Qinglu Village

Qinglu village sits amidst a group of hills overlooking a bend in the Zuo river. The village is populated by members of the Shung clan. Some six families of the Shung clan inhabit the village, each with between five and fifteen individuals per family group. The village's eldest witch-doctor, and de facto leader is Old Hsu. In Zhuang culture it is forbidden to marry within your own clan (with anyone with the same name, in this case Shung), and families are strictly patrilineal, so women from one village are often taken in by families from another village upon her marriage. She then becomes part of the new clan, adopting that clan's ancestors as her own. Nearby villages are Hongye upstream and Kuanchang downstream. At least a dozen villages lie within two days (by foot) of Qinglu. The Pao clan live in Hongye village, and the Shang and Liuxing clans live in Kuanchang. All villages enjoy friendly relations and routinely celebrate seasonal festivals together. Most Shung women of age are married off to these neighboring clans and, likewise, most Shung men take wives from these clans.

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