Study on the History and the Present Situation of Axia Marriage

Abstract
Mosuo people are governed through a matriarchic system. Axia marriage of Mosuo people is based on mutual love and affection in this marriage model, in which the will of the female is highly respected, and women have more freedom to choose their sweethearts. Now, this marriage custom plays a positive role in stability and harmony of the society. As time goes on, the matriarchal culture of Mosuo people is in the state of being swallowed. So, it seems very essential to Study on the history and the present situation of Axia marriage. This text makes a brief introduction to Mosuo people and has a summary of marriage system of Mosuo people, and then has explained the history and the present situation of Axia marriage. On this basis, this text has carried on relevant comments about Axia marriage of Mosuo people.

Key words: Mosuo people Axia marriage the present situation

摩梭人已经通过一个母系系统进行管理。摩梭人的阿夏婚是其主要的婚姻模式。在这个结婚模型过程中，人们基于相互爱和被爱，女性的意愿被高度尊重，并且妇女有更多的自由选择他们的情人。现在，这个结婚风俗在社会的稳定和协调中起着积极作用。随着时间的流逝，摩梭人的母系文化也在被逐渐侵蚀。因此，我们很有必要研究摩梭人的阿夏的历史和当前状况。在本文中，文章首先简介了摩梭人状况，分析了摩梭人的婚姻系统状况，说明了阿夏婚的历史和现状，并对夏婚进行了一些评论，指出了其存在的积极意义。

关键词：摩梭人 阿夏婚 目前状况

Contents
Abstract I
Foreword 1
Ⅰ. A brief introduction to Mosuo people 2
Ⅱ. Summary of marriage system of Mosuo people 4
Ⅲ. The unique form of Axia marriage 6
A. A man doesn't get married and a woman doesn't get married off 7
B. The man has no obligations to rear the children 8
C. such relationship can also be fixed without going 9
D. Mosuo people do not divide up family property and live apart 9
E. Women serve as the heads of the families 9
Ⅳ. The history and the present situation of Axia marriage 10
Ⅴ. Comment about Axia marriage of Mosuo people 12
A. There are no complex relationships 12
B. There are fewer conflicts 13
C. Facilitating the social stability 13
References 15

