ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a common anthropological style in tie study of the politics of complex societies, in that it gives most attention to the smaller-scale features of the Chinese polity, but, in honouring Lucy Mair. As an anthropologist one starts from the Chinese lineage and one finishes up on the grand theme of the disintegration of the traditional Chinese political order. Lineage is but one form of organisation and needs to be seen in the context of all other forms. The study of lineage structure and organisation is one of the main ways in which social anthropology has established itself within the general study of Chinese society. The African literature showed how lineages might form the basis of political life, by furnishing a series of articulated groups; it became clear that some analogies were to be found in China. Lineages might be shallow or deep, small or large in their membership.
