How the last matriarchal tribe lives, whose wives can have multiple husbands

When we talk about China, we imagine the “factory of the world”, high-speed highways, skyscrapers and high technology. But in this futuristic country there are corners that still live under their own laws. One of them is between the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, near the border with Tibet, where the Mosuo people live. In this tribe, women are the head of the family and decide everything.

O awesome.club became interested in the history of this matriarchal society and decided to write about it.

The lifestyle of the Mosuo people remains the same as it was thousands of years ago. Its members prefer to preserve their traditions and live under the laws of their ancestors.

The tribe’s population is approximately 40,000 people. The Mosuo people are often referred to as a matrilineal society (that is, one in which inheritance follows the female line). Men don’t have any kind of power. Mothers and grandmothers manage the family budget and raise their children.

Asa Nuja, 69, is ahmi (“householder”). When she can’t handle all the family matters, she chooses an heiress and hands him over.

Even the tribe’s relationships were transformed under their own customs. The Mosuo people do not have a traditional marriage, they prefer free union🇧🇷 Such a path foresees the life of an adult man in his mother’s house, and he only visits his beloved at night. The children stay with the woman and take her last name. Often, parents don’t even know about them.

In the Mosuo language, the word “father” does not exist. Their function is performed by their uncles, their mother’s brothers.

The women of the tribe can have many spouses in free union and always choose a new boyfriend, making sure that they will not be rejected.

From childhood they are taught to dedicate themselves to housework and to solve family problems. Because when they grow up, they will also become guardians of the family, just like their mothers.

One of the most important events in the life of each member of the tribe is the coming of age. The dedicated rite takes place when the child turns 13 years old. From that moment, she becomes an adult and can participate in religious ceremonies. The Mosuo believe in the Bön religion, which is based on the generation of the mother goddess, animism and ancestor worship.

This village lives on agriculture. The tribe sows potatoes and grain, raises goats, sheep, yaks and buffalo. Its economy is based on barter trading. In most houses there is no electricity.

But everything changes. In fact, lately, the traditional Mosuo tribe is linked to civilization🇧🇷 The matriarchy and the extraordinary lifestyle for a human being today interested tourists. They arrive to see these people, who have run to put up a sign near the village with the following sentence: “Welcome to the kingdom of daughters”.

Tribe members began to have cell phones and satellite dishes, and young people have left to move to the big cities in search of work and to form a traditional family🇧🇷 Those who stay remain with their usual way of life or invent diversions for tourists.

It seems that over the course of a few decades these people will become part of modern civilization and forget about their extraordinary customs.

Naju Dorma, 73, and Lacuo Dorma, 66, wear almost no traditional clothing. The women say that the tribesmen now dress like this to earn more money from tourists.

The Mosuo tribe has to adapt to the new reality. For example, 77-year-old Geiku Dorma has opened a restaurant for people who come to experience the culture of her tribe.

Dashi Lamu, 72, has two daughters and three sons. The girls stayed with their mother and the boys moved to major Chinese cities, where they started working for the government and got married. Dashi complains about tourists, whose numbers have increased in recent years. “Now the village is noisy. When I can’t take it, I go looking for silence in the mountains,” she says.

The Mosuo become 21st century people like us, but their history, once again, reminds us that it is possible to live in a different way. Civilizations, countries and peoples create their own laws and decide what is important to them. And traditions unimaginable to Europeans or Americans may be common to others.

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