Journal Entry/ Annotated Source

For my field study prep course, I was required to find and read an article that touches on the family structure in Tibetan families, specifically with stratification, or hierarchy. I was very glad to be able to find an article that was specifically about this topic, and I was even able to find it in less than an hour!!

"Stratification, Polyandry, and Family Structure in Central Tibet" is an article written by Melvyn C. Goldstein about marriage and family structure in Tibet, and how the decision between monogamy, polyandry, polygamy, etc. is based on social status and the politico-economic rights and obligations that are associated with this status.


There are two main statuses in Central Tibet (namely the Gyantse district in the Tsang Province). These are the Gerba (who are aristocratic lords) and the Mi-sey (which are serfs).

Broken down further, the Mis-sey  are organized into Tre-ba, which means "tax-payer" and the Du-jung, which means "small householder." The Tre-ba are more prestigious and are organized into named corporate family units, and are given large amounts of land but are expected to keep expensive load-bearing animals and pay taxes to the lords. The Du-jung are more like lease-holders and can travel wherever and work wherever.

Because the Tre-ba are influenced by what the author calls a "monomarital principle" meaning that in each generation of a tre-ba family one and only one marriage can be contracted, there is a large amount of polyandry and polygamy found. This way, if there are two sons, only one wife is married into the family so the family can maintain their corporate family unit, and therefore continue to maintain their land with the same amount of taxes (taxes were based on how many units, not how many individuals, make up the family). There are many other circumstances that dictate whether or not the family will make the decision to carry out plural and cross-generational marriages, but all have to do with the fact that the motivation is land and taxes, not necessarily a cultural norm or preference.

The Du-jung, on the other hand, had much lower rates of plural marriages, and typically married monogamously and out of love.

The author states that many ethnographic researchers produce data that is not correct regarding the usual form of the family in Tibet, whether they find it to be polyandrous or monogamous. He says that "neither of the above positions is entirely correct or incorrect, but both are inadequate because they ignore fundamental features of Tibetan social structure. They fail because they treat marriage and the family in isolation and, specifically, because they do not relate marriage and the family to the system of stratification and land tenure found in Tibet."


In relation to my project, it will be interesting to see how this family structure has changed as new generations have come into play in the exiled communities, and perhaps these social structures have been changed. A change in family structures can lead to a dramatic change in parenting, and it will be interesting to see how the changes are manifested cross-generationally in the community.