Genere e parentela tra i Mosuo della Cina sudoccidentale: trame storiche e voci etnografiche

The Mosuo people, also known as Na, are one of the many ethnic groups in China officially recognized by the Government as a branch of Naxi, although they regard themselves as historically and culturally different from them (Gladney 1994; Harrel 2001). The cultural centers of the Mosuo people, covering an area of six hundred and forty two square kilometers, are situated in the Yongning plateau and the touristic site of Lugu lake, which is in the northern extremity of Ninglang, on the borders of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in Southwestern China. Even though there is variety in matrimonial practices and familial configurations according to the different places where the Mosuo people are settled, they are best known for their matrilineal system (often referred as matriarchal) and for the practice of the so-called visiting relationship (zouhun 走婚 “walking marriage” in Chinese and tisese “to go back and forth” in Naru language). In brief, tisese had been the preferred sexual relation modality among the Yongning Mosuo until the end of the Sixties as an alternative to marriage: it does not involve cohabitation, since the man visits the woman during the night and at daybreak he returns to his maternal household. The only prerequisite for starting a tisese relationship is the mutual agreement between partners; no ceremony or exchange of services is required (Shih 2010). The relationship between partners does not create ties between them, nor between the respective relatives, even if nowadays fathers care about children’s needs and education (Mathieu 2003; Shih 2010). The traditional basic social unit is set up by a group of men and women related to the female line, usually up to three generations who all live together inside the maternal house. Since there is not husband-wife relationship, the fundamental tie is between brother and sister: they live together and share out the work to maintain the household. This work take into consideration the changing environments of Mosuo matrilineal society with a focus on two small communities, one driven by subsistent farming, the other based on tourism services and income. Following this perspective, the author tried to look at families and kinship-based groups and their local word-views.