The Kingdom of Daughters
Friday, January 4th, 2008
Normally,
in one day, I spend a third of my time in front of a computer. Half of
if is spent surfing on the internet. Hence, how many hours do I
squander for surfing everyday? No no, I’m not going to talk about that
basic math question 
. Back to the original topic, at that specially allocated time, I usually browse about -well basically- everything.
Yesterday I was on one of my favourite websites, wikipedia, hopping from one article to another, from one topic to another completely unrelated topic. Once, I stopped at an article of polyandry. I was amazed with such unique cultures that exist in this sophisticatedly omnifarous
world. I never knew and expected that human polyandry was (and is
still) practised in some places, obviously in various degrees.
One
of the quite famous examples is the Mosuo tribe (摩梭). Mosuo people live
in Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in China, close to the border with
Tibet. Most of them are found near Lugu Lake, high in the Tibetan
Himalayas. It takes approximately 7 hours to reach the place with a
jeep car from the nearest airport.
Unlike the majority of China’s ethnic groups which follow a strong patrilineal tradition, the Mosuo emphasise matrilineal ties. In almost every way, this is a society where women rule the roost.
They run the households, raise the children, control the money, and own
the land and property, all to be inherited by sisters and daughters.
Then, there’s the called tisese or ‘walking marriage‘, the men will walk to the house of their partner at night, but return to their own home in the morning. Mosuo women refer to their ‘husbands’ as friends.
There are a couple of interesting myths that arose concerning the small comunity, some are:
1. Mosuo Women are sexually promiscuous
It is true that Mosuo women are free to have different sexual partners, and frequently do
not get married. And it is also true that having multiple lovers, or
having children by different men, does not carry a negative stigma. But
it’s not like what you think, Mosuo women don’t frequently change
partners, a kind of ‘sexual utopia‘
where they are waiting to seduce men. An image that’s been portrayed by
tourism operators who seek to attract more people to visit the place.
(damn, hahaha)
2. The Mosuo language has no words for murder, rape, etc
Well, I’ve heard about some languages that don’t have certain words in them. Even English, a friend of mine once challenged me by asking: what is the English for ‘pergaulan,’ I replied, ‘That depends on the context.‘ In the
Mosuo language, it is technically correct to say that it has no words
for murder or rape. However, this information is frequently used in a
misleading or inaccurate manner to falsely portray a culture in which
murder and rape are non-existent.
The Mosuo do have a word for ‘kill,’ which is used to describe all
forms of killing, including murder. Mosuo also recognise the existence
of rape, which will reward the man an execution.
3. Mosuo men don’t work, and are there to fill the conjugal duties.
Hahaha,
this is the funniest. Traditionally speaking, Mosuo women tend to take
on most of the labour duties at home. Mosuo men were mostly traders,
traveling long distances by caravan
to trade with other groups. Since the men were frequently gone from
home, the women were left to take care of the work. However, when the
men were at home, they would also share in the duties there. But in
modern times, the practice of having trading caravans has effectively
ceased.
There
is a story of a 13 year-old girl who ran away from her village because
she wanted to do more than herd goats, her name is Yang Erche Namu
(楊二車娜姆). But with a combination of luck and talents, she arrived at
Yanyan and joined song-and-dance troupe there. Later, she won a
scholarship to study music in Shanghai, became a well-known lounge
singer. In 1997, 14 years after abandoning her village, Namu wrote a
best-selling book, Leaving the Kingdom of Daughters.
Undoubtedly, the people of Mosuo truly put women at the highest place
as they can. But as the rapid pace of modernisation continues, will
they be able to retain their unique culture? And there
are some questions that have crossed my mind before, is gender equality
achieved at this kind of way of living? What do these feminists have in
mind when they learnt about this?
There are so many skillful people, but none can compare with my mother.
There are so many knowledgeable people, but none can equal my mother.
There are so many people skilled at song and dance, but none can compete with my mother."
-a folk song that’s usually sung by the people of Mosuo-
Fixmanius
(who only writes when he feels like writing)
