MOSUO MATRIARCHS
Little Girl has started to show a keen interest in geography. “You need to move to China’s Yunnan Province,” she told me, last night. “You’d get plenty of rest and relaxation there because they don’t need divorce lawyers.”
I raised an eyebrow incredulously, as she pointed to an article in a copy of “Geographical,” describing the matriarchal society of the Mosuo people.
Apparently men have little or no responsibility but undertake what are described as technical tasks (the equivalent of DIY perhaps), whilst women “call all the shots.” The article even gives an example of how women determine the choice of television programme to be watched and hog the remote control for the TV set.
It sounds just my kind of place, except Little Girl is right; I couldn’t work there because Mosuo men and women don’t marry. Although they have sexual relationships, they do not live together and instead maintain separate lives by each continuing to live in their mother’s home, even after they have children.
I raised an eyebrow incredulously, as she pointed to an article in a copy of “Geographical,” describing the matriarchal society of the Mosuo people.
Apparently men have little or no responsibility but undertake what are described as technical tasks (the equivalent of DIY perhaps), whilst women “call all the shots.” The article even gives an example of how women determine the choice of television programme to be watched and hog the remote control for the TV set.
It sounds just my kind of place, except Little Girl is right; I couldn’t work there because Mosuo men and women don’t marry. Although they have sexual relationships, they do not live together and instead maintain separate lives by each continuing to live in their mother’s home, even after they have children.
Comments
Not great for divorce lawyers though.