The Mosuo are lucky to have such an ardent and erudite supporter as yourself. What a challenging and wonderful journey upon which you appear to have embarked.
I have read this thread with great interest, and must admit to the most base human instinct of looking for the "catch" (which points to my flaws more glaringly than anything else). To steal a phrase, when something looks too good to be true etc.... This looks unbelievably good! Kudos to you for what appears to be a wonderful... everything...!
Thanks!
And I've very happy that this thread has been resurrected again...I was afraid that all possible topics and questions had been covered so thoroughly that nobody would have anything else to ask, but you've come up with some brand new questions, and very relevant ones at that!
Please forgive if the following has the appearance of armchair-quarterbacking, or sniping. It is not so intended... Also, please forgive if it appears to ramble...
I think what's been getting to me is the apparent "main-message" in support of this subsistence population (over some other) is in its "unique" social structure. The fact that they're poverty-stricken, and we might help, appears secondary to we should help them because of their "unique" matriarchal social structure. I suspect there are many populations within the world who are poverty-bound, even within China I doubt the Mosuo are unique in their level of poverty (if that is an ignorant statement, then I stand ready to be corrected).
I must admit here to a combination of idealism and pragmatism. The reasons for specifically choosing the Mosuo as a target are both simple, and complicated.
The 'simple' reason is that they just happened to be the minority that I chose to go and live with, and therefore wanted to help. If I'd gone to live in another minority group, its quite possible that I would have chosen to set up an organization to help that minority group.
But there are more complicated reasons, also. In the area where the Mosuo live, there are actually a number of different minorities, not just the Mosuo. They all face similar challenges in regards to poverty, education, cultural preservation, etc. The Mosuo are hardly unique in this regard.
And many of these minorities are fairly intermixed. When I talk about "Mosuo schools", these are schools that are in areas that are predominantly Mosuo, but also have students from other minority groups; helping those schools also benefits those other minorities. And likewise, there are schools in areas that are not predominantly Mosuo, but that have at least some Mosuo students. We likewise seek to help those schools under our "Mosuo" mandate, but this assistance benefits those other minorities even more.
If we were speaking in ideal terms, I'd like to set up an organization to help all of these minority groups. But realistically speaking, that is not feasible right now, for a number of reasons:
1) One of my main focuses, as stated before, is that the local people make all the decisions themselves about what their priorities are. It is complicated enough getting a consensus agreement within just the Mosuo leadership; if I were to be including leaders of other minority groups, it would become outright impossible. I would basically have to set up separate organizations for every minority, and I have neither the time nor the resources to do that right now.
2) If I expanded the scope of my existing organization to include other minorities, the required funds would be much higher, but I would not expect to have much higher income from donations. So anything we sought to do would become even more difficult to accomplish.
Then, there is the more pragmatic side of it.
Because of the unique aspect of the Mosuo culture, they are, quite frankly, easier to 'sell'. I have to consider this from a business perspective -- I am seeking to get people to give money to me. I have to market my organization in a way that grabs their attention, and is attractive to them. The Mosuo are, in this aspect, and almost ideal 'product'...very easy to market. If I had started an identical thread about a different minority group, but one that had less distinctively unique traits, I'll guarantee that interest and responses from people here would have been less than they have with the Mosuo.
Now, in the long term, I
do have more idealistic goals that extend beyond the Mosuo. It is my hope and belief that the efforts we are making to help the Mosuo will, directly or indirectly, also benefit peoples of other minorities who live in the same area. And it is my hop and belief that, by setting up a successful model of how to do this, that others will follow my example and set up similar organizations to help those other minorities more directly.
I am curious if it's possible that their social-structure is less "structured" than we think it is. Isn't it possible that we're seeing more what we want to see than what might really be there? From what I read, they have evolved an efficient way to deal with the rigours of subsistence-living. You say there is no battle over property or children, yet there appears to be little enough to fight over! I would guess that survival tends to really focus your attention on the important stuff...
There's always a danger of idealizing the culture, or of overgeneralizing. I try to avoid that. There are some Mosuo who are quite well off and relatively affluent; there are some Mosuo who live in the most abject poverty I've ever witnessed (I met one family of 12 where almost all suffer from congenital deformities, and they live in a cave hollowed out from a clay hill, a total of maybe ten square meters for 12 people). Most fall somewhere in between.
