RYUKYU PEOPLE — NEWMAN AND ENG 393 



among the Okinawan civilians unless the welfare of an immediate 

 family member was involved.^ 



Within the family, the father was the household head, but did not 

 achieve the authoritarian status found in Japan. The status of 

 women was considerably higher than in Japan or any other country 

 in East Asia (Murdock, personal communication). Although all 

 contributed to the household's support, the members of a Ryukyu 

 family controlled their own finances, and only lent money to other 

 members at interest. The differential behavior toward younger and 

 older family members, and toward those of the opposite sex was 

 almost as formalized as in Japan. These distinctions are reflected 

 in their kinship terms, which otherwise are comparable to our own. 

 Although some family households were large, the average one 

 consisted of four to five people. Many households lost at least one 

 member as a result of the heavy 1920-40 emigration, so the size of 

 the average family would have been somewhat larger. Reliable in- 

 formation on the number of children per family is not available. 

 On Okinawa Jima, Steiner (1947, p. 240) states that it averaged five 

 or six, but questionnaire returns in 1945 from 1,000 Okinawans gave 

 a mean of 3.7 for families having children. 



In Ryukyu society a group of families related in the male line 

 formed a clan. Since married sons often settled near their parents' 

 households, clan members tended to cluster in communities. In former 

 times, these patrilocal clans had considerable power, but more recently 

 were overshadowed by the village group and the mutual benefit assoc- 

 iations. In out-of-the-way places, the clan still retained its strength. 



Landholding and land tenure. — In the North Ryukyus the Japanese 

 pattern of extensive tenancy prevailed, but to the south reallotment 

 of small plots to individual farmers early in this century made for 

 wide diffusion of private ownership. In 1935 the tenancy rate for the 

 Central and South Ryukyus was only 10.5 percent. One thousand 

 questionnaire returns from Okinawans in 1945 indicated that 24 per- 

 cent were tenant farmers. Small as this sample is, it suggests that 

 tenancy increased from 1939 to 1945, possibly as a result of bankruptcy 

 of small independent farmers or the breaking up of their families by 

 conscription and emigration. 



Most of the privately owned and operated farms in the Ryukyus 

 were very small. In 1939 they averaged 2.1 acres in the North, 1.6 

 acres in the Central and South Ryukyus. Rights of possession and 

 transference of private land were regulated by the Japanese civil code. 

 The chief aim of the inheritance laws was to keep the land within 

 the family as far as possible. This tended to bolster the household by 

 protecting its means of material support. Nevertheless, creditors had 

 the right to seize private land in lieu of a debt. 



« Moloney, 1945, p. 395. 



