Moso is a Chinese ethnic group that is famous for being a matriarchal society with minimal contact from the outside world. In Moso matrilineal system, woman is the pillar of the family. As the head of a family as well as a mother, a Moso woman is responsible to determine family’s name, decision, and inheritance. No one has right to replace woman’s authority, even a man. This is the primary point of a matriarchy which traces the side of Moso family’s lineage through the descendant of woman. What is great about Moso, despite being matriarchy, is that the society has no gender preference. Moso society shares their workload wisely between man and woman. Man usually works on labor-intensive activities, such as traveling for trade, slaughtering livestock, or building a house. Woman, on the other hand, engages in traditional activities including farming, cooking, or even serving their family. Moreover, because of their walking marriage system, everything they have earned, produced, and developed belongs to their family. One point which is mentioned in the lecture by Professor Ma implies that the main point of Moso matrilineal family does not lie in the relationship between husband and wife, but between brother and sister. In fact, Moso society has successfully created a stable family structure through these walking marriage system and fair division of gender roles.
Although the Moso freely practices a traditional marriage concept, which is also known as the walking marriage system,
The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.
From what is described above, the culture is seen as favoring the sons and males more. Nevertheless, the parents still love their children equally and the daughters still play an important role in the household (Cha, 2010). The daughter usually cleans and cooks in the house. The sister-in-law who marries the brother can only lighten this burden for the daughter. Cha (2010) points out, “It is said that the daughter is the guest and the daughter-in-law is the caretaker,” (p. 25). The daughter-in-law starts to bear the responsibilities once they enter their husband’s household. They take the lead
In Ancient China the father of the woman decided who that his daughter would marry. There was no agreement between the two fathers. The father would talk with an astrologer who had a birth chart on every child. By looking at the time and date of their births he would then decide whether or not they would be compatible for one another. The father when then make the decision whether they would marry, the daughter’s thoughts and opinion’s did not count.(9) The woman was required to be completely devoted to her husband. After the marriage a Chinese women was expected to bow to her new in-laws and offer them tea. This showed them that she now belonged to her husband’s family. It was required of her to obey her new
Firstly, the relationship expectations in Chinese customs and traditions were strongly held onto. The daughters of the Chinese
Women’s role in Ancient Chinese civilisation was always vital to society due to their role in the family and during the Tang and Song dynasty significant changes occurred, changing Chinese women’s lives forever. While it is no secret women were inferior to men in the history of China, not many are aware of the major differences of the status of women from dynasty to dynasty. The Tang-Song dynasties ruled from 618AD to 1279 AD and many distinct differences between these two dynasties can be observed. Women’s role in these dynasties primarily included domestic duties, with the introduction of new roles to the female gender. Their role was very important to society as the woman of the family ran the household and as that was the most important
The family structure of the Ming and Qing dynasty revolved entirely around the concept of Filial Piety. Filial Piety, had a focal point aimed at the relationship between the father and the duties of his children to him. The father was the leader of the house who in turn passed this position to his eldest son. Furthermore, it was the sole responsibility of the children to take care of his or her parents as they grew old in age. Over time these family lines grew and became known as clans. Not only did the clans take care of one another, the also had many members from various ranks within the hierarchy of society. When a member of the clan climbed the ranks in society, it brought great promise and or wealth to the entire clan. However, women
Approximately 2000 years ago Tibeto-Burman ancestors of existing Mosuo culture devised a family and kinship system that is not based on marriage. They have no husbands and wives. Instead of marrying and sharing family life with spouses, adult Musuo children remain in their extended, multigenerational household with their mother and their blood relatives. The elder female("Ah mi") is the head of the house. "Ah mi" makes all the household and economic decisions
In Mulan, Chinese traditional women are prepared to be these perfect women who go through training to be declared marriageable and to be declared marriageable they must pass a certain test to become the perfect wife in the eye of the matchmaker. Mulan’s mother and grandmother shared their experiences with the matchmaker. Mulan is expected to be a beautiful woman and a good wife but nothing else which is the way her family pressure her to conform to social norms. Throughout Mulan and other women entire life they are taught to be feminine, sweet, tender hearted, emotional, empathetic, focused on physical appearances, and bear children. These women grow-up believing their gender role is to get marry and bear children if they don’t then they will bring shame upon their family. Being marry is the only way a girl can bring her family great honor but this culture tradition doesn’t fit Mulan self-image. Mulan acknowledge that she can’t be herself, if she must live up to
Medieval China, as seen in the Stories from a Ming Collection, was characterized by distinct separations between men and women’s abilities, typical old fashioned family structure, and a desire to advance their social status. Throughout all the stories in this book, it dives deep into different aspects of how men and women are treated, how families were structured and how that affects their lives, as well as the values these people held. A very common trend in the stories was how different men and women were treated and the limitations they may or may not had.
Women in Ancient China during the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty lived in oppressed lives. Society perceived them as inferior to their husbands and parents-in-law. Their role in the family were to be housewives taking care of their family and maintaining the household chores. They were always under the instructions of their husbands and parents-in-law in they were treated like servants. They also had no control in their personal decisions because they were not allowed to decide who they were going to marry and what they wanted to do in their careers. Parents of daughters would also force their daughters to foot-binding because it would attract potential wealthy husbands. This paper argues that although the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty were known as the golden periods for China, nevertheless, it was overlooked by historians that women during the time were victims of gender inequality because they lived with no control over their personal lives and were expected to be submissive to their husbands.
This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.
The family structure has traditionally been the basic unit of Chinese society, where women have long been given the task of the continuation of the society 's core values, in their roles as wives and mothers. While the expected values have evolved with time, from the imperial period to the Communist revolution to the modern day, this responsibility for women has
Kinship becomes important to the Mbuti when selecting a spouse. Kinship recognition is only important when choosing a wife or husband. No person is allowed to marry kin on their mother's or father's side of the family. Unlike, western societies, there are no formal ritual for marriage or divorce. People are considered married once the couple moves in together. They believe marrying outside their age
The unique guanxi culture in Chinese society sets its societal framework distinctively apart from the West. Although guanxi is often portrayed as one’s social network, it is much different from the so-called “connections” in Western society. Guanxi is a special social phenomenon in the Chinese societal context. It has survived throughout history and continues to be a prevalent trend because it has its Chinese characteristics and attributes that are not found in other societies. The existence of guanxi in Chinese society originated from the core Chinese value of collectivism. Since centuries ago, Chinese society’s group life and social organization has been based on collective interests. “Familial sentiments and obligations, [which were regarded as ethical relations], extended from the family into society [later on]”. The unofficial, informal networks of familial and kinship obligations provided the social support mechanisms through which peasant families survived in the economy of transition and hardships” (Bian, 2001, p.276). The twin themes of guanxi and the sense of hierarchy mutually enhance each other because private networks thrive through the existence of the principle of giving and reciprocating, which highlights that there is a dependent on a more resourceful party in the relationship. The future of the twin themes in China will continue to be built upon mutual reliance and the looked upon generous favour giver in bridging the connections between multiple parties.
Matriarchy, a system where the women lead, is like a different world of its own. Yet, if one looks closer, this system isn’t as other-worldly as it seems to be. It exists in many households around us and has its own flaws. Although, to some, this system does seem like a better alternative in contrast to the patriarchal system; then again, this opinion is one felt deeply but not widely. In contrast to the Indian patriarchal system, Indian matriarchy stands at the two extremities, it is either strongly established or completely unknown. Even so, the question then arises, can all these notions lead one to believe that matriarchy can affect a person’s way of thinking ?