupings and political parties are available, is suggestive for other parts of the world. Each article makes clear the varying degree to which the encroachment of secularization and individualization gains headway as challenges to traditional kin and territorial units of social solidarity are raised by changing situations and new orders of organization. Nevertheless, positive loyalties to the ideologies of nationalism and of political parties appear to crystallize extremely slowly. In sum, as Dr. Skinner states in his foreword, national loyalties do not provide "an incisive analytic tool" and the symposium made no considerable progress in sharpening such a concept. This can scarcely astonish anthropologists or so highly experienced a comparative sociologist as Dr. Skinner. The topic that was posed for the contributors is understandably of major importance for Western politics and for state leaders who are dedicated to political Westernization. It is nevertheless culture-bound since the valuational goal is implied in the question. Whereas Dr. Skinner suggests in the foreword a distinction between personal, group, and programmatic loyalties, I would be tempted to suggest kin, territorial, and ideologic affiliations as a more flexible way of posing such a preliminary inquiry. The fundamental question lies in a combined consideration of the social, economic, valuational, and psychological dynamics for affiliation and for changes in affiliation. For example, what are the implications, if any, for ideologic affiliations in brother rivalry among the Toba Batak patrilineages, in the rootless aggregates of Sumbawa, in the "neighboring" patterns of Java, and in the multiple, cross-cutting, obligations of Bali? Do such varieties of affiliation lead more or less directly to national and political ideologic loyalties? Or may they be irrelevant to such loyalties? These are important questions for both theory and practice. We are grateful to Dr. Skinner and his colleagues for raising them.
What is an archival education?1
This article introduces the approach to Master's level archival education adopted at the University of Manitoba. It is intended as a contribution to the recently renewed discussion of graduate archival education in the UK and Ireland. The author maintains that recent major developments in the accessibility, uses, and very conception of archives powerfully underscore the distinctiveness of archival work. These developments foster continued collaboration between archivists and those in related professions such as records management, but, more importantly, reinforce their longstanding distinctiveness. The article discusses why and how the University of Manitoba has responded to the increasingly complex challenges facing archivists and archival educators in this evolving setting with an archival, conceptual, historical, and research-oriented curriculum.