The Mosuo (; also spelled Moso, Mosso or Musuo) or Na, often incorrectly referred to as the Naxi, are an ethnic group living in the Hengduan mountains of China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. They currently have a population of approximately 40,000, many of them living in the Yongning region, around Lugu Lake, in Labai, in Muli, and in Yanyuan.
Although the Mosuo are culturally distinct from the Nashi, the Chinese government claims they are the same as the Nashi people. The Nashi vastly outnumber the Mosuo at around 320,000 people spread throughout different provinces in China. Their culture has been documented by indigenous scholars Lamu Gatusa, Latami Dashi, Yang Lifen, and He Mei.The collection of papers that Latami Dashi edited, published in 2006, contains an extensive list of references in Chinese, and a bibliography of books and articles in other languages (especially English) compiled by He Sanna.
Introduction The Mosuo are often referred to as China's "last matrilineal society". The Mosuo themselves may also often use the description matriarchal, which they believe increases interest in their culture and thus attracts tourism.Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association (2006). . Retrieved on: 2011-07-10. However, the terms matrilineal and matriarchal do not reflect the full complexity of their social organization. In fact, it is not easy to categorize Mosuo culture within traditional anthropological categories. They have aspects of a matriarchal culture: women are often the head of the house, inheritance is through the female line, and women make business decisions. However, unlike a matriarchy, the political power tends to be in the hands of men. For instance, a man named Ge Ze A Che is the political leader of Luoshui village. However, according to an article by NPR, there was once a time when the political leaders of Mosuo villages were in fact often women (still not exclusively). The anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday has argued that the Mosuo should be considered a matriarchy.Anthropologists like Peggy Reeves Sanday favored redefining and reintroducing the word matriarchy, especially in reference to modern matrilineal societies: "matriarchies are not a mirror form of patriarchies but rather that a matriarchy "emphasizes maternal meanings where 'maternal symbols are linked to social practices influencing the lives of both sexes and where women play a central role in these practices'" Peggy Reeves Sanday, anthropologist, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy , Cornell University Press, 2002. Further, scholars have argued that while matrilineal arrangements are the normative pattern, domestic arrangements still vary geographically and by family circumstance. Pascale-Marie Milan dislikes the term matriarchal instead using matrifocal.
Lifestyle
Society The core structure of Mosuo society is a corporate house group of about twenty people called the Awo, as the Mosuo are a matrilineal house society. Buildings, lands and livestock are owned collectively by the house and Musuo customs are largely made in order to maintain it, not for individual initiative. When an Awo grows too large, it is split into multiple awo, which stay a part of the larger matriline or Sissi. It is rare, but Awo sometimes adopt new members from other houses, often due to outside pressure or a house group being at risk.
Awo use their kin connections with other Awo in order to preserve their own Awo and accomplish projects that one Awo can't do on its own. Individuals will often be sent out to help neighboring houses with the expectation that it will be reciprocated down the line. Usually, Awo will call on their Sissi, the Awo of the partners of the women or simply the other households in the village for assistance.
The leader of the Awo is called the Ddabbu. This role goes from sister to sister and then to a daughter. It is typically given to a woman unless a man is particularly suited for the job. Although the Ddabbu is the leader of the Awo, nonroutine decisions are always made by adult members of the household, especially the Ddabbu's sisters and brothers, often during meals. Roles in the house are given based on each person's skillset.
Daily life Mosuo culture is primarily agrarian, with work based on farming tasks such as raising livestock (yak, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry) and growing crops, including grains and potatoes. The people are largely self-sufficient in diet, raising enough for their daily needs. Meat is an important part of their diet and, since they lack refrigeration, is preserved through salting or smoking. The Mosuo are renowned for their preserved pork, which may be kept for 10 years or more. They produce a local alcoholic beverage made from grain, called sulima, which is similar to strong wine. Sulima is drunk regularly and usually offered to guests and at ceremonies and festivals.Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association (2006). . Retrieved on: 2011-07-11.
Local economies tend to be gift or barter-based. However, more interaction with the outside world has led people to use cash more often. Average incomes are low (US$150–200 per year), causing financial issues when cash is needed for activities such as education or travel. Electricity has been introduced in most Mosuo communities, but some villages still lack electric power.
Mosuo homes consist of four rectangular structures arranged in a square, around a central courtyard. The first floor houses livestock, including water buffalo, horses, geese, and poultry. The main cooking, eating and visiting areas are also on the first floor. The second floor is commonly used for storage and for the bedrooms.
