A Compendium of Overseas Naxi Studies: A Review of "Ethnography of the Naxi and Mosuo
This article introduces "Naxi and Moso Ethnography," edited by Michael Oppitz (University of Zurich) and Elisabeth Hsu (Cambridge), published by Zurich University Press in 1998, with a Chinese edition forthcoming from Yunnan University Press in 2009 (~450,000 words, 400+ illustrations). Hailed as the most significant recent Western contribution to Naxi studies, the volume compiles 12 essays by leading international and Chinese scholars (including Rock, Jackson, Oppitz, McKhann, Hsu, Mathieu, Knödel, Shih Chuan-kang, and Yang Fuquan), based on rich first-hand fieldwork. The book has three sections; this article reviews Part One, "Kinship," which examines Lijiang Naxi and Yongning Moso kinship and social organization through essays by McKhann, Knödel, and Hsu—covering cross-border kinship structures, state power's impact on Moso matriliny, and Hsu's proposed "house-centered" framework as the core organizing unit of Naxi/Moso kinship, challenging single-descent theories.
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