少数民族摩梭人的走婚习俗

少数民族摩梭人的走婚习俗 The Visiting-marriage Custom of the Mosuo 云南师范大学外国语学院 英语教育专业 09级094班 友巧丽 094050123 The Visiting-marriage Custom of the Mosuo 外院英教094班 友巧丽 094050123 As a branch of the Naxi minority, the Mosuo People living by the Lugu Lake still keeps the lifestyle of matriarchal families. The Axia marriage featuring a kind of Visiting-marriage is a special tradition of the Mosuo. Axia in the Mosuo language means “lover” or “close companion”. The Axia marriage is quite special that a man does not take a woman home as his wife or woman does not marry off. When a man and a woman fall in love with each other, the man will go to the woman’s house at night and work and live in his mother’s family during the day. They don’t organize a common family and has no common economic relations. Children are taken care of by the maternal family and follow the kinship of the mother. According to the Visiting-marriage, a man and a woman are free to choose whether to be together with or depart from each other. This marriage system keeps the feature of the matrilineal because the kinship of the mother is the key relationship of the “family”.( 《南特有民族文化知识》之纳西族 ) Some people think that the Visiting-marriage is one of the most open and human love forms ,as couples can be changed constantly, which provides a broad love life space for the young women and men, who are in sexually active period , and a full selection process to choose and decide their final and ideal companions. However, the custom of Visiting-marriage is quietly changing, more and more Mosuo has begun to say “no” to their tradition.(摩梭人对走婚习俗开始说“不” 新浪博客 ) Certainly, the shake of the Mosuo youth to the custom has some reasons. According to various surveys, as to the man, once having a lover, they will be bogged down in trouble and anxiety. First, the factor of unstable companion makes them afraid that there would be someone else in their lovers’ houses before they arrive there someday. Second, in the matriarchal society system in, the position of the man in the family is too low, they do not have economic rights, have no money to buy presents for lovers, as time passes, the lovers will refuse them out of the door. Even if the companions choose someone else, they can do nothing. So, a number of Mosuo men have no exact companions, and in the evening they need to wander to find the suitable houses to sleep. For the man in his Visiting-marriage age, still lives in the mother’s home are losing face. Third，Visiting-marriage is really too tiring, not only mentally, but also physically. Working a whole day, they still need to wait until people fall asleep in the midnight, thus, they dare to go to sleep with their loves. The second day, they don't have to leave in the early morning, to go back to work for their mothers' homes. (摩梭人对走婚习俗开始说“不” 新浪博客 ) Mosuo girls are not willing to obey the custom. From the age of 13, they begin Visiting-marriage. Some girls in small ages are mothers of children, they will be in their twenties in 10 years, at that time, the girls of Han people are just beautiful and full of charm, and they just begin to date. Compared with them, Mosuo girls lose their youthfulness too early. They gradually feel uncomfortable about the system. Even though Visiting-marriage, they also do not want to have baby early, and they are reluctant t have more children than before, for the purpose that they do not want themselves to become “yellow-face woman” in a little age, do not be willing to bring more burdens to their brothers, sisters, and mothers. (摩梭人对走婚习俗开始说 “不” 新浪博客 ) The root reasons why Mosuo youth take unkindly to the Visiting-marriage is that they are influenced by the culture of Han nationality and the modern civilization. The love between youth of Han nationality is exclusive, the couples are sincere to each other, they support and respect teacher other,, help each other when both are in humble circumstances, keep company with each other till the end of life; in terms with the family status, husband and wife are equal, both the husband and wife together bring up their children, wait on and support the old, the families are filled with happiness and warmth. (摩梭人，逐渐消失的走婚习俗 大众网 ) All these, make Mosuo youth envy so much. All of the Mosuo young people look forward to the family pattern of Han people, men want to marry Han girls, and women more want to marry Han men. Tourism is a double-edged sword, with the development of tourism, on one hand, it publicizes the unique Visiting-marriage custom of the Mosuo, and stimulates the economy, but it also brings negative effect, because of the impact of exotic cultures, Mosuo culture has seemed very vulnerable. Some people use the custom to mislead the tourists, make them misunderstand the nature of Visiting-marriage, they destroy the local customs, make the folk culture decline.(以“走婚”为中心的摩梭文化在旅游 业中的利用与保护 百度空间 ) At the same time, the local people become curious about the outside world, they strongly feel that they are far behind others, so more and more young people go out of the mountains, looking for jobs in cities, where they fall in love with other nationalities. Now, among Mosuo, who are working or living in the cities, and those in good living condition, they get neither married nor Visiting-marriage. While, those who live a difficult life and who have no knowledge, still keep the Visiting-marriage custom. As a whole, the custom is slowly disappearing. References: 《云南特有民族文化知识》 摩梭人对走婚习俗开始说“不” 摩梭人逐渐消失的走婚习俗 以“走婚”为中心的摩梭文化在旅游业中的利用与保护 《神州民俗》 2008年第5期