The decentralization of industrial production in Taiwan over the past ten years has had a powerful impact on rural economic organization. A number of small- and medium-scale factories have been established in the Central Taiwan village described here, creating a dem and for local unskilled workers. Commodities are produced primarily for sale in overseas markets. Local families have begun to model household factories after the kinds of factories established by non-local entrepreneurs, creating a new avenue for upward economic mobility. Many village housewives perform secondary manufacturing and finishing steps in their homes, working on a part-time, piece-rate basis. A large percentage of village households continue to farm rice on a part-time basis, although the average value of earnings from agriculture to household budgets has declined significantly. Specialized agricultural commodities such as ducks have become much more profitable than rice, and provide returns on household labor comparable to industrial employment. Agricultural and industrial production are interrelated because both draw labor primarily from the local community. The availability of attractive industrial employment in the village has greatly affected village social structure and process. Out-migration of villagers between the ages of 15 and 30 has slowed, and many out-migrant villagers have returned from urban locations. New employment patterns have encouraged parents to cut short the number of years they send their children to formal schooling. New strategies have been developed for investing the incomes of unmarried children still contributing incomes to the household. Few specific cultural changes can be linked directly to the villages new economic structure. However, attitudes toward work and its potential rewards have supported the labor-intensive production processes found in this village. Religious and ritual events are widely observed by all classes and age groups, and the application of traditional beliefs and rituals to industrial work settings suggests the continued vitality of the folk belief system. The proliferation of privately housed gods appears to differentiate villagers who have more fully embraced industrial activities and those who have not. The development of decentralized industry in rural Taiwan is similar to recent developments in the People's Republic of China in important respects, even though it is primarily export-oriented and has not taken a primary role in supporting agriculture as it has in the PRC.Ph.D.Cultural anthropologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160192/1/8422297.pd
