Changes in Mosuo Wedding Customs over Time: A Case Study of the Mosuo People in Yongning Town
This article examines the historical evolution of Mosuo wedding customs, focusing on the Mosuo people of Yongning Town, Ninglang Yi Autonomous County. Rituals accompany Mosuo people throughout life, from birth to death, serving as vital carriers of culture in the absence of a complete writing system, as well as means of social recognition and personal authority. The study centers on the "Jing Guozhuang" (hearth-worship) ritual, a ceremony essential to all three forms of Mosuo marriage—"walking marriage" (tisese), "marrying-in marriage," and "neither marrying out nor marrying in." By analyzing the structure and symbolism of the Mosuo courtyard, the sacred mother-house (rimi) and its hearth, the paper traces how this ritual has transformed under tourism-driven commercialization and social change, revealing shifts in Mosuo marriage concepts while emphasizing the need to distinguish authentic cultural meaning from commercialized misrepresentation.
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