The real “daughter country” – Yunnan Mosuo nationality: men don’t marry women, and go away if they like each other

Located at the junction of Ninglang County in the north of Yunnan Province and Yanyuan County in Sichuan Province, there is a blue lake of more than 50 square kilometers, known as "Lugu Lake". In the beautiful Lugu Lake, there is an ancient, magical and peaceful nation, which is called "Mosuo people who have no father, no husband, and only women in charge."

Mosuo is considered to be the only matriarchal clan society in China, and still retains many customs and habits of matriarchal society, which has aroused great interest of people. Today, let's explore the magic Mosuo.

The Mosuo nationality has a very long history. It belongs to the branch of the Naxi minority in China, with a total population of about 50000. It has its own language. Its language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which is the eastern dialect of Naxi language, but has no characters.

Chinese officials generally classify Mosuo people living in Yunnan as Naxi people and Mosuo people living in Sichuan as Mongolian people.

Mosuo people live near Lugu Lake, so they also call Lugu Lake "Mother Lake". It is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with beautiful scenery and an average altitude of 3200 meters. However, due to this special geographical location, Lugu Lake area has less contact with the outside world. Mosuo people have formed their own unique social production mode and folk culture in this closed living environment.

At the beginning of the article, it is mentioned that the Mosuo people have retained the matriarchal social system, so the marriage system here is also subversive of ordinary people's cognition. The Mosuo people have a unique "walking marriage system". According to textual research, the walking marriage system was formed in about 1840 AD, that is, the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. Walking marriage means walking around, which vividly summarizes the Mosuo people's walking marriage culture of "closing in the evening and leaving in the morning".

The walking marriage of Mosuo people is not bound by any legal system and procedures. Both men and women are not bound by the morality and obligations stipulated by the law, but only by the emotional fetters and moral constraints between the men and women. Once both parties decide to terminate this relationship, they can negotiate with each other, and the walking marriage relationship will end.

Now let me give you a specific description of this walking marriage custom.

Generally speaking, young men and women of the right age will go to the bonfire party to find their favorite objects, and will also use the form of antithetical songs. Once the two people see the right eye, the woman will give her belongings to the man, which is somewhat similar to the gift of sachets of the Han nationality.

After the other party understands, the two can start a formal date, which does not require the consent of the male and female families. When dating, the man will ride his horse to the woman's house before sunset, but he cannot enter directly, but must climb the wall, which is also called "climbing the wall".

Some families will deliberately build the wall very high for their daughter to find a strong object, which also makes some boys unable to date the girl they like because they can't climb the wall, but some boys don't need to worry, because the girls who love them have already told them the easy way to climb.

When dating, boys need to come with their hats and hang their hats outside the girl's door. At this time, the girl's family will understand and will not bother much.

Then the boy will leave the girl's home before dawn the next day. The reason why he has to leave so early is that he must leave before the girl's family gets up. If he gets up late and comes out to meet the girl's family, it is considered very impolite.

After a period of dating and understanding, the relationship between men and women has stabilized, especially after the crystallization of love, the families of both parties will prepare a short ceremony for them. This ceremony is not as formal as the wedding, and there will not be too much binding. More importantly, it is an emotional and spiritual identity. Generally speaking, women will take out their own embroidered belt for lovers and tie it on men, He said that he had something in mind.

At this time, their relationship is open, and they can choose two ways of life: one is like other nationalities, two people move out to live and produce together, but because Mosuo is a matriarchal clan, few people will sit down and make such a choice, and most people will still choose the second way: that is, as before, living in their mother's home in the daytime, and staying with their lovers at night.

But at this time, the man doesn't have to climb the wall as before. He can go in and out of the front door of the woman's house in a big way. The woman's mother will also prepare a delicious meal for him.

With regard to children, children naturally live with their mothers, that is, stay at their grandmother's house. Men do not have to take any responsibility for their children, as long as they give proper alimony and buy clothes for children during the Spring Festival.

Under this matrilineal clan custom, because children have always lived with their matrilineal relatives, uncle naturally plays a very important role. Although children all know who their father is, they have never been as close to uncle. It can be said that for Mosuo people, the closest male relatives are their uncle, and the first man they meet is not their father but uncle, In the long life, uncle is also the one who gets along with each other for the longest time.

Then uncle will also take on some responsibilities, such as teaching children to cultivate and hunt.

When the relationship between the men and women of walking marriage breaks down, they can negotiate a "peaceful separation". At this time, they can also walk with other young men or girls. Some Mosuo elders have experienced walking marriage dozens or even hundreds of times in their life.

However, walking marriage does not mean disorderly marriage. They have their own code of ethics and code of conduct. Men can choose their own lovers, and women can choose their own lovers, but they can't fall in love with several people at the same time. They can only choose one.

Once the relationship between the two parties ends, you can choose to marry someone else after breaking up the relationship. In addition, in addition to their cousins, Mosuo people are also forbidden to walk away with three generations of close relatives. If they are found to walk away with close relatives, they will be regarded as animals by the villagers and be laughed at.

So this kind of walking marriage system, which seems to us very incredible, has indeed brought some benefits to the Mosuo people. First of all, the combination of men and women is only based on feelings, and is almost not affected by any external factors, such as birth, status, economy, etc., and the families of both sides rarely have disputes over this;

Secondly, men and women do not have to have conflicts for raising children, because the purpose of walking marriage is to increase the population of their own families, thus increasing the labor force of the family, so the children should be raised by the woman and work for her family;

Thirdly, the relationship between family members is harmonious. All members of the Mosuo family are related by blood. We eat and live together, produce together, and share property. All property is uniformly allocated by the mother, and the conflict will be much less.

Of course, it is impossible to have a perfect system, and the walking marriage system also brings many disadvantages: for example, the issue of close marriage, although close marriage will be rejected by people, there is no perfect system to restrict it;

Another example is that this will make Mosuo men have no sense of responsibility for women and future generations, and think that they do not have to raise and care about children at all. Indeed, some Mosuo women suffer from it. They have brought up several children, and their fathers may not have visited them once.

With the development of the times and society, under the call and education of the country, more and more Mosuo young people have accepted the marriage form of marriage. However, as a tradition, the walking marriage system is still retained, and many people still choose to walk marriage.

So what do you think of the walking marriage custom of Mosuo nationality?

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