In regards to survival, I should perhaps stress that the 'lack of competition' thing applies
within families (and, to a slightly lesser degree, within small communities). But there's far less unanimity or lack of cooperation when you start talking about distinctively different Mosuo communities. In fact, the Mosuo on the Yunnan side of Lugu Lake identify themselves more with a Tibetan heritage, while those on the Sichuan side of the lake identify themselves more with a Mongolian heritage (there are complicated historic reasons for this). There's plenty of competition between these different communities, and in situations where resources become too limited, aggression and violence can certainly take place.
Further, the claims to this uniqueness are based upon apparently limited experience. With due respect, I don't view your contact (as described within this thread) with the Mosuo as extensive. Nor are you any longer a disinterested outside observer. Nothing wrong with being an insider, but it is generally viewed as creating a bias (which is virtually impossible to avoid as a human being, IMHO).
I agree with you absolutely. I cannot be considered an unbiased commentator; nor can I be considered the most authoritative commentator. There are anthropologists who've done far more detailed study, and over a longer period of time, than I have.
I seek, wherever possible. to get confirmation of what I state both from Mosuo leaders, and from anthropologists who have worked with them. It gets more complicated in that, as these things go, neither the Mosuo nor anthropologists are ever able to agree 100% as to
any description of their culture, or their situation. So I tend to adopt the "majority rule"...whatever perspective seems to be supported by the majority of people I talk to is the perspective that I will try to present.
I'm quite sure that there are at least some things that I've said here that some anthropologists who've worked with the Mosuo would disagree with, or at least consider not entirely accurate. And I'm quite sure that there are things I've said about the Mosuo that some Mosuo would find inaccurate or wrong.
I simply try to paint the big picture; ideally, those who
do become interested because of the things that I've said here will go on to do more study of their own. Look for more information on the internet. Find some of the books that have been written about the Mosuo. Or even come over and visit the Mosuo for themselves.
I really consider myself more to be doing marketing, than to be actually representing the Mosuo people. If I'm successful in making more people aware of the Mosuo, and in getting them interested, then I've accomplished one of my key tasks. If it subsequently turns out that some of the things I said were wrong, or inaccurate, I will welcome corrections; but I'm confident that at least the broad picture that I describe is close enough to reality.
The fact the Priest was off to officiate at a marriage, which tradition no anthropologists were familiar with, speaks volumes to me about the paucity of information about this culture. Further, there is a fleeting reference to an "patriarchally-structured" nobility...?
Yes, prior to the Communist revolution, the Mosuo operated on a feudal system that had an upper class, and a lower class. The upper class was patriarchal in structure, the lower class (peasants/serfs) was matriarchal in structure. When the Communists destroyed all feudal systems in China, they essentially eliminated the 'upper class'.
And certainly, there's still tons more to learn. That's one of the major reasons I do this. There have been several times within this discussion where people asked me questions that I could not answer, which in turn gave me fodder for more discussion and learning the next time I went back.
None of the above is reason not to help the Mosuo in any way possible, and for that, Kudos to you and your Crew.
Outside of the tourism stuff, what is the next identified objective/project of the group? I did read all the stuff about goals and objectives, but I'm wondering what's happening tomorrow...?
Cheers and Best wishes
Well, the language project has, sadly, stalled for the time being. Until we can find new people and resources, doesn't look like anything's going to be happening there.
Our major focus right now is in two areas: one is scholarships for students (very low cost, and easy to manage), and the other is setting up skill training centers for young Mosuo girls.
We have just recently formed a partnership with
The Mountain Fund, a US-based NGO that focuses on development projects for people living in impoverished mountain areas around the world. The main advantage of this is that they can accept donations and grants on our behalf in the U.S. Many donors and organizations that are interested to help us have, in the past, been limited by the fact that we are registered only in China, and do not have any official non-profit status in the U.S. This partnership means that we'll be able to receive significantly greater financial support (once everything has been finalized).
Just kidding...seriously, I appreciate the fact that you at least made the effort, and tried to make it happen. Most people wouldn't even go that far. And you understand a little better now some of the difficulties that I face, as well...its easy getting a good idea, but far more difficult bringing it to fruition.