Tasks are largely distributed based on gender and age (grouped into elders, adults (put into a sisters-brothers dyad) and children), although this is highly flexible and often not followed as the wellbeing of the Awo is centered first and foremost. The sisters-brothers dyad takes care of the Awo while the children do simple routine tasks and the elders do weaving or help the children with herding.
Role of women As soon as a Mosuo girl becomes old enough, she learns the tasks that she will perform for the rest of her life. Mosuo women do all the housework, including cleaning, tending the fire, cooking, gathering firewood, feeding the livestock, and spinning and weaving.Kingdom of Women: The Matriarchal Mosuo of China (2007, 54 min.) Films for the Humanities and Societies In the past, due to isolation, Mosuo women produced much of their own household goods. Today, due to increased trade with surrounding villages and cities, it is easier to obtain goods. Nevertheless, some Mosuo women, especially those of older generations, know how to use looms to produce cloth goods.
Role of men
Mosuo men 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. Some misleading authors claim men have no responsibility in Mosuo society — they have no jobs, rest all day, and conserve their strength for nighttime visits..
Men deal with the slaughter of livestock, in which women never participate. Slaughtered pigs, in particular, are kept whole and stored in a dry, airy place that keeps them edible for up to ten years. This is especially helpful when harsh winters make food scarce.
Matrilineality Except for the women and men who leave Mosuo society, Mosuo people usually learn who their father is through casual conversation and hints from family and neighbors. When a baby turns one year old, the mother and sister of the father will visit, bringing gifts. On major festivals, children visit their father's Awo. Fathers are not responsible for disciplining nor for providing for their children. Instead, they are expected to discipline and provide for their sisters' children and to be close to their nephews' biological children. Therefore, the Mosuo people "know their father but are not close to their father". If the wife moves into their husband's Awo her children inherit her husband's identity not their mothers.
Matriarch The matriarch (Ah mi, or elder female, in Chinese) is the head of the Awo. The Ah mi has significant power over her household. She's responsible for all those living under her roof. In walking marriages, Mosuo women are responsible for much of the work done around the house and financial decisions. The matriarch also manages the money and jobs of each family member. When the Ah mi wishes to pass her duties on to the next generation, she will give this female successor the keys to the household storage, signifying the passing on of property rights and responsibility.
History An important historical fact often missed in studies of the Mosuo was that their social organization has traditionally been feudal, with a small nobility controlling a larger peasant population.Hua, Cai. A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China. Asti Hustvedt, trans. New York: Zone Books, 2001. The Mosuo nobility practiced a "parallel line of descent" that encouraged cohabitation, usually within the nobility,Hua, Cai. A Society without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China, p. 55. Asti Hustvedt, trans. New York, NY, USA: Zone Books, 2001. in which the father passed his social status to his sons, while the women passed their status to their daughters. Thus, if a Mosuo commoner female married a male serf, her daughter would be another commoner, while her son would have serf status.
Chuan-Kang Shih argued that matrilineality and "walking marriage" (tisese) is a primary institution of family, sex and reproduction, and marriage is secondary.Chuan-Kang Shih. "Genesis of Marriage among the Mosuo and Empire-Building in Late Imperial China." In The Journal of Asian Studies 60, no.2 (May 2001):381-412. As Shih argues, marriage, as different from tisese, was introduced into Mosuo society through contact with other ethnic groups during the Yuan and Qing empire-building process.
Adoption If there are no offspring of one sex, it is common for a child from another family to join an adoptive Awo.. Such a child might come from a large family, or one too small to continue. Children raised in this sense are full members of their adoptive household. They are treated as equal family members; in some instances, adopted females become the matriarchs of their adoptive families.
Walking marriages One of the best known aspects of Mosuo culture is its practice of "walking marriage" (), although this practice remains poorly understood. Walking marriages are the most prominent form of marriage in Mosuo culture; however, it is not unheard of for women in Mosuo culture to cohabit with their husbands, whether it is marriages with foreigners or other Mosuo people. In a walking marriage, both partners live under the roof of their respective extended families during the day; however, at night it is common for the man to visit and stay at the woman's house (if given permission) until sunrise. Therefore, they do not technically live in the same household, but they are free to visit when granted permission. Children of parents in a walking marriage are raised by the brothers of the mother (maternal uncles), who take on the responsibilities of the father since he is not typically around during the daytime."Matriarchal/Matrilineal Culture." Matriarchal/Matrilineal Culture. Lugu Lake Mosuo Cultural Development Association, 2006. Web. 25 Oct. 2016. In long term marriages the wife and husband refer to each other as Chumi and Haechube.