indigenous people / minorities

Where women rule the world and don’t marry

Published on July 9, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, gender, indigenous people / minorities

She’s a young women from the Lake Lugu is the southwestern part of China and tells us in an article in The Standard (Hongkong):

“Mother thinks I’m being disrespectful to our heritage by having a steady boyfriend. She thinks I ought to follow the old ways, to take more than one lover. It’s a big problem between us. Actually,” she lowers her voice, “my boyfriend and I are thinking of leaving Lugu after the summer, and moving to Kunming [capital of Yunnan province]. We may get married.”

Journalist Joshua Samuel Brown explains that Lake Lugu is the home of the Mosuo – a matriarchal and matrilineal society: Women make most major decisions, control household finances, and pass their surnames on to their children:

But what makes the Mosuo truly unique is one particularly juicy facet of their familial relationships, their practice of zuo hun, or “walking marriage.” The Mosuo do not marry – rather, a woman chooses her lovers from among the men of the tribe, taking as many as she pleases over the course of her life. In Mosuo culture, having children with different men bears no social stigma. Children are raised more or less communally, and in most cases grow up in the mother’s home, surrounded by any number of sisters, brothers and “uncles.”

>> read the whole story in The Standard (Link updated 4.3.18)

MORE INFO:

Wikipedia: The Mosuo

Chinese men threaten ‘lake of free love’ where women rule (Telegraph, 25.3.01)

The Chinese region with women in charge (BBC, 18.9.05)

Lu Yuan: Land Of The Walking Marriage – Mosuo people of China (Natural History, 11/2000)

ON MATRILINEAL SOCIETIES SEE ALSO:

Eggi’s Village. Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia (another matrilineal society)

A Society Without Husbands or Fathers

Contemporary matriarchal societies: The Nagovisi, Khasi, Garo, and Machiguenga

Matriarchy: history or reality?

Anthropologists: U.S. Marriage Model Is Not Universal Norm

Links updated 28.2.2022

She's a young women from the Lake Lugu is the southwestern part of China and tells us in an article in The Standard (Hongkong):

"Mother thinks I'm being disrespectful to our heritage by having a steady boyfriend. She thinks I ought…

Tropical Stonehenge found in the rainforest?

Published on June 30, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, history, indigenous people / minorities, technology

Why is everybody so surprised over the “finding” that the early inhabitants in the rainforest were “sophisticated” people? It might be a huge discovery to find a kind of Stonehenge in the rainforest, but nevertheless….This story has been published in many newspapers around the world:

A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory.(…)
Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a physical structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Columbian Indians in the Amazon rainforest may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.

Archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral says:

Transforming this kind of knowledge into a monument; the transformation of something ephemeral into something concrete, could indicate the existence of a larger population and of a more complex social organization.

Scientists not involved in the discovery said it could prove valuable to understanding pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon. Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida’s Department of Anthropology, says:

Given that astronomical objects, stars, constellations etc., have a major importance in much of Amazonian mythology and cosmology, it does not in any way surprise me that such an observatory exists. (…) The traditional image is that some time thousands of years ago small groups of tropical forest horticulturists arrived in the area and they never changed _ (that) what we see today is just like it was 3,000 years ago.This is one more thing that suggests that through the past thousands of years, societies have changed quite a lot.

>> read the whole story in the Boston Globe

From Stone Age to 21st century – More “fun” with savages

Why is everybody so surprised over the "finding" that the early inhabitants in the rainforest were "sophisticated" people? It might be a huge discovery to find a kind of Stonehenge in the rainforest, but nevertheless....This story has been published in…

Indigenous? Non-Western? Primitive? The Paris Museum Controversy

Published on June 26, 2006 by lorenz Posted in aboriginees, anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, maori, Us and Them

Musee Quai Branly, a new major museum in Paris, dedicated entirely to well, how should it be called “non-Western arts”?, “indigenous arts?” has opened last Friday. Although the organizers named the new museum in Paris after the street it was built on after stirring criticism for floating the idea of a “primitive arts” or “first arts” museum, we read news headlines like “Paris unveils tribal art museum” (BBC), Paris welcomes new museum of indigenous art (Financial Times), and the Los Angeles Times informs: Parisians and tourists had their first chance Friday to visit Paris’ new primitive-art museum

Why do we need such a huge museum for non-European art?

“We want to show that this type of art is equivalent to European art. We want to place it on the same level”, said Patrice Januel, the museum’s director and curator.

But many people oppose the idea of categorising African, Asian and Pacific art as separate from Western art, according to the Telegraph:

Criticism ranges from claims that an institute dedicated to ethnic art is a patronising reinforcement of racist stereotypes to complaints that it relies heavily on items plundered in the ex-colonies. Some historians also suggest that the museum could “ghettoise” the works by isolating them from other art forms. (…) Among African observers, doubts persist. One Johannesburg critic said the museum would prompt bitter cries of “return the pillaged colonial loot”.

The museum is designed around a jungle theme. This design risked perpetuating colonial stereotypes, historian Gilles Manceron said according to The Guardian. It’s quite “natural” inside as well.

The New Zealand Harald describes the interior:

Inside, the sensation is of spirituality, with random shimmerings of light dappling the floor like sunbeams that pierce a rainforest canopy. The floor gently slopes, and the pillars are daubed in ochre coatings to make it look as if they have strangely taken root there.

Objects are arranged according to the continent of origin.

Patrick Lozes, president of an umbrella group of several hundred black associations called Cran, said he feared the new museum’s “archaic way of showing the past” would accentuate divisions rather than heal them, according to the New Zealand Harald:

“It’s an extension of a certain colonialist vision. Today we should emphasis migration and the mixing of people and not try to artificially separate the various strands of French society.”

