What is a Mosuo family?
An ancient tribal community of Tibetan Buddhists called the Mosuo, they live in a surprisingly modern way: women are treated as equal, if not superior, to men; both have as many, or as few, sexual partners as they like, free from judgment; and extended families bring up the children and care for the elderly.
What does a Mosuo family look like?
The Mosuo generally live in large extended families with many generations under one roof. Children in a household are taken care of by their mother’s family. Their only male influences are their mother’s brothers. Women who have participated in the coming of age ceremony are allotted a private room.
How many Mosuo people are there?
One of China’s 56 designated ethnic minorities, the Mosuo population of 56,000 people is tiny compared with China’s overall population of 1.3 billion. The majority of Mosuo families live around Lugu Lake, a region that was isolated from the rest of world until the 1970s.
What language do the Mosuo people speak?
Mosuo Culture: There are about 40,000 Mosuo people living in the mountains in the Lugu lake area of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. 1 They speak their own dialect of the Naxi language, but this language does not have a written system.
What do Mosuo men do?
Role of men However, Mosuo men do have roles in their society. They help to bring up the children of their sisters and female cousins, build houses and are in charge of livestock and fishing, which they learn from their uncles and older male family members as soon as they are old enough.
How are Mosuo families structured?
In traditional Mosuo families, brothers and sisters live their whole lives together in the same house. They live with their mothers, and their mothers’ brothers and sisters. Households can have three or four generations and dozens of people in one home, all of them related by blood, and none by marriage.
Why do Mosuo practice walking marriage?
Most famous among Mosuo traditions are the practice of a “walking marriage”: Women may choose and change partners as they wish, and because Mosuo children stay with their mothers’ families for life, men only visit their female partners by walking to their houses at night.
Does Mosuo have a word father?
Last week I read this article about the Mosuo people of southwest China: “The Ethnic Group in China That Doesn’t Have a Word for Father” (.
What are the features of Mosuo culture?
The Mosuo community brims with unique traditions, among them the practice of tracing family lineage through the female side; an embrace of “walking marriages,” which holds love above all else; and persisting in the use of time-honoured techniques to weave their scarves and other handicrafts.
How are the Minangkabau and Mosuo similar?
Similar to the Mosuo, women preside over household affairs while men handle political and spiritual duties. (The Minangkabau practice formalized marriage, but women sleep in their own quarters, and husbands must leave at dawn.)
Are there any Matriarchies today?
The Mosuo women are China’s last surviving matriarchy. There are about 40,000 of them, according to The Independent, and they practice Tibetan Buddhism. Lineage is traced through the women of the family. This society is also matrilineal, meaning property is handed down the same female line.
Where is matriarchal family found now?
Are there any true matriarchal societies?
History and distribution. Most anthropologists hold that there are no known societies that are unambiguously matriarchal. According to J. M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer, and Jake Page, no true matriarchy is known actually to have existed.
Is the UK a matriarchy?
Great Britain appears to have strong matriarchal tendencies. However, Great Britain is not a matriarchy. Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, and Victoria came to the throne in the absence of male heirs, not because of a system designed to place women in positions of power.
Is India a matriarchy?
In India, matriarchy is found in certain part of Assam and certain parts of Kerala . The social structure of these communities have various elements which are different from other communities of India.
Is Japan patriarchal?
While many countries around the world have patriarchal societies, Japan is often cited as a primary example. Japan’s conservative patriarchal culture is highly influenced by the Buddhist and Confucian values on which the country was built.