When Kinship Becomes Tainted: Symbolic Classification in Chinese Kinship Estrangement

Abstract

Existing studies regard kinship estrangement as an instrumental or reflexive choice that may bring stigma and social pressure. From the perspective of symbolic classification, I explore the sanctification of kinship estrangement. Based on in-depth interview data from Chinese adults, I find that they use three symbolic classification methods: relational classification, temporal classification and spatial classification. Symbolic classification creates a distinction between the self and kinship. Moreover, they attribute sacred meanings such as independence and autonomy to the self, and they represent kinship as dependence and obedience with profane meanings. Ultimately, symbolic classification forms a binary symbolic structure of ‘autonomous self and tainted kinship’. This symbolic structure reconstructs the traditional kinship order and legitimizes kinship estrangement. It is the product of social processes and has limited dynamics.