The Courier Mail (Australia) on the otherhand writes about indigenous artists who are quite positive about the museum. The contribution to a wing of the Musee Quai Branly might be the largest and most significant permanent display of indigenous art outside Australia. Artist Gulumbu Yunupingu says:

“This place is a sacred place. I feel something here. It’s bringing us healing. These people recognised my hand, my work.”

Ap /Los Angeles Times reminds us:

Issues about France’s colonial past are still sensitive here — just last year, parliament passed a law requiring schoolbooks to highlight the “positive role” of French colonialism. The term was later stripped from the legislation, but the law was an embarrassment for France.

>> English homepage of the museum

Or rather start here:

>> Multimedia Presentations: Instruments and music of the world – draped garments – nomad settlements – it’s natural!

PS: Savage Minds has also blogged about it

UPDATE
A good summary: Al-Ahram Weekly: Museum of the oppressed

Musee Quai Branly, a new major museum in Paris, dedicated entirely to well, how should it be called "non-Western arts"?, "indigenous arts?" has opened last Friday. Although the organizers named the new museum in Paris after the street it was…

How internet changes the life among the First Nations in Canada

Published on June 11, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, indigenous people / minorities, internet, inuit, technology

(via FieldNotes): These are the first words in an article on how the internet is changing life in First Nations communities in Canada:

“This year, the internet saved a child’s life.”

For Internet may mean different things to life up there in the North:

A broadband connection doesn’t mean downloading the latest Bedouin Soundclash album or “messengeing” a friend who lives down the street. For the aboriginal communities that are being wired, internet means school, family, health-care and job opportunities.
(…)
High-level physics courses are now available online, and bright aboriginal students who choose to stay in their villages … have the drive to take online classes and strive towards university.
(…)
First Nations leaders think keeping kids in the community — educating and mentoring them — might stem some social problems.

And previously isolated villages might cooperate and share news via the web:

Turtle Island Native Network has a forum page where aboriginals post essays, ideas and concerns. Chief Tommy Alexis of the Tl’atz’en Nation posted an essay on clean water issues on the afternoon of May 22. By 9:00 p.m. on May 30, it had been viewed 3250 times. Other communities facing water pollution problems now know that they are not alone. Maybe one of the communities new to the web will learn for the first time that other First Nations have similar land-rights issues, or water-quality issues. It is possible that isolation will no longer disempower nations.

>> read the whole story in TheTyee.ca

(via FieldNotes): These are the first words in an article on how the internet is changing life in First Nations communities in Canada:

"This year, the internet saved a child's life."

For Internet may mean different things to life up there…

Aboriginees in Australia: Why talking about culture?

Published on June 6, 2006 by lorenz Posted in aboriginees, anthropology in the news, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, Pacific Oceania, Us and Them

In the Australian magazine On Line Opinion, Anthropologist John Morton criticizes public views of Aboriginess in Australia and argues for avoiding the term culture:

Ever since Europeans first came to Australia, public views of Aborigines have veered between two extremes. Aborigines have been promoted either as disgusting savages or as admired paragons, uncivilised riff-raff or as noble bearers of their culture – bad or good, but never ordinary.

As we now enter a new phase of Aboriginal affairs, Indigenous Australians once again enter the public mind as radically different types of people. On the one hand, we are bombarded with material about dysfunctional communities plagued by drug and alcohol abuse, rampant violence, uncontrolled children and chronic sickness. On the other hand, we routinely hear about “the oldest living culture in the world”, Aboriginal people caring, sharing and looking after country, and the profound qualities of Aboriginal art.

In these circumstances, it’s hard to know what “the oldest living culture in the world” might be. Indeed, it’s hard to know what people are talking about at all when they refer to “culture”.

(…)

We’ve heard a lot of arguments about the “true” nature of Aboriginal culture in recent weeks. Some say Aboriginal culture fosters violence against women and children. Others gainsay this and suggest that violence is cultural breakdown stemming from neglect and marginalisation by mainstream Australian culture. There are many more axes to grind in relation to employment, health and education, but always with a view to promoting a good or bad image of Aboriginal people, not to mention a good or bad image of the “mainstream culture” which provides Aboriginal services.

(…)

This blame game doesn’t give us “the truth” about Aboriginal or any other culture. It simply reduces the extremely complicated relationship between Aboriginal communities and all the arms of the state (governments, bureaucracies, the police, land councils, schools, health centres, etc.) with which they engage. Recourse to “culture” always seems to deliver imagined parodies of real life, transforming it into something inordinately valuable or completely worthless.

British cultural critic Raymond Williams once remarked that “culture” is “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”. (…) In fact, it’s an empty word: you can fill it with pretty much anything you like. That’s why it functions so well in slogans.

In the meantime, there are many people both inside and outside Aboriginal communities who recognise that there are big problems in Aboriginal affairs. It’d be good if they could all be allowed to get on with the job of finding appropriate solutions to those problems without “culture” getting in the way.

>> read the whole article in On Line Opinion

From Stone Age to 21st century – More “fun” with savages

Ancient People: We are All Modern Now

Our obsession with the notion of the primitive society

The Culture Struggle: How cultures are instruments of social power

“Quit using the word ‘culture’ wherever possible”

In the Australian magazine On Line Opinion, Anthropologist John Morton criticizes public views of Aboriginess in Australia and argues for avoiding the term culture:

Ever since Europeans first came to Australia, public views of Aborigines have veered between two extremes. Aborigines…