“Walking Marriage”
Filed under: Eros - May 1, 2007 @ 6:27 amMy FAVORITE magazine is BUST. The latest issue features an article about a remote region in China where there is a matriarchal society known as the Women’s Kingdom. Check it out:
The Mosuo have their own language and ancient religion, Daba, involving the worship of a “guardian mother goddess,” which they practice alongside Tibetan Buddhism.
Mosuo women do not believe in traditional marriage; instead, they practice what they call “walking marriage.” A man “walks” into a woman’s bedroom at night, and she decides if she wants him to stay. In the morning, before dawn, he must leave before he makes a nuisance of himself, preferably by crawling out the window.
If the two get along with each other, they stick together. When they fall out of love, they split completely without drama or hard feelings.
May 1st, 2007 at 10:58 am
Not to fret my dear, China will dominate the world soon enough and walking marriages will be all the rage.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Some people are so very smart.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:01 am
Although in a “remote region,” I wonder what access they have to birth control. If they get knocked up, do the fathers not have to be responsible for the kids? Or is a whole village responsible for all kids, in a communal sense?
Just curious since BC is considered the main liberator of women from their obligation to get married.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:06 am
People are more “married” to their families than their partners, so entire families (grandparents, aunts, uncles) help raise the kids. Also, each woman is only allowed 3 kids, so there must be some birth control on hand.
May 7th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Either that, or they’re socially obligated to stop fucking after baby #3, which would probably take their village down a notch in your eyes.
So men stay in the families they’re born into, essentially? So only uncles, brothers and cousins, really, no fathers or grandfathers in the family unit.