Where women rule the world and don't marry

by on Jul 9, 2006 in indigenous people / minorities, culture traditions, Asia, gender

She's a young women from the Lake Lugu is the southwestern part of China and tells us in an article in The Standard (Hongkong):

"Mother thinks I'm being disrespectful to our heritage by having a steady boyfriend. She thinks I ought to follow the old ways, to take more than one lover. It's a big problem between us. Actually," she lowers her voice, "my boyfriend and I are thinking of leaving Lugu after the summer, and moving to Kunming [capital of Yunnan province]. We may get married."

Journalist Joshua Samuel Brown explains that Lake Lugu is the home of the Mosuo - a matriarchal and matrilineal society: Women make most major decisions, control household finances, and pass their surnames on to their children:

But what makes the Mosuo truly unique is one particularly juicy facet of their familial relationships, their practice of zuo hun, or "walking marriage." The Mosuo do not marry - rather, a woman chooses her lovers from among the men of the tribe, taking as many as she pleases over the course of her life. In Mosuo culture, having children with different men bears no social stigma. Children are raised more or less communally, and in most cases grow up in the mother's home, surrounded by any number of sisters, brothers and "uncles."

>> read the whole story in The Standard (Link updated 4.3.18)

MORE INFO:

Wikipedia: The Mosuo

Chinese men threaten 'lake of free love' where women rule (Telegraph, 25.3.01)

The Chinese region with women in charge (BBC, 18.9.05)

Lu Yuan: Land Of The Walking Marriage - Mosuo people of China (Natural History, 11/2000)

ON MATRILINEAL SOCIETIES SEE ALSO:

Eggi's Village. Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia (another matrilineal society)

A Society Without Husbands or Fathers

Contemporary matriarchal societies: The Nagovisi, Khasi, Garo, and Machiguenga

Matriarchy: history or reality?

Anthropologists: U.S. Marriage Model Is Not Universal Norm