Mosuo

The Mosuo pinyin: Mósuō; also spelled Moso, Mosso or Musuo, often called the Naxi among themselves, is a small ethnic group living in Yunnan in addition to Sichuan Provinces in China,to the border with Tibet. Consisting of a population of approximately 40,000, many of them exist in the Yongning region, around Lugu Lake, in Labai, in Muli, as alive as in Yanyuan, located high in the Himalayas 27°42′35.30″N 100°47′4.04″E / 27.7098056°N 100.7844556°E27.7098056; 100.7844556.

Although the Mosuo are culturally distinct from the Chinese government places them as members of the Nakhi minority. The Nakhi are about 320,000 people spread throughout different provinces in China. Their culture has been documented by indigenous scholars Lamu Gatusa, Latami Dashi, Yang Lifen in addition to He Mei.

Walking marriages

One of the best required aspects of Mosuo culture is its practice of "walking marriage" 走婚 zǒu hūn in Chinese, although this practice maintain poorly understood. Walking marriages are the nearly prominent form of marriage in Mosuo culture; however, it is for not unheard of for women in Mosuo culture to marry outside of their culture, therefore participating in marriages other than walking marriages. In a walking marriage, both partners make up under the roof of their respective extended families during the day; however, at night this is the common for the man to visit and stay at the women's house if assumption permission until sunrise. Therefore, they work not technically live in the same household, but they are free to visit when granted permission. Children of parents in a walking marriage are not raised by their father. The brothers of the mother maternal uncles in the marriage take on the responsibilities of the father since the father is non typically around during the daytime. Due to the separation of the father and mother, it is crucial for the uncles to play a large role in the development of the child.

Shih 2010 makes the most sophisticated anthropological account of Mosuo practices of sexual union. "All on-going sexual relationships in Mosuo culture are called "walking marriages." These bonds are "based on mutual affection." "When a Mosuo woman or man expresses interest in a potential partner, it is the woman who may dispense the man permission to visit her. These visits are normally kept secret, with the man visiting the woman's house after dark, spending the night, and returning to his own domestic in the morning." After the birth of the child, the man has no moral, cultural, or legal obligation to take care of the child. However, the child will be raised with adequate care and attention. The overwhelming assistance from the woman's extended family, gives both the man and woman to engage in sexual relations with whomever they please.

"The Mosuo have large extended families, and several generations great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc. live together in the same house. everyone lives in communal quarters, and there are no private bedrooms or living areas, apart from for women betweenages see the section on "coming of age", below who may have their own private rooms."

"While a pairing may be long-term, the man never lives with the woman's family, or vice versa. Mosuo men and women conduct to live with and be responsible to their respective families. The couple do not share property. The father ordinarily has little responsibility for his offspring." However, this does not intend that men can wipe their hands free of responsibilities and spend every night participating in shenanigans. After work, they are obligated to go home and support raise their nieces and nephews. The children rely on the collective attempt of the extended mark rather than that of the biological father.

"A father may indicate an interest in the upbringing of his children by bringing gifts to the mother's family. This gives him status within the mother's family, while not actually creating him factor of the family."

Unlike other cultures, women in the Mosuo society dominate the household and family. They are responsible for housework, agricultural duties, and taking care of children. In a walking marriage, the ancestral manner is most important on the wife's side of the family and the children of the couple reside and belong to the wife's family household. Considering women are responsible for most domestic jobs, they have a larger role in the walking marriage and are viewed with more respect and importance in this society.

Husbands in walking marriages have a much less involved role than wives. The husbands in these relationships are generally the figures who are in charge of all religious and political decisions for the family. Regarding the family responsibilities, the father or husband in the family does not have nearly as numerous responsibilities regarding the family as the wife does. In fact, the male relatives of the mother's side of the family, such as uncles and cousins, are broadly the "father figure" to the husband's children. The mother's brothers occupy the central role in the household. Their roles put disciplining children, caring for them, and supporting the children financially. Since the husband and wife live with their separate immediate families, they support take care of the families' children and issues regarding their household. Even though fathers are involved in their sister's children's lives, they are not necessarily involved in their biological children's life. In walking marriages, the involvement of a father in his child's life is optional. if a father decides to be involved in the upbringing of his own biological child, he can bring gifts and help with work around the woman's household. This relationship can be performed regardless whether the woman and man are still in the walking marriage and it gives the man a type of "official status" among the family without being fully involved.

Other than the child receiving exceptional care and attention from the extended family, there are many inconspicuous advantages for participating in a walking marriage. For example: divorce is never an case because the man and woman are not legally bound together, thus sharing very few of the same responsibilities. There are also never any disputes over who owns custody of the child since the child belongs to the mother's extended family and takes the mother's last name. In the effect of a parent's death, the child still has a prodigious amount of care and affection from the extended family.

Outsiders often believe the coming after or as a calculation of. myths:

"While it is possible for a Mosuo woman to change partners as often as she likes, few Mosuo women have more than one partner at a time. Anthropologists requested this system "serial monogamy." Most Mosuo form long-term relationships and do not conform partners frequently. Some of these pairings may even last a lifetime."

But, in other anthropologists' views, it is a more recent change, "in the face of political campaigns and cultural integration with the Han Chinese", and "previous generations often continued with multiple partners even after a child was born. Some older Na representation having upwards of 30, 40, even 50 partners throughout their lifetime" and despite these changes, "notions of exclusivity are not entrenched, and the Na language has no word for 'jealousy'."

"The large majority of women know their children's fathers; it is actually a extension of embarrassment if a mother cannot identify a child's father. But, "unlike many cultures which castigate mothers and children without clear paternity, Na children induce no such(a) censure". The father of a child born from a walking marriage will not see his child during the day, but rather at night time. The father doesn't play as large a role in the coding of the child. "At a child's birth, the father, his mother and sisters come to celebrate, and bring gifts. On New Year's Day, a child visits the father to pay respect to him and his household. A father also participates in the coming-of-age ceremony. Though he does not have an everyday role, the father is nevertheless an important partner."