LIFE & STYLE
Where women rule the world: Matriarchal communities from Albania to China
Christian KochTuesday 5 Mar 2013 6:00 am
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A Mosuo woman from China’s Yunnan province (Picture: Alamy)
Did you know there’s a tribe where men suckle their babies and the country where every woman once downed tools for a day? To mark International Women’s Day on Friday, we profile the world’s matriarchies.
THE MOSUO, CHINA
Deep in south-west China lies Lugu Lake, a place known as the Kingdom of Women. Here you’ll find the 40,000-strong Mosuo, one of the world’s last matrilineal societies. As befits a culture with no word for ‘father’ or ‘husband’, Mosuo women do not marry. Instead, they take as many lovers as they wish, cherry-picking them from within the tribe and inviting them for secret evening trysts (usually after the men have spent all day slaughtering pigs, while females sort out household finances). Property is handed down through the female line and there’s no stigma in not knowing who a child’s father is. Such matriarchal utopia does have drawbacks – curious visitors have descended upon the once-isolated region under the mistaken suggestion Mosuo women offer free sex. Sadly, some of the previously peaceful villages have been overrun with hotels, casinos, karaoke and even a red-light district.
www.mosuoproject.org
Fathers in the Central African Republic sometimes let their babies suckle their nipples as pacifiers (Picture: Corbis)
THE AKA, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
The menfolk of the Aka people in Africa’s Congo Basin have been described as the ‘best dads in the world’ with the paternally minded pygmies playing with their babies at least five times as often as men from other societies. While women hunt, the men cook. Cots are unheard of (couples never leave babies lying unattended) and if one Aka parent smacks an infant, the other views it as grounds for divorce. Most staggering of all, Aka fathers offer their nipples as pacifiers to their babies when mum isn’t around. Somebody send a note to Fathers 4 Justice now…
http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/05/where...al-communities-from-albania-to-china-3525234/