| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| AncestryDNA: I thought I was Irish, but I'm actually Tibetan Mosuo |
| 2017-04-02 |
| [Guardian] Imagine a society without fathers; without marriage (or divorce); one in which nuclear families don’t exist. Grandmother sits at the head of the table; her sons and daughters live with her, along with the children of those daughters, following the maternal bloodline. Men are little more than studs, sperm donors who inseminate women but have, more often than not, little involvement in their children’s upbringing. This progressive, feminist world ‐ or anachronistic matriarchy, as skewed as any patriarchal society, depending on your viewpoint ‐ exists in a lush valley in Yunnan, south-west China, in the far eastern foothills of the Himalayas. 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. But is it as utopian as it seems? And how much longer can it survive? Choo Waihong set about finding out. A successful corporate lawyer from Singapore, she left her job in 2006 to travel. Having trained and worked in Canada, the US and London, she felt drawn to visit China, the country of her ancestors. After reading about the Mosuo, she decided to take a trip to their picturesque community ‐ a series of villages dotted around a mountain and Lugu Lake ‐ as many tourists do. But something beyond the views and clean air grabbed her. "I grew up in a world where men are the bosses," she says. "My father and I fought a lot ‐ he was the quintessential male in an extremely patriarchal Chinese community in Singapore. And I never really belonged at work; the rules were geared towards men, and intuitively understood by them, but not me. I’ve been a feminist all my life, and the Mosuo seemed to place the female at the centre of their society. It was inspiring." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #7 Yah, 3dc, I am under the impression that sort of pattern, or variations of it, were common in Yunnan in the old days. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2017-04-02 16:08 |
| #6 Think about neither sex launching from the family home and you have it. Also a very physically large home. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2017-04-02 13:03 |
| #5 It keeps inheritance simple |
| Posted by: 3dc 2017-04-02 13:02 |
| #4 Wife has talked about this one over the decades and showed me various Chinese documentaries of the tribe. They don't take well to outsiders. All the land has been in the families for hundreds of years and it is more complicated then this suggests. The homes are not without men. The men are the brothers and fathers. The "sperm dornors" are the boyfriend(s). Usually one guy for decades or a lifetime. He lives with his sisters brothers and parents and supports the family home. Same with the girl. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2017-04-02 13:01 |
| #3 "I grew up in a world where men are the bosses," Couldn't have anything to do with 10,000+ years of evolution of which the last 4,000 recorded societies mainly of tribal, territorial and hierarchical organizations who fought and warred over resources? That it was successful males who allowed their tribes to flourish in that environment by paying the ultimate price in death and dismemberment? That maybe you exist in an artificial cocoon of the late 20th/early 21st century that can come crashing down if you keep, in your self centered ignorance, hammering at the foundations of its civilization? However, you refuse the notice the barbarian already awaiting just outside looking for an opportunity to erase over 500 years of progress. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-02 09:14 |
| #2 "Igrew up in a world where men are the bosses," An old Russian saying: "Man is the King of his family - unless you take a longer look and notice that his crown is his wife's shoe." |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-04-02 03:51 |
| #1 Men are little more than studs, sperm donors who inseminate women but have, more often than not, little involvement in their children’s upbringing. It is inspiring. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-04-02 01:11 |