Foreword
With constant development of society and economy and the constant integration of national culture，people pay close attention to the cultural custom of ethnic minority further too. Magical and strange folk culture has added limitless mysterious color for the ethnic minority, among which Mosuo people are one ethnicity that is concerned by external world extremely. At home and abroad, a lot of scholars have studied Axia marriage or walking marriage custom of Mosuo people. The unique marriage model of Mosuo people exists under particular social background and particular culture influence in the particular area. It is suitable for local family life, production and development. This kind of marriage customs is mainly determined by the development level of productivity and family's structure. Now, this marriage custom plays a positive role in stability and harmony of the society.
Now the lives of the Mosuo people have changed significantly since their increased contact with outside world. As time goes on, the matriarchal culture of Mosuo people is in the state of being swallowed because of being depressed, eroded and dispelled by the development of modem culture.
So, it seems very essential to analyze in depth and understand enrich intension, running orbit and modern meaning of Axia marriage or walking marriage custom. If we make a study about interpersonal relations and sexual partners in the Mosuo community, it will show profound great significance in recognizing women, promoting the equality of women and men.
Ⅰ. A brief introduction to Mosuo people
The ancient and mysterious ‘Land of Grace Girls’ - Lugu Lake is situated at the junction of Southwest Sichuan and Northwest Yunnan, 2,685 meters in altitude,300 kilometers away from Lijiang County. The area of Lake Surface is 52 square kilometers. The average depth is 45 meters, the deepest point being 93 meters. Around Luguhu Lake lives a matriarchal group called Mosuo，a branch of the Naxi nationality with a population of about 15000. The Mosuo people are not formally recognized as an independent ethnic group. They are actually one of the Naxi branches. The differences between them and other Naxis are just caused by different locations and environment.
Since Mosuo people are governed through a matriarchic system, people also call the Lugu Lake women’s land. As part of the Naxi ethnic minority -- one of China's 55 ethnic minorities -- to date, the matriarchal system is still practiced in some villages. They are the world’s last remaining matriarchal society.
The Mosuo people's religion is Nature. The Gamu Mountain is their Goddess Mountain.
The Mosuo generally live in large extended families, with many generations (great grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.) all living together within the same house. Mosuo people believe that humans are children of the Goddess in the heaven. Thus, woman is regarded as the source of life and incarnation of wisdom and industriousness. It is no wonder that Mosuo people love their mother so deeply. Woman is the head of the family. Women are in charge of most works in the society. Thus, compared to the other minorities, Mosuo women have comparatively higher status.
The Mosuo people live in log cabins, in the middle of which there is a kitchen range each where fire keeps burning forever. They put food beside the kitchens for worshiping their ancestors .
Today, this tribe still retains their unique culture, in which people live with their mothers' families and never marry.
Mosuo culture is one in which men and women live harmoniously, and where there is no difference in status between the genders.
　　 The Mosuo people have their own language but no written characters. To protect the culture of the Mosuo people, all Mosuo schools are bilingual, teaching children both standard Chinese and the Mosuo language.
Ⅱ. Summary of marriage system of Mosuo people
　 There are three kinds of marriage patterns among the Mosuo people: the traditional Axia marriage system (visiting marriage or walking marriage), Axia cohabitation and monogamy. Monogamy only exists among urban Mosuo people and other Mosuo villages inhabited by many ethnic groups. Mosuo people around Lugu Lake area still widely practice the Axia marriage.
Thus, compared to the other minorities, Mosuo women have comparatively higher status because of its unique marriage system which is called Axia marriage or ‘Zouhun’ or Visiting Marriage or Axia Marriage or Walking Marriage by the local people, so called because the men will walk to the house of their ‘partner’ at night, but return to their own home in the morning. It is hard to explain exactly the marriage model of Mosuo people from history perspective or from future perspective. However, Axia marriage is a popular form in this area for thousand of years.
‘Axia’ in Mosuo language is used as the common name of young men. ‘Axia’ means ‘intimate mates’. That is to say the ‘Axia’ marriage is a marriage pattern in which husband and wife live together at night and depart each other at sunrise. Mosuo men call their beloved women Axia ("intimate companion") and women call their lovers ‘Azhu’. They are not bound by marriage and will live in their mothers' homes all their lives
The Mosuo girl has a special ‘Azhu’ house to meet her lover. If the girl wishes to stop the love affair, she closed the door of her ‘Azhu House’ to the man. Then the man will not come again. The love affair is finished, and the two will find their new lovers again.
However, it does not imply that there is no rules and regulations to limit their behaviors in the marriage. Mosuo people’s marriage is formally approved by the community. In fact, having only one sexual partner would be neither expected nor common – the majority of such couplings will actually be more long term. And few Mosuo women will have more than one partner at a time.
There is a kind of ceremony to celebrate the a-month-long birth of the baby, which is also regarded as a special form of the Axia marriage ceremony, for the Mosuo couple makes use of the chance to make their relationship known to the public.
Unlike the other ethnic groups, their relationship is based on mutual love and affection in this marriage model, in which the will of the female is highly respected, and women have more freedom to choose their sweethearts. The lovers have no economic or any legal relationship. The wiliness of the females are very respected.
Ⅲ. The unique form of Axia marriage
Up to now, the Mosuo people retain the vestiges of matriarchal society. Their wedding custom is famous for its strange ceremonies. It is based on mutual love affection only. Axia marriage is praised by the experts home and abroad as "the Last Piece of Pure Land of Matriarchal Society"
When Mosuo children reach 13 years of age, they go through a special adult ceremony where they become adults. The ceremony is always held on New Year's Day. On the day, mothers will dress their daughters in ‘Hundred-gauffered Skirt’ with their own hands, symbolizing that the girls have grown up. During the ceremony, girls stand on the right side of the campfire while the boys stand on the left. In the ceremony, standing on pork under a column (the upper end being the column of women and the lower end that of men), boys put on leather boots and wear red gimp lace on the waist; girls put on top-knots from ancestors and white pleated skirts.
After the ceremony, the boys and girls are permitted to attend all adult activities, they can peruse the love that they want. When the Mosuo girls reached 15 years of age, the boys reached 17, they are allowed to start their love affairs. He can cohabit with a girl on condition that girl approves.
A boy and a girl can get to know each other by singing love songs or contacting each other in their daily life activities. If they fall in love, the woman might give the man a scarf woven by her as a gift. When night falls, the man will visit his lover’s house with a piece of fat meat. When he arrives in front of the woman’s house, he will throw the meat to the dog to eat so that it won’t warning people of his arrival. Then he will go into the woman’s house through the window.
Traditionally, a Mosuo woman who is interested in a particular man will invite him to come and spend the night with her in her room. Such pairings are generally conducted secretly, so the man will walk to her house after dark (thus the description of “walking marriage”), spend the night with her. The next morning，lots of men come and go. They all come out of their lovers' house. The relation is not steady when they are young. Sons and daughters all live with their mothers and their fathers have no duty to take care of them. When men become old, their nephews support them.
This marriage custom has some prominent characteristics：
A. A man doesn't get married and a woman doesn't get married off
They live with their own family separately. The relationship between the man and woman is that they live together only at night. How long will this‘Axia’ relation last entirely depend on the feeling between them. If the feeling between them breaks, the‘Axia’ relation disappears automatically. Even when a pairing may be long term, however, the man will never go to live with the woman's family, or vice versa. He will continue to live with and be responsible to his family; she will continue to live with and be responsible to her family. There will be no sharing of property.
B．The man has no obligations to rear the children
When the woman gives birth to a baby who will be reared by the woman, A man is responsible for supporting his sisters' children. The children will growing up with their mother and uncles. They inherit their surnames from their mother. They even don't know who their father is. The uncles play the male part in the family and looking after the boys. Such blood connection may be more stable than the love-based marriage & duty. What a unique but wise arrangement. Children are under the care of and supported by their maternal families. Fathers do not live in the same family with their children and women so that they are not bound up with their women financially in their production and life. This unique wedlock values affection and gives more freedom to men and women in their relationships. Most significantly, when children are born, the father may have little or no responsibility for his offspring (in fact, some children may not even know who their father is). If a father does want to be involved with the upbringing of his children, he will bring gifts to the mother's family, and state his intention to do so.
C．such relationship can also be fixed without going
After this the two parties continue to live in their own homes. The male ‘Axia’ labors for his home in the daytime, and goes to the female ‘Axia’ at night for cohabiting with her in her home. The family of the female ‘Axia’ looks upon the male as one of its own members. During the rush farming season, the male ‘Axia’ goes to the home of the other party to help with work. Those who have fixed their ‘Axia’ relationship call each other ‘Azhu’, which means ‘dear companion’, but never husband or wife.
D．Mosuo people do not divide up family property and live apart
The number of family members ranges from doubles to dozens. All the family members do physical labor together, share property, help and take care with each other, and live in harmony. Living orderly, respecting the old and loving the young have become common practice. So that’s why the matriarchal family still exists after thousands of years.
E.Women serve as the heads of the families
They are in charge of most of the work and handle property matters, Men live a very idle life there. They don’t do any farm or household work but play cards and Mahjong all day long. Women are the main work force in the house and they also do most of the farm work. 　
In a word, the couple does not officially get married. Their conjugality is just built on mutual affection . Therefore, it is love rather than economic demands that really matters to their special relationship. To Mosuo people, men and women have the freedom to choose their lover and their relations are not subject to power or money.
Ⅳ. The history and the present situation of Axia marriage
Most Mosuo people have maintained their traditional matriarchal custom till today. The unique Mosuo marriage and the family modes which is regarded as a 'living fossil' of matriarchal societies of mankind and the last 'Women’s Kingdom” of the world by specialists and scholars, rarely seen in the world now, provide hard-to-find materials for the study of the formation of the human society.
The first record of Mosuo culture dates back more than two thousand years. The Walking Marriage custom extends so far, but it is still a mystery when it comes from on earth. We can say, history of The Walking Marriage is history of Mosuo maternal family too. The Maternal system of Mosuo people is not an isolated social phenomenon. In view of vertical development, it has long maternal clan's developing history.
Mosuo people are ethnicity with long and mysterious history, but it is not a nationality. At present, they are struggling to be acknowledged as a National Minority by the Chinese government. This status would give them more autonomy to solve these dangerous problems by themselves.
The Mosuo people used to be very isolated, with no roads leading to the outside world. Mosuo people still kept more intact Axia marriage custom and unique language, an important reason was that the traffic here was inconvenient , there were less people entering from the outside, the culture brought invades and harasses still more limited.
But now the situation is changing. Roads have been built to connect villages nestled deep in the mountains to other parts of the country, as well as to open doors to outside visitors. In recent years, with the deepening of the open-door policy, Mosuo marriage becomes known to more than ever before. It has an ever increasing influence all over the world. The Axia marriage custom will fade as time goes on, which is not only common understanding of the society but also the phenomenon taking place. Because highway build coherent, person travelled to go increase day by day, external modern civilization permeate through, the life and inherent idea of Mosuo people gradually are beginning to change little by little. They have already known how to promote the goods, serve the meal in the shop, hotel, have put on the fashionable clothes too, sing the popular song. One of the most important points, already someone has begun to register and got married them.
With the improvement of cultural knowledge levels of locals and accepting the influence of modern education, younger generation men and women have already begun to refuse slowly ‘the Axia marriage ’.
So it is true that with the improvement of the local traffic, communication in the future, there must be more and more tourists which will enter Lake Lugu. Because there are modernized spread tools such as TV, radio,etc. a lot of primitive things including Axia marriage of Mosuo people probably disappear rapidly.
Ⅴ. Comment about Axia marriage of Mosuo people
The Axia Marriage of Mosuo people or the Walking Marriage is one kind of unique marriage folk custom of Mosuo people and is the only living heritage of matriarchal society of the humankind.
At present, the Axia Marriage has already been approved by more and more persons.
The Axia Marriage of Mosuo people is not perfect as own marriage system, both advantageous and disadvantageous, but the positive utility on the whole can't be ignored, it labels another harmony. The Axia Marriage of Mosuo people has the following advantages:
A. There are no complex relationships
The relations among family members are simple. There doesn't exist the relation between a wife and her husband’s mother, and a wife and her husband’s sisters. Thus the Mosuo people usually have harmony families The people living in the maternal big family all have blood relationship. Everybody is like brothers and united and harmonic. The people respect the old and love the young and show the utmost solicitude each other. Such a blood-based connection may prove to be more stable than the love-based marriage of duty. Thus, every family is harmonious and united.
B. There are fewer conflicts
Children and property have no dispute, children are raised by the maternal family, and the problem which the property is cut apart does not exist. Such “marriage custom” avoids a lot of trouble in a family, such as contradictions between husband and wife, between sisters and sisters-in-law, between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law. There are no quarrels or even fights about property, which commonly exists in a patriarchal family. The whole family lives peacefully without any unnecessary quarrelling.
C. Facilitating the social stability
In such marriage custom there is no sexual troubles or crimes. No female babies are given up. No children or women are sold by swindling. The Mosuo people do not care at all whether they have boys or girls. Many good traditions of human civilization have been carried forward in the matriarchal families.
Our country is a country with a long history. In a lot of places, there is nationality's one's own tradition. In their eyes, their region does not need involvement of the law to have stable and united life. The Axia Marriage do not need the law to guarantee the marriage relation and do not need the intervention of strength force of the country, but rely on one's own a series of traditional rules to maintain one's own marriage and family.
When state law conflicts with the traditional law, in certain area, so long as does not violate the interests of country and the people, the country should acquiesce in the administration of such traditional rule to interfere in order to replace by force.

References
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[3] Deguang Yang, Walking marriage of Mosuo people nowadays, society observes, the 10th issue of 1997.
[4]Xian Xu, Matriarchal fam1ly, West of China, the third issue of 2005.
[5]Yan Li , Walking marriage and the last maternal clan society, The Chinese nationality review, the third issue of 1997.
[6] Xiaobing Li ,Bing Chen, The analysis on current situations and future trend of the maternal marriage and family, The journal of Central University for Nationalities, August of 2004.
[7]詹承绪：《永宁纳西族的阿注婚姻和母系家庭》，上海人民出版社, 1983年版。
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Thanks
This text finishes under the concentrated guidance of my tutor Professor W . From the study of course, selection of title and finishing of text of the thesis all throw into Professor W 's energies. Tutor's rigorous attitude of pursuing scholarly work, kind and approachable character teaching with tireless zeal impresses me and make me benefited all one's life. Here, I say deep compliments and sincere thanks most! to lead teacher