Abstract
This thesis deals with a fictive kinship organization found in Tungkeng Village, Lieyu Township, Kinmen County in Fukien Province. Specifically, this fictive kinship organization takes the form and structure of a clan but its members come from six different surname groups, without any genealogical connection among them. This “Six-surname Clan,” so-named by the members, was founded in late Ching Dynasty and has been existing for more than 130 years. Members of this fictive kin group built an ancestor temple to house their ancestors without stipulating a fictive “common ancestor” for the entire group. Members of this six-surname group vowed to act “as if they were all siblings when they are of the same generation and as if they were fathers and sons when there was a generational difference.” Furthermore, it was also stipulated, when this fictive clan was first established, that the group should also be exogamous. The ethnographic information I have gathered clearly demonstrated that members of the six-surname group organized and conducted themselves as members of a clan organization. They performed four collective rituals annually to worship their respective ancestors and functioned as a clan in their local affairs.