Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law: Intergenerational relations within the Chinese family in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper examines the relations of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in a Taiwanese village that has changed over the past 25 years from an economic system based primarily on agriculture to one founded predominantly on off-farm employment. Using ethnographic data, it explores Amoss and Harrell's (1980: 5) proposition that the position of old people is a function of a 'cost/contribution balance' compounded by resources controlled. It concludes that economic development shifts power between women in different generations.