Abstract
In the end, however, the fate of Mosuo kinship will not depend on this sort of cost-benefit analysis of its upsides and downsides. Somewhat poignantly, the very factor that dooms durable relationships between the Mosuo and outsiders now threatens the survival of the Mosuo kinship system itself. To reconcile the pure relationship and family stability, tisese depends upon a high degree of geographic immobility, and perhaps on social and economic stability as well. Cultural conformity also is crucial to sustain intergenerational, extended families. Inherent Mosuo family conflicts over whether or when to divide households due to size and discord seem certain to increase under the centrifugal and individualizing pressures of market capitalism. The ultimate paradox is that after having been rescued from Maoist repression by market reforms that propelled lucrative ethnic tourism to Lugu Lake, Mosuo tisese and maternal families may fall victim to the sources of their success. Sadly, our world risks losing its most successful, egalitarian, and enduring species of nonmarital kinship just when the viability of modem marriage seems in gravest doubt.
Recommended Citation
Stacey, Judith
(2009)
"Unhitching the Horse from the Carriage: Love and Marriage Among the Mosuo,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2009:
No.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2009/iss2/2