Bulletin Number Three 1986

teaching and research work. Having considered the accessibility o f the location to Hong Kong and the lingua franca, which is Putonghua and Cantonese, o f most people, we have located such an outpost in Liannan Yao Autonomous County w ith the generous help o f the local authorities. The present project consists mainly o f the following areas: a) Population Structure and Family Pattern Data w ill be collected to increase understanding o f the Pai Yao population structure and its changes during the past three decades, especially those due to the recent fam ily planning policies. The structure and content o f various family forms o f the Pai Yao w ill be examined in terms o f their different ecological conditions and subsistance patterns. b) Social Organization and the Kinship System Areas o f studies include chieftainship, tribal organization, descent rules, descent groups, kinship terminology, kinship behaviour and the marriage system, as well as their changes and their general relevance to anthropological studies. c) The Religious System This includes areas as world-views, rites de passage, ancestor worship, religious organization and ritual activities. d) linguistic Studies This includes sociolinguistic, syntactic, phono logical, and phonetic studies o f the two main Yao varieties spoken in northern Guangdong. Research Project on Boat People in Tai-O, Hong Kong Tai-O, situated on the western edge o f Lantau Island, is a historical fishing community in South China. For years ， it has been considered as an ideal anthropological research location by the department both for its distinct cultural patterns and its accessibility. Students and faculty members o f the department have been frequent visitors to the com munity and have carried out research projects on various cultural aspects o f the people in Tai-O. Two A nthropology fie ld studies — Ta-Shih Wang effigy at K am Ting ‘ta chiao' (1985) D oing fie ld w o rk in Tai-0 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 11