Female Worship in Matrilineal Families as Seen through Mosuo Folk Music Culture
This article examines the folk musical culture of the Mosuo people living beside Lugu Lake, on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the world's last surviving matrilineal ethnic community. Through fieldwork on Mosuo wedding customs, festivals, and religious activities, the authors reveal a culture centered on female worship, rooted in the "walking marriage" (Azhu/Ashia) system and matrilineal family structure. Household membership is traced through a founding grandmother, with the female head (Dabu) managing family affairs; men handle external trade while women manage agriculture, producing a "women stay, men travel" pattern. The Azhu marriage system—based on free, voluntary romantic union without cohabitation or property entanglement—coexists with two other legal marriage forms. Children belong to the mother's family, and maternal uncles play a paternal-like role. The study argues these customs explain the clan's unity and harmony, offering insight into matrilineal society's reverence for women as a living "fossil" of human marriage and family history.
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