That Guy From China

Its fairly certain that the vast majority of people coming to this blog for the first time will be entirely unfamiliar with the Mosuo; so I thought that a bit of an explanation was necessary.

The Mosuo are an indigenous minority group who live in the Himalayan Mountains in China, on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, fairly close to the border with Tibet.  They are a very unique minority, and I’ve found that most people who hear about them find them quite fascinating.

First, the Mosuo are one of the few remaining matriarchal cultures on the planet (note: by strict anthropological terms, they are not matriarchal, since local political leaders under the Communist system are generally male.  However, for the average layman, the term suffices.  Women are the head of the Mosuo family, own the property, make the decisions, control the finances, etc.  I have not yet encountered any anthropologist who could come up with a word that perfectly fit/described the Mosuo culture…perhaps we need to create a new one).

Second, the Mosuo culture does not traditionally have any practice of marriage.  They instead have a system called “Walking Marriages”.  Mosuo mean and women alike are free to choose and change partners; there is no requirement or expectation of lifelong partnering, nor is virginity considered an important value.  This does not mean that the Mosuo are engaging in non-stop orgies.  They are often referred to as serial monomamists.  While they are in a relationship with someone, it is considered wrong to carry on a simultaneous relationship with someone else.  And someone who jumps from bed to bed, frequently changing partners, while perhaps not suffering as negative a perception as they would in most other cultures, nevertheless would face some societal judgement for doing so.

I know some Mosuo couples who’ve been together for 20, 30, or 40 years; so there certainly are relationships that are enduring.  But they are together simply because they want to be together.  There’s no cultural/religious/legal decree forcing them to stay together.

In the Mosuo culture, there’s no sharing of property between romantic partners; during the day, the man will live with his family, and be responsible to them; and the woman will live with her family, and be responsible to them.  So, if/when they eventually split up, there is no fighting over division of property.

Also, in the Mosuo culture, the “father” role is played by the uncle, not by the biological father.  So if you’re a Mosuo man, you won’t be responsible to help care for your biological children (in many cases, those children may not even know who their biological father is, nor is it important); but you will be responsible to help care for children of your sisters, aunts, nieces, etc.  While this may sound strange at first, one major benefit of this is that it provides remarkable stability for the children.  Because when their parents break up, there is virtually no trauma for the child.  No fighting for custody.  No debate over visitation rights.  No sense that they’ve lost a father.

There’s much more I could say about the Mosuo…but I won’t say it here.  If I’ve managed to whet your appetite, then please check out this website, which is the official website for a non-profit organization I started in 2005, in cooperation with local Mosuo leaders, to both promote awareness/knowledge of the Mosuo, and to support projects in  areas such as education, health, cultural preservation, and economic development.

And, of course, you can read some of the articles that I’ve written in this blog about the Mosuo; or go to this site to check out a very in-depth discussion about the Mosuo and their culture.

Finally, I’ll also give you a short slideshow…just to whet your curiosity and interest a little bit more