摘要
This paper is intended primarily to present the material of the Miao relationship terminology collected by the writer in 1943 from an ethnographic survey of the Miao Tribe on the Source of the Yongning River in Southern Szechuan. In addition to the presentation of material, an attempt has been made to explain the primary terms and modifying indicators in the light of a study, not according to some preconceived dogma, but on a plain, everyday common sense basis.
What has made the Miao system particularly interesting is the peculiar and characteristic mode of terminology for brothers and sisters as well as cousins, nephews and nieces. The use of a term depends not merely on the sex of the relative addressed and of the person through whom relationship exists, but also on that of the speaker. With respect to the difference between generations and the age within one generation, between lineal and collateral relationship, and between consanguinity and affinity, the Miao recognizes all of the distinctions of which one and another are expressed by its terms as well as modifying indicators. The anomalous use of one term to designate two or more relatives of different generations or categories is interpreted as due to one of the four or five formative factors: teknonymy, tekeisonymy or reverseteknonymy, ellipsis and the spousal identity of addressing relatives, i. e., the wife addresses the members of the husband's clan in the same way as her husband and vice versa.
The paper, with eight tables, is dealt in five headings: (1) Introduction; (2) The list of terms in the tables explained; (3) An analysis of the use of primary terms; (4) An analysis of the use of modifying indicators; (5) An analysis of the use of vocative